Just a follow up on murdered women in Mexico
February 25, 2007
Ciudad Juarez News
Bulldozing the Memories of Murdered Women
In the run-up to International Women's Day 2007, the
memories of murdered women in Ciudad Juarez are being
erased. Workmen have started clearing a portion of the old
cotton field where the tortured, raped and mutilated
remains of 8 young women were discovered in November 2001.
Located near the site of the new US Consulate in the border
city, the cotton field is suddenly in the middle of a hot
commercial zone. New hotels and other establishments
catering to the diplomatic and immigration services offered
by the US government are expected to open soon for
business.
Currently, 8 big crosses erected in memory of the murder
victims mark a section of the cotton field. Now a landmark,
the field is almost a required stop for foreign
journalists, filmmakers, human rights and women's
activists, and others who reclaim the memories of the young
women. Mothers and other relatives of the victims hold
memorials in the cotton field.
For almost five years, Chihuahua state law enforcement
authorities misidentified three of the victims as Guadalupe
Luna de la Rosa, Veronica Martinez and Barbara Aracely
Martinez, all of whom are now considered disappeared
persons. Thanks to the efforts of the Argentine
Anthropological Forensic Team, two of the victims were
correctly identified last year as Merlin Elizabeth
Rodriguez Saenz and Maria Rocina Galicia Meraz, both of
whom vanished in 2001. The eighth cotton field victim
remains unidentified.
"One does not forget," said Javier Camacho, the new owner
of the cotton field property under development. "It's sad
what happened, but nothing is gained by the crosses, and
one way of stopping this is by developing the border."
Although the cotton field case and scores of other rape-
murders in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua City stand unsolved,
some local officials and business leaders have increasingly
grumbled about the so-called "myth" or "black legend" of
femicide that is allegedly giving Ciudad Juarez a bad name
on the world stage.
Especially within the last year, Ciudad Juarez media have
downplayed the women's murders. A long-running website that
publicized the cases of disappeared women and men,
pesquisasenlinea.org, mysteriously vanished from
cyberspace, as did the long-running femicide section of the
Norte newspaper. Readers of major Ciudad Juarez news
websites would have had no idea that Jennifer Lopez was
recognized by Amnesty International in a Berlin ceremony
this month for her role in the upcoming Gregory Nava movie
Bordertown, a fictional film about the Juarez women's
murders. While JLO's award received ample attention in the
Mexican national and international press, it did not even
register a blip on several Ciudad Juarez news web sites.
Still, even the leading El Diario newspaper has had trouble
swallowing the official story surrounding three men first
accused last year of orchestrating the cotton field
murders. In a February 18 editorial, El Diario questioned
the authorities' case and recounted the long history of
police fabricating femicide scapegoats in Ciudad Juarez and
Chihuahua City.
Late last week, the Ciudad Juarez press was also forced to
report on a possible new femicide after the body of a semi-
naked woman was discovered on the morning of February 23 in
an empty near the city's international airport. Like
numerous past cases, the woman's body was found by playing
children. Although the unidentified woman was found in
various stages of undress, a preliminary official report
claimed she was not murdered. Neighbors said it was the
second time that a dead body had been discovered in the
same lot.
Sources: El Diario de Juarez, February 18, 23 and 24, 2007.
Articles by Juan de Dios Olivas, Armando Rodriguez and
editorial staff. Lapolaka.com, February 23, 2007. La
Jornada, August 22, 2006 and February 24, 2007. Articles
by Ruben Villalpando and Miroslava Breach. Norte, August 21
and 22, 2006. Articles by Javier Kuramura and Sonia
Aguilar.
Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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