Intolerable Killings:Ten years of abductions and murders in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua - EXCERPT*

by Alyson Kozma, Amnestt International

"They have many lines of investigation, they have addresses, phone numbers, names and they haven't been handed over. I took them a lot of information and it isn't even in the case file. We don't deserve this treatment or the pain we are suffering every day. All I'm asking is that they find my daughter and for justice to be done". Evangelina Arce could not have imagined that on 12 March 1998 her daughter Silvia would never again return to her home in Ciudad Juárez , Chihuahua state. She has been searching for her desperately for over five years without discovering anything at all about her whereabouts. Throughout that time, Evangelina has repeatedly said that the authorities have ignored her demands for her daughter's abduction to be investigated and insists that no action has been taken on the case for five years.

In Ciudad Juárez, and more recently in the city of Chihuahua , the abduction of Silvia Arce and her mother's appeal for her daughter to be found and for justice to be done are not isolated occurrences. The authorities currently recognize that the fate and whereabouts of around 70 women remains a mystery. For many Mexican non-governmental organizations, the number of women who are missing is more than 400. What is certain is that in the state of Chihuahua , a significant number of cases of young women and adolescents reported missing - in one case an 11 year old - are found dead days or even years later. According to information received by Amnesty International, in the last 10 years approximately 370 women have been murdered of which at least 137 were sexually assaulted prior to death. Furthermore, 75 bodies have still not been identified. Some of them may be those of women who have been reported missing but this has been impossible to confirm because there is insufficient evidence by which to identify them.

... the relatives do not only have to live with the pain caused by the loss of a loved one and the anguish of not knowing their whereabouts. In Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua , the authorities have frequently criticized or tried to discredit the work carried out by non-governmental organizations and the relatives in their search for justice. Some organizations have even been publicly accused of using the cases of the women for financial gain without any evidence for such accusations. Worse still have been the threats and intimidation to which lawyers, relatives and members of NGOs have been subjected with no attempt being made to identify those responsible and bring them to justice.

*To read this text in full, see the Center for Global Justice website, http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/papers2005/kozma_eng.htm