Response by Governor Patricio Martinez of Chihuahua regarding the Amnesty International Report on the Murders of Women in Ciudad Juarez

“Equally intolerable for the citizens of Chihuahua are the biased and distorted reports on this unfortunate case, published by various domestic and international organizations and groups that, far from contributing to the search for solutions and providing objective analysis, have instead opted for the path of speculation and dismissal of the Mexican judicial system through these unilateral and simplistic versions of reports, which insinuate that the Mexican state, in its various levels of government, beyond being negligent and incompetent, is also responsible and even complicit in the murders of women, which is aberrant from the truth and unacceptable.”

“Efforts to contextualize and understand this phenomenon are invariably seen as an effort to put up a smokescreen to hide ‘government ineffiency.’ Demands are made that the murders of women should be handled from a gender perspective, but legislative efforts and governmental measures to increase penalties against those who commit crimes against women are fought; demands are made to end the impunity of those who make attempts against the lives of women, but when we detain someone, these same ‘civil society organizations,’ and even the victims’ families, come out in their defense.”

“To date we have identified, in 57% of the cases, one or more suspects of homicide, and 63% of the cases have been resolved. Additionally, we have been able to identify 70% of the victims and have sentenced the perpetrators in 26% of the cases. It is convenient to state that these percentages could be higher if, at the time, the previous administration, under whose watch the murders began, had reviewed the case dockets adequately. In many of these older cases, it has not been possible to date to even identify the victims.”

“It is important to emphasize that the murders of women, which cannot be solved just by issuing a decree, constitute a phenomenon that is not unique to Mexico, and we cannot permit the discourse to insinuate that it is unique to Ciudad Juarez. In actuality, this is a complex problem with deep social roots that are widely tied to delinquency and crime, to drug trafficking and the use of drugs, to the deterioration of economic well-being and the quality of life, to social deterioration and the disintegration of the family, the frustration and resentment, the loss of values, all of which are accentuated along the border.”

All statements come from a full-page advertisement placed in La Jornada August 14, 2003 by the Government of the State of Chihuahua in response to Amnesty International’s report on the Ciudad Juarez murders