July 26, 2007

Although immigration reform has been the centerpiece of most action alerts, I'm writing today to ask for action on another issue of vital concern. As you may know, the LAWG has worked for several years to address the plague of murders of women and girls in Ciudad Juárez (just across the border from El Paso, TX) and Chihuahua City, the capital of Chihuahua, Mexico. Thanks to the actions and support of advocates like you, the House and Senate passed a resolution that expressed condolence to the families of the murder victims and encouraged increased U.S. involvement in bringing an end to these crimes, H.R. 90 in May, 2006. However, justice has yet to be served.

Since 1993, the bodies of over 400 young women and girls - many showing signs of rape and mutilation - have been found in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua City (a few hundred miles south of Ciudad Juárez). The vast majority of these murders have gone uninvestigated and those investigations that have been carried out have been grossly insufficient. Although a federal special prosecutor named over 120 state law enforcement officials as having been grossly negligent or otherwise gravely abused their authority in the line of investigating these murders, impunity continues as these and other authorities responsible have not been held accountable. Family members clamor for justice, but their appeals have been largely dismissed or ignored.

Earlier this year, President Calderón signed a new federal law aimed at the prevention of violence against women (La Ley General de Acceso de las Mujeres a una Vida Libre de Violencia). While we applaud this move as it makes the societal blight of gender-based violence more visible, this new law also has significant shortcomings. It is imperative that President Calderón take additional steps to ensure that the law can take full effect.

Towards this end, Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA), an original sponsor of H.R. 90, along with Rep. Burton (R-IN) and Rep. Engel (D-NY) are asking fellow members of Congress to join them in signing a letter to President Calderón (see 'Dear Colleague' letter below) urging him to increase funding and update penal codes associated with this new law to prevent violence against women. In addition, this letter encourages President Calderón to request that state and local law enforcement officials renew their efforts to solve some of the older murder cases as the statute of limitations runs for murder in Mexico is only 14 years. Read more in the Washington Post.

International pressure, including letters from the U.S. Congress, lend visibility to this issue and have pushed Mexican federal and state officials to step up their efforts to confront these murders in recent years. Please take a moment today or tomorrow to contact your Representative and encourage her/him to join Representatives Solis, Burton and Engel as a signator to this letter.

You can find your representative's contact information at www.house.gov or call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be transferred to your representative's office. Please call the Washington, DC office and ask to speak with the foreign policy aide. Here are some points you can highlight in your conversation or voicemail message:

• You are concerned about the Mexican authorities inaction to combat violence against women and fully investigate the over 400 murders of young women and girls in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Those responsible for the murders, as well as those officials responsible for negligence in the investigation of these murders, must be brought to justice.
• You would like your Representative to join Representatives Solis, Burton and Engel as a signator to this letter to President Calderón to urge him to make the elimination of violence against women a priority in his administration.
• More information: If the aide has additional questions or the member of Congress would like to sign-on to this letter, please contact Laura Marsh in Rep. Solis's office or Kristin Jackson in Rep. Burton's office.

Once again, many thanks for your hard work!

Best,

Jennifer

Jennifer Johnson
Latin America Working Group
www.lawg.org

Letter circulated to Congressional Offices

Dear Colleague:

We ask that you join us in sending a letter to Mexican President Felipe Calderón commending his early progress in combating violence against women and requesting that he continue to make it a top priority of his administration. The letter also asks that President Calderón makes solving the murders of women in Ciudad Juárez a goal for his administration.

In the first months of his administration, President Calderón signed a new federal law to prevent violence against women. This is an important step forward to help end violence against women in Mexico, including the murders of over 400 women over the past 14 years in Ciudad Juárez (located just 5 minutes from the U.S.-Mexico border). The State of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juárez is located, has already passed a violence against women prevention law. This is a positive sign and we hope that this progress can be built on in Mexico in the coming years.

However, in order for the federal violence against women law to take full effect, each Mexican State must pass its own state-level violence against women law, and changes must be made to the federal-level and state-level penal codes. The letter encourages the President to update the federal penal codes and State governments to pass their own violence against women laws and update their penal codes.

The letter also asks that President Calderón encourage state and local law enforcement to renew their efforts to solve older cases of murders of women in Ciudad Juárez, before the statute of limitations runs out. Some of the earliest documented and unsolved murders of women in Ciudad Juárez occurred in 1993, and the statute of limitations for murder in Mexico is only 14 years. Families have fought for 14 years for answers about the murders of their daughters, wives and sisters, and many have been ignored or dismissed by local law enforcement. Now, for an increasing number, the statute of limitations has expired in their quest for justice.

We hope that you will join us in signing on to this letter. If you would like to sign on, please contact Laura Marsh with Congresswoman Solis at 5-5464 or Eric Jacobstein with Chairman Engel at 6-9980.

Sincerely,

Hilda A. Solis
Member of Congress
Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Eliot L. Engel
Chairman
Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Dan Burton
Ranking Member