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They came from all over Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua City to tell their stories of loss and frustration to a congressional delegation from the United States, one of the last hopes for justice in a decade-long tragedy. Their daughters disappeared over the past ten years, their bodies were found tortured and often dumped in the desert. But the families’ suffering did not end there. Government officials responsible for solving these murders claimed the victims were prostitutes and drug dealers. They warned the families not to search for answers, and sometimes beat mothers and fathers into silence. Often, they gave mourning families the bodies of young women who did not match the family’s DNA. Ten years after this string of crimes began, the families who lost their young daughters are no closer knowing who is responsible.

From October 11-13, four members of Congress traveled to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico – a town that shares its history, culture, and deep economic ties with El Paso, Texas – to investigate these crimes and find ways to offer emotional and practical support to grieving relatives. The LAWG Education Fund sponsored and organized the delegation with our coalition members, the Washington Office on Latin America and the Mexico Solidarity Network. Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-CA) led her colleagues Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX), Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), and Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) on the delegation.

We met with government officials responsible for the investigations and social leaders who explained the socio-economic reasons that have made Ciudad Juárez “the murder capital for young women.” The lasting memories, however, are of the human suffering this tragedy has caused to the families with whom we met.

Our first meeting of the trip was with over forty family members who shared their personal stories with the members of Congress. At the end of the meeting, they simply asked that the US officials help them obtain justice for their lost daughters.

The next day we toured Anapra, one of the working class neighborhoods where many of the murder victims lived. The conditions in Anapra make abduction easy: it has unpaved sand streets and lacks electricity and street lights. The girls lived in wood and tin shacks. Most importantly, there is a total lack of police to protect residents. We also drove the 15-mile commute between Anapra and the business corridors in Ciudad Juárez, where most of the victims worked. Their two-hour commute along this route often occurs in the morning or after dusk – when the women are most vulnerable.

After leaving Anapra, we visited an empty field in the business district at the intersection of two major roads and across the street from a series of office buildings, where the bodies of eight women were deposited in 2001, laid out in a line as a warning to all who would try to solve the murders. The site, which has become sacred ground to families across Juárez, drove home the brazen nature of these crimes and the hopelessness of the victims’ families.
In meetings with government officials, we were repeatedly told of programs set up to to put an end to the violence, of hotlines that had been set up for women to call in cases of emergency (though many of the victims live without electricity or phones), campaigns urging young women to travel in groups and not dress provocatively, trainings being offered and the centers to combat domestic violence that were in the works. In spite of somegood intentions, the programs have proven ineffective. But perhaps more importantly, the officials could not provide answers about who the murderers might be and how they are investigating the crimes – the heart of the matter.

In the end, a meeting with federal, state, and municipal officials revealed the problematic nature of Mexican government officials towards these cases. Though officials presented their plans and programs, when they were introduced to 20 victims’ family members who told them of threats they had received, a lack of confidence in the government, and their inability to even get confirmation whether or not they had buried their own daughters, they did not even respond. In many of the families’ cases, this was the first time they were able to speak directly with the authorities responsible for solving their cases and this unresponsiveness supported the families’ skepticism in the investigations.

The delegation’s greatest success may be the new interest and determination to provide help to these families from just across the border. In the upcoming weeks, the four members of Congression intend to pass a resolution expressing support for the families. They will also work to help set up a DNA bank that will enable family members to positively identify the existing corpses as well as any that appear in the future. Most importantly, the members of Congress have committed to spreading the word in Congress about what they saw and experienced, and will work to ensure that their colleagues and other government officials consistently raise the issue of the Juárez investigations with Mexican officials until these cases are closed and justice prevails.

SEAN GARCIA

We would like to thank the Open Society Institute, the Liz Claiborne Foundation, the Ms. Foundation for Women, and Sally Yudelman for their generous support of this delegation.

For background materials see Mexico: Explore the Issue