While originally considered an
anomaly to the violent and corrupt border city of Juárez, reports of similar
violent acts against women began to appear in other parts of Mexico. As Alma Guellrmoprieto explained, “the
media and the human-rights activists …had assumed that the killings of young
girls were a phenomenon defined by the Juárez border mentality, its transient
and economically deprived population, and a burgeoning drug culture.”[1] Shortly after the Juárez femicides
began, sources in Chihuahua City began reporting similar murders. The murders continued to spread, and
between January 2002 and May of 2003, at least one women was killed a month in
the city of Leon, Guanajuato. The
state of Guanajuato is one of the safest states in Mexico, yet women were being
killed there in a vicious manner. Moreover, femicides began to be reported in Tijuana, Reynosa, Matamoros, Mexicali,
and Mexico City.[2]
Human rights activists in Guatemala have also reported the murder of over 700 young women between 2000 and 2004. Similar to the situation in Juárez, authorities have remained useless in conducting fruitful investigations or bringing justice to the victims’ families.[3] The spread of senseless violence against women continues to spread through Mexico and Guatemala, among other places, yet a solution to the femicides is yet to be found.
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Women continue to be murdered in Juárez at an alarming rate. According to state officials, more than 100 women have been killed in Juárez during 2008 and this count may be conservative. A sharp increase in drug violence has created a more dangerous environment for everyone living in this city.
Since 1993 more than 400 women have been killed in Juárez alone and the femicides have yet to stop.
