The Juarez Project

MEXICO: Activists Lash Out at Government Report on Juárez Killings

Ni UNA MAS — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:10:39 GMT

By Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Feb 17 (IPS) - Activists in Mexico are upset over a report by a special prosecutor's office on the killings of hundreds of women in Ciudad Juárez, which they say buries many of the key facts and arguments relating to the murders.

"The report is humiliating and disgraceful, because it falsifies and plays down the facts," Esther Chávez, president of Casa Amiga, a non-governmental organisation that provides support to the victims' families, told IPS.

Ciudad Juárez, a city of 1.3 million people which borders El Paso, Texas, has been shaken by the hundreds of murders and disappearances of women which have occurred there since 1993.

According to human rights groups, a large number of the victims had been raped - some by multiple attackers û and tortured. Theories about the motives for these crimes range from satanic rituals to pornography rings and "snuff" films in which someone is actually murdered. Human organ trafficking is also suspected.

But according to an extensive report by the Special Prosecutor's Office investigating the Ciudad Juárez killings, which was released on Thursday, "the exact dimensions of the problem have been distorted," thus creating myths and unfounded rumours.

"If it was such a minor problem, why didn't they say so before? Why have they spent so much money investigating it? I think the government wants to downplay the situation, but even if only one more woman is killed, we will continue to cry out," Chávez said in a telephone interview from Ciudad Juárez.

Marimar Monroy, of the non-governmental Mexican Commission for Defence and Promotion of Human Rights, said the Special Prosecutor's Office report appears to promote the message "that violence against women, and ‘femicide', aren't important matters."

"This problem is not about numbers, it's about a climate of violence that is persistent and unacceptable," Monroy told IPS.

The prosecutors' inquiry concluded that there was no pattern of serial killing among the 379 murders of women in Ciudad Juárez registered in the last 11 years, and that sexual violence was involved in only 78 of the killings.

Furthermore, it stated, 125 of the women died in their own homes at the hands of relatives, friends or acquaintances, and most of the murdered women lived in a highly "criminal and violent" environment.

The Special Prosecutor's Office, which comes under the Attorney-General's Office, reported that the largest number of killings of women in

Mexico

occurred in Toluca, near the capital.

According to statistics on the number of homicides per 100,000 population, the next in rank is Tecate, in the northern state of Baja California, followed by the resort city of Acapulco on the Pacific coast. Ciudad Juárez ranks fourth.

And with respect to missing women in Ciudad Juárez, activists put the number at more than 4,000, but the official inquiry mentions only 47 documented cases.

The report admits that the local authorities in charge of investigating the murders in Ciudad Juárez had been markedly negligent in the past, which had aggravated the climate of violence against women.

The facts and conclusions of the report are dubious, because discredited sources of information were used and important facts have been ignored, said Chávez, one of the most active voices in

Mexico

to denounce the violence against women in Ciudad Juárez.

In recent years the Mexican government has come under heavy pressure from local and international human rights groups for the spate of killings of women in Ciudad Juárez.

In response to the pressure, President Fox named a Special Prosecutor's Office and a special commission for the Juárez cases. And now, on Friday, he replaced the Juárez special prosecution by a new body called the Special Prosecutor's Office Investigating Crimes Related to Violence against Women in the Country.

But the working methods of these bodies, and the reports they produce, have been seriously questioned by activists.

Esther Chávez commented that the latest report on the Ciudad Juárez killings was "hurtful," because "basically it's making a comparison between the situation in Juárez and other places, which is no consolation and does nothing to alter the fact that most of the crimes remain unpunished."

Most of the murdered women were in the 15-30 age group, and many were from low-income social strata and worked in maquiladora factories, which operate in tax-free zones and assemble products for export using imported materials.

These factories are concentrated in Ciudad Juárez and other Mexican cities along the

U.S.

border. Their work force mainly consists of young women, many of whom are living far away from their families.

In Ciudad Juárez, a number of factors û migration, unemployment, social exclusion, a large floating population, human trafficking and drug trafficking, among others - converge to give the city its particular characteristics. Together with the social dynamic generated by the large number of national and foreign maquiladoras, they have brought levels of extreme violence to the city, according to government reports. (END/2006)

Another young woman is missing in Jaurez

Ni UNA MAS — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:30:15 GMT

On February 25th, Hilda Gabriela Rivas Campos (16 years old) left her home to seek work at a local market.
She was last seen by a friend who worked near the market, who Hilda asked to hold some work documents for her while she went with a man who had offered her money to intervene in a discussion with his wife. She has not been seen since that time.

Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (NHDRC)has been working with the family and have tried different strategies for finding Hilda Gabriela but have had no results to date given some recent changes on how local authorities look for missing persons.

NHDRC tells us during the search for Hilda they found out that within the modifications that the “New Reformation to the Penal Justice System”
promoted by Patricia González, Attorney General of the State of Chihuahua, and that took effect January 1st; what before was the Office for the search of disappeared WOMEN, now is “Office for the search of absent and/or disappeared PEOPLE (now for the search of both women and men). This office only has three agents of the Public Ministry and eight investigating agents for the searches, according to data provided by Edith Acevedo of the same office.

All of which is insufficient to actually find missing people considering that now this office will have to look for all the missing people and not only women who disappear. Though this case is officially considered of high risk, since she disappeared in a zone where many women has been kidnapped, and her characteristics fit within the profile of most of the women who have been kidnapped and victims of serial sexual violence also known as femicides, Hilda Gabriela represents one of more than 40 reports of disappearances of women in 2008 up to this month of March.

For these reasons MSN joins NHDRC in requesting your urgent help in writing to the state Government and the Attorney Generals Office of the State of Chihuahua with the following demands:

A) Creation of a new office for the search of DISAPPEARED WOMEN, in the building with the Public Prosecutor of Crimes Against Women and the office of Attention to Victims, with ample and exclusive resources for its good operation.

The hiring and accreditation of at least two private investigators, experts in the search of disappeared women of high risk, that will in addition to current cases will investigate non-solved cases of homicides of women with sexual connotations or that do not correspond to domestic violence. These experts should not have previously worked somewhere of the Mexican Republic or in dependencies of the Mexican government.

C) A weekly meeting with the directors of the different police departments, as well as with representatives of the different government institutions that signed the Alba Protocol, with the purpose of accountability and implementation of strategies to find the disappeared minors, and to assure that everyone involved participates in their search.

ACTION: To communicate via telephone or email to the offices of the Attorney General of the State of Chihuahua with the Patricia González, for the purpose of demanding an urgent meeting between her, the Governor of the State of Chihuahua, and Nuestras Hijas de Regreso A Casa.

Contact info:
Attorney General: M.D.P. Patricia González Rodríguez pagonzalez@buzon.chihuahua.gob.mx y pagonzale@buzon.chihuahua.mx

Av. Vicente Guerrero 618, Col. Centro, 31000, Chihuahua, Chih.

Secretary: Lic. Rodolfo Leyva Martínez
r.leyva7@hotmail.com

Tel. For the offices of the State government of Chih. 01152 614 429 3300

Femicide lecturer shares horror stories

Ni UNA MAS — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:44:45 GMT

Award-winning producer, writer and director Barbara Martinez Jitner speaks about her experience working alongside other women in horrible factory conditions on the U.S.-Mexican border after showing one portion of her video series March 19 in the University Center Sunnen Lounge.

By: Amber Russell

Posted: 3/27/08

Femicide, which is a relatively new term, means the systematic killing of women. This term is well known in Juarez, Mexico because of the many brutal murders that occur there every year. In the past 15 years femicide has become a horrifying trend plaguing the town's young, migrant female workers and students.

"Women in Mexico are devalued. They are sold into the sex trade or have their organs harvested for a profit," said Barbara Martinez Jitner, a Latin American producer, writer and director who came to speak at Webster University. "They are worth more dead than alive."

Since 1993 over 450 young women, who are predominately factory workers, have been abducted, raped, assaulted and murdered - many found with their organs harvested - in Juarez, Mexico, said Martinez Jitner.

No one has been held accountable for these crimes.

Her lecture, titled "Femicide at Our U.S. Border: To Be a Woman in Juarez is a Death Sentence" was held March 19 in the University Center Sunnen Lounge.

"This (lecture) was overwhelming. It's amazing that this could happen for 15 years and the government and media don't show it at all to the public," said Lauren Beck, a freshman international relations major.

The lecture was accompanied by Martinez Jitner's documentary "La Frontera," which means "The Border" in Spanish. The documentary portrayed the life and struggle of an indigenous woman of Oaxaca, Mexico. Eva Canseco migrated from her homeland in Oaxaca to Tijuana, Mexico to work in a factory. She was fired because she was too old. Canseco was only 30.

"The border factories want women workers because women will accept whatever they pay us," Canseco said.

Martinez Jitner is on tour during March for International Women's Month in order to bring awareness to this growing epidemic. Femicide is spreading throughout Mexico, from the border towns of Juarez and Chihuahua to as far south as Guatemala. In a substantial number of cases, the women were very young, about 14 or 15. The factories in question are Mexican divisionsof U.S. companies that have been established along the United States-Mexico border. There are 1,000 factories in Juarez alone. Juarez is located directly across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Ngozi Williams, a junior international relations and human rights major, said she has not heard about femicide in Mexico in any of her classes at WU. She said people are unaware of this problem because some Americans don't consider Mexico an international country.

"My assumption as to why no one has been discussing this issue may be because (Mexico) is so close," Williams said. "How can anything so atrocious be happening right next door to us?"

Martinez Jitner posed as a factory worker in a border town to uncover the harsh working conditions and violence associated with the factories. She said female factory workers put in 10-hour shifts at all hours of the night and day. They are forced to live in shantytowns on the outskirts of the city because they cannot afford to pay rent. These struggling young women are abducted along their long walks to and from the factories. The companies they are employed with provide no security for the workers. There are no streetlights because there is no electricity, and no one is around to protect them from being kidnapped by unknown assailants.

Martinez Jitner said these women are considered an "expendable workforce" by the corporations they are employed with and have, in the process, become expendable human beings. In Mexico, there is a caste system where the poor and uneducated are treated as lower life forms and women are considered inferior to men.

Public awareness is the most effective way both Mexicans and Americans can combat this violence toward women and bring justice to the offenders, according to international human rights groups and the families of the victims. Martinez Jitner suggested signing a petition on the Amnesty International Web site, www.amnestyusa.org.

"The Mexican government is providing little or no help investigating the disappearances and the murders of these young women," said Martinez Jitner.

Martinez Jitner is one of the first Latina executive producers of a primetime network television series, "American Family." She is an Emmy award winner, as well as a four-time Golden Globe nominee. Martinez Jitner has worked in television and film as a writer, director and producer. She is also a documentary filmmaker. She has worked on such films as "Selena," "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" and "Bordertown," which is based upon true events surrounding the violence and murders in Juarez.

Many families of missing women are conducting their own investigations. They are seeking help from the American government, the United Nations and international human rights organizations. The mothers of the missing women have formed protest groups in an effort to reveal the government's lack of interest. The groups also condemn the law enforcement officials for their lax investigative procedures and failure to arrest and prosecute those responsible for these crimes.

One such organization, Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa, which means "May Our Daughters Return Home," has a Web site with information on the abductions and killings as well as a petition to the Mexican government to find the missing girls. Nuestras Hijas' Web site is www.mujeresdejuarez.org.

This Web site and countless others, along with Martinez Jitner's lecture tour, all have one primary purpose: to make the world aware of the missing and murdered women and to show the inefficacy of their government to stop and prevent these horrific crimes.

"Their government along with the U.S. government, do not care about this situation because they are making money off of this through NAFTA," said Emily Kothe, a junior English and international human rights major.

NAFTA

The citizens of Mexico and many international human rights organizations believe there is a correlation between the abductions, rapes and murders in the border towns of Mexico and the North American Free
Trade Agreement.

In 1993, NAFTA brought about free trade between Mexico and the United States. Many American businesses opened assembly plants along the Mexican border to pay low wages to migrant Mexican workers. General Electric, DuPont, Panasonic, The Gap and RCA are some of the factories who have set up shop in Mexico.

During his time as president of Mexico, Carlos Salinas de Gortari changed the Mexican Constitution. He served from 1988 to 1994, and in that time he made changes that require indigenous peoples (natives of Mexico) to pay taxes on the land they own. Many of these families moved to border towns to work at the new factories so they could pay the taxes on their land.

NAFTA requires companies to pay workers a living wage. The workers make $5 a day. The migration to border towns was supposed to be temporary for many families - just to make enough money to pay the taxes they owed on their land. But this Third-World wage of $5 a day couldn't stand up to the First-World (U.S.) prices for goods and services in the border towns.

The female workers are treated harshly by their male superiors in the factories and when they disappear, the government doesn't consider the case a high priority.

Barbara Martinez Jitner, a Latina television producer, went undercover in a NAFTA factory in Mexico in order to investigate the poverty, abuse and abductions connected to the border town factories.

She said the Mexican government will not recognize these crimes. The government will try to silence groups who are fighting for justice for their daughters by offering them a house and a small amount of money.

Martinez Jitner said these people are displaced with nowhere to go, and that is a major factor in the increased border security. She said the Central American Free Trade Agreement will cause many of the Mexico-based factories to move south to Central America, and the displaced migrant workers will then come to the United States.

"There is a definite correlation with the mass femicide in Juarez and the factories, but they don't want to be held liable," Martinez Jitner said. "That's why the companies want to get out of the border towns and head to Central America as fast
as possible."

Martinez Jitner said the U.S. government is aware of the problem and is anticipating a surge of illegal immigrants from Mexico if the factories move south and leave many workers without jobs. She also said this is the main reason for the increased security at the border and the reason for the border wall.

HILDA GABRIELA RIVAS CAMPOS IS MISSING

Ni UNA MAS — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:23:32 GMT

PROCURADURÍA GENERAL DE JUSTICIA DEL ESTADO

UNIDAD ESPECIAL DE INVESTIGACIÓN DE

PERSONAS AUSENTES O EXTRAVIADAS

AYÚDANOS A LOCALIZARLA

HILDA GABRIELA RIVAS CAMPOS

16 AÑOS DE EDAD

CARACTERÍSTICAS:

Estatura:	1.65 metros aprox.	Complexión :	Delgada.
Tez:	Morena.	Color de ojos:	Café Oscuro.
Cejas:	Depiladas y arqueadas.	Tamaño:	Grandes.
		Tipo:	Ovales
Nariz:	Mediana y chata.	Boca:	Mediana.
Tipo:	Recta.	Labios:	Gruesos.
Cabello:	Teñido color castaño oscuro.	Tipo de Cabello:	Ondulado.
Longitud:	Debajo de los hombros.	Señas particulares:	Ninguna.

Vestimenta: Se desconoce.

Fecha:	25 de febrero de 2008.
Lugar:	Colonia 16 de Septiembre.

EN CASO DE CONTAR CON INFORMACIÓN COMUNICARSE A LOS TELÉFONOS:

(656) 629 3300 Ext. 56454 y 56455 en Ciudad Juárez;

(614) 429 3300 Ext. 14363 y 14346 en Ciudad Chihuahua.

BOLETIN DE PRENSA

Ni UNA MAS — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:16:37 GMT

Discriminatory treatment of the women of Justicia Para Nuestras Hijas in the Congress of the state of Chihuahua

In the second session of Congress on March 3, 2008, the mothers of the disappeared and victims of femicide, members of the organization Justicia Para Nuestras Hijas, with the aim of supporting the proposal that Deputy Victor Quintana was introducing for the creation of a Special Commission to Investigate the Femicides.

The action planned by the mothers was to present themselves at the official area to support this initiative but the security guards for the Congress tried to block their passage.

The intention was that the deputies (congress men and women) would see the real existence not only of the mothers of the victims but also of the problem of the lack of justice of the cases that they were representing with photos of the assassinated and disappeared women.

Recess was called for the session with the pretext that the mothers were creating "disorder". This was totally false because those of us that were there saw that none of the women that intended to enter the congress ever spoke one word or behaved in a disorderly fashion.

The President of the Congress suspended the session. This was unequal treatment for women and the problems that they face. For example, the meeting before was concerning the case of the accounts of the city of Chihuahua. There was a large contingent of support for Mr. Blanco, with true disorder. In this case, the meeting was not suspended but the participants were granted their full rights under the Article 30, section 13 of the Organic Law of Legislative Power.

Press bulletin from Justicia para Nuestras Hijas. March 3, 2008

Mexico to Focus on Crimes Against Women

Ni UNA MAS — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:11:55 GMT

Friday, February 01, 2008

By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO, Associated Press Writer

MEXICO CITY —

Mexico has created a new federal position to prosecute violence against women and human exploitation, as rights groups urge the government to do more to investigate the killings of women, especially along the U.S. border.

The position, announced on Thursday, will replace a similar post created in 2006 and will add migrant smuggling, child labor and other human exploitation to its caseload.

The new prosecutor, Guadalupe Morfin _ who previously served in a similar post aimed at combatting violence against women in Ciudad Juarez _ will report to Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora.

The attorney general told Radio Formula that he welcomes the expanded role for his office.

Human exploitation "is a serious problem that we see daily, and we don't have the adequate structure to deal with it," Medina Mora said.

Since 1993, an estimated 423 women have been killed in Ciudad Juarez, across the U.S. border from El Paso, Texas _ at least 89 between 2004 and 2008, the National Human Rights Commission reported Tuesday.

In about 100 of the Juarez killings, women were abducted, often sexually abused and strangled before their bodies were dumped in the desert. Many were last seen in the city's downtown area or taking buses, and their bodies often did not resurface for months.

Commission President Jose Luis Soberanes called the investigations into the deaths "terrible."

UN launches global campaign to fight violence against women

Ni UNA MAS — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:45:19 GMT

25.02.08 21:31

( dpa ) - The United Nations launched Monday a campaign to end violence against women around the world, saying that one in three women is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex or abused in her lifetime.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon opened the annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which is dedicated to establishing gender equality and involves society, governments and world organizations.

Ban said violence against women ranges from prenatal sex selection to abortions.

"No country, no culture, no woman young or old is immune to this scourge," he said. "Far too often, the crimes go unpunished, the perpetrators walk free."

He called on the UN Security Council to set up a mechanism dedicated to monitoring violence against women and girls, but he warned that what works in one country may not in another and urged each government to devise its own strategy.

The World Health Organization said the most common form of violence is physical violence inflicted by domestic partners. Women aged 15-44 are more at risk of rape and beating than from cancer, traffic accidents, war and malaria.

WHO said 40 to 70 per cent of female murders were at the hands of domestic partners in the United States, Australia, Canada, Israel and South Africa.

In Colombia, one woman is reportedly killed every six days by her partner or a former one while "hundreds" of women were abducted, raped and murdered in and around Ciudad Juarez in Mexico over a 10- year period.

The UN said between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped during the massacre in Rwanda in 1994 and up to 50,000 were raped during the Bosnian war from 1992 to 1995.

Several UN taskforces have been created to fight violence against women. They include the UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict and UN Trust Fund to End Violence. Resolutions have been adopted for the purpose of raising awareness on the issues of violence against women.

TERRIFYING MURDERS

Ni UNA MAS — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:44:18 GMT

Murders of Women in Juarez Shock the World

In the small Mexican town of Juarez, since 1993 around 400 women were brutally murdered. No one knows why, but the crimes continue.

Nikolina Štanfel

Photo: wikimedia,; AFP

Walking in the desert area of the Mexican town of Juarez, on February 17, two teenagers searched for details like bottles and cans which they could sells. Instead of that, they ran into blood stained rocks: three women’s corpses, barely hidden. After they informed the police, they found a fourth body not far from the others.

Juarez’s dead women

This is not a singular happening for the town near the Mexican-American border, which reached world fame and a place in Wikipedia due to many years of systematical, brutal murders of hundreds of women with no known reason and without end. The wave of murders started back in 1993, with “the dead women of Juarez” case, followed by many international organizations for human rights and sexual discrimination, by the state attorney’s office, and by the police. Books have been written and several documentaries and movies have been made on them. However, the mystery has still not been solved. The authorities have not found an efficient way to stop the disapperance of hundreds of women.

Kidnapping, raping, suffocation

The main question mark in these crimes is the motive. There are no acceptable theories on why in 15 years, around 400 women were killed, and hundreds are still missing. Most of the bodies found, show signs of sexual violence. Witnesses say that it is not a matter of usual raping, but a matter of releasing wild instincts. Women had traces of biting, thrusting, hitting and slitting. According to the autopsy report, about 70% of the cases died of suffocation or due to beating. The motive is even harder to find because these women have no specific common features.

They are mainly young women between 17 and 22 years of age, but there also some victims who are younger, between one and four years old. They are hack workers in a corporations owned by Americans and which use cheap a Latin-American workforce. For this reason, many think that these crimes are connected with the American corporations which have branch-offices in the town. Working in inhuman conditions, the workers are imposed unreachable norms, and failure is strictly punished. Although a connection between the brutal murders and the work in factories has never been proved, they think that it can not be a coincidence that most of the women killed were working in some of these American factories.

Unique mystery

In Ciudad Juarez, like in many other Mexican towns, there is a high rate of criminality, corruption within the authorities, the drug business is widespread, poverty is high, and many think that in the whole story the ‘machismo’ element has an important role, that is the lust for male domination. However, if we take this element in to consideration, we have to think that every border Mexican town should have a similar rate of rape and murder of women. The dead women of Juarez are a unique case, which contributes to the mystery of the town.

The first official victim was Alma Chavira Farel, who was found beaten, raped and suffocated on January 23, 1993 in Ciudad Juarez. They believe that she was not the first victim of these murders, but only the first one to be found of about ten women who went missing before her. By the end of the year, the police officially recognised 16 more similar murders, but it was never confirmed if they were committed by the same murderer or if there were more. As the murders continued year by year, criminologists and a state attorney monitored the horrifying rate of killing, but they never found out whether it was the work of one person, a gang or whether the murders have no connection with one another. Some crimes bore the same ‘signature’ and they think that in Juarez there are at least three serial killers.

Several arrested, murders continue

The first suspect was Abdel Sharif, who supposedly raped and murdered a women, and whose former girlfriend filed charges against him for attempted murder. Sharif was condemned to 30 years in prison, but this did not stop the murders in Juarez.

Later, a member of the local gang ‘Los Rebeldes’, Olivares Villalba, confessed he took part in the murder of 18-year-old Rosario Garcia. According to him, six more members of the gang took part in the crime. He was condemned, and part of the gang was arrested and then released. The police even tried to prove that the murders were the result of a conspiracy in which Abdel Sharif and his gang were involved, but the did not manage to do so, and the number of murders only grew.

The police hoped to solve the case when a girl who survived kidnapping, raping and beating in 1999, told her horrible experience. They accused a bus driver who drove the workers from a factory, and the police began to arrest several of so called ‘Los Choferes’. They filed charges against them for a total of 20 murders, but they denied the accusations and stated that the Mexican police mistreated and tortured them. The American FBI joined the investigations, but after they went to the town, they left with no more answers than before and the murders continued.

No woman is safe

These murders have come to a level where we must do everything in our power to solve them, said a Mexican official and cooperator of the FBI for Dallas Morning News.

There is no precise information on the total number of victims. Different associations offer differing numbers, because many women are still considered missing. The most accepted theory is that between more than 300 women were killed between 1993 and 2005, and about 400 are missing. In the past years, the rate of murders has grown. Despite the monitoring of the media, of the FBI, of the public and of the police, there are still no answers. Only the facts are certain, no woman is safe in Juareze, and there will be other murders.

PROTEST(A) CALDERON'S VISIT(A) TO SACRAMENTO

Ni UNA MAS — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:46:36 GMT

PROTEST(A) CALDERON'S

(THE ILIGITIMATE MEXICAN PRESIDENT )

VISIT(A) TO SACRAMENTO

WENSDAY (MIERCOLES) 0FEBUARY 13,2008

11:30 AM

SHERETON GRAND HOTEL , 1230 "J' STREET

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

DEATHS OF 5,000 MIGRANTS AT THE BORDER

OAXACA- 23 TEACHERS AND SUPPORTERS

70 MINE WORKERS

ACTEAL 47 MEN WOMEN & CHILDREN

NO TO : NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT (NAFTA)

"CALDERON WILL BE HAVING LUNCH WITH THE GOVERNOR"

We would encourage you to pass this protest notice to all your lists and take some time off to say to the POLITICOS HEAR AND IN MEXICO WE WILL NOT ACCEPT THEIR LIES AND THE DEATHS OF ALL THOSE WHO HAVE DIED AT ATTEMPTING TO CROSS THE BORDER

" EL DERCHO DE NO IMIGRAR ! "

    " THE RIGHT NOT TO MIGRATE !
                                                "VIVA LOS OBREROS ! "
                                                           "NO AL TLC !! "

Borothers and Sisters

We are being informed that "Calderon" (Illegitimate Mexican President) is coming to Sacramento and Los Angeles and other cities, in his campaign to "Defend the Immigrants",when he and his "Right-wing Conservative "party the PAN 's policies when they have supported the NAFTA economic agreements that have devastated both jobs on both sides of the border, in especially being the cause of the massive migration of close to 12 million workers seeking employment in the U.S.in order to support thier families ,while the U.S.Agricultural Corporations have been responsible for dumping U. S corn (billions of dollars) into the Mexican economy, that has left Mexican Farmers unable to compete with the U. S subsidized (Billions of Tax dollars) Corporate agricultural sector and unable to sell their "Corn",when at the same time the "Monsanto" Corporation is pushing the use of thier product line, the genetically modified corn seed in Mexico, meaning that the Monsanto Corporation will have full control of the seed and the elimination of the natural corn seed will eventually be controlled by the "Monsanto Corp (represented by the Rose law Firm "Hillary's Law firm),all this supported by the North American Free Trade Agreements, agreements that the Bush/Clinton supported to the tune of millions of dollars in campaign contributions and now we have the Mrs. Bill Clinton also on the same path,(when the Federal Mexican Minimum wage is $4.88 (Dollares) per day and the "Walmarts,Costcos, Homedepots, Priceclubs, Officemarts, (in Mexico) pay the minimum wage we can see very clearly why people are forced to leave thier families and country.

The other more important issue is that in Mexico their is rallying cry and that's "El derecho de no Imigrar !" "The right Not to immigrate !", in Oaxaca last year's Teachers strike 22 Union teachers and APPO (Peoples support committee) and an "Indymedia" newsreporter "Brad Will were murdered and the State and Federal Government violated peoples rights by arresting thousands of strikers and supporters and to this day not "ONE" person has been prosecuted by the Police authorities, why because the workers chose to fight their government for Jobs, decent wages, and health benefits and against the privatization of the educational system and the demand for school blds,books,nutricional programs for the children, and computers, this situation has occurred in other parts of Mexico with workers killed when they have protested the governments economic policies, so Calderon (El Espurio) comes to California on a media campaign "To look good",he will stand with the Democrats and Republicans and the Terminator,but he will stand with workers blood in his hands,resposible for the further devastation on the expansion of the NAFTA agreements in the export of US Corporate greed and portent to defend the Immigrant workers.

Estimados Companeros/as

Asegun nos avisan viene el "Espurio" de Calderon a Sacramento y hace falta darle la buienvenida al estilo Mexico con una protesta,por venir como el culpable de los Mexiccanos "Expulsados" y ahora como que viene a defender a los Trabajadores Migrantes en cuando en Oaxaca Y Lazaro Cardenas,Chiapas, Atenco,Pasta de Conchos (Los Mineros todavia sepultados),que todos estos lugares de la lucha han muerto mexicanos (no se digo de los desaparacidos y encarcelados) en contra de el Gobierno de los de la extreama derecha,es el el "Espurio",Calderon" que viene con sangre en sus manos y mas el Fraude electoral del 2006,por parte de la Corporaciones Extranjeras ,no viene con manos limpias.

So hacemos el llamado de que si es que viene el 13 de Febrero a Sacramento,pienso que viene para reunires con los legisladores y el Terminador,so pensamos de que de estar a las 11:30 am de la manana en el HOTEL SHERETON GRAND por la calle "J",en Sacramento sea el lado de el "Oeste" (Westside).

Y de pasar la palabra

PARA MAS INFORMACION

Al Rojas.
TEL (916) 712-4251 CEL

EMAIL: nadm916@aol.com

PAGINA WEB : www.eltrabajo.org.mx

Cotton Field Murder Prosecution Falters as Violence Escalates

Ni UNA MAS — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:40:59 GMT

February 7, 2008

Women's/Human Rights News

Cotton Field Murder Prosecution Falters as Violence Escalates

In a sharp blow to the Chihuahua Office of the State Attorney General
(PGJE), state Judge Catalina Ochoa Contreras declared innocent on February
6 a suspect charged with killing one of the eight women found murdered in
a Ciudad Juarez cotton field in 2001. The defense of Edgar Alvarez Cruz
had long contended that the charges against the young man were based on
lies, pressured statements and questionable or non-existent evidence.

Alvarez’s defense also presented proof that their client was in the United
States at the time of many of the disappearances and slayings of the
victims found in the cotton field. Another inconsistency was the single
murder charge against Alvarez, who was formally accused of killing
17-year-old Mayra Juliana Reyes Solis, but not tried for the murders of
the other victims who were discovered on the same site and at the same
time as Reyes.

The PGJE appealed Judge Ochoa’s verdict, but made no immediate public
comment on the ruling.

"The exoneration of the innocent man adds to the list of scapegoats
detained by the state prosecutor as serial killers and then freed for lack
of proof to incriminate them," editorialized Ciudad Juarez's Lapolaka news
site. Upon hearing news of the sentence, Alvarez thanked the court for
absolving him of the Reyes slaying but added, “it should’ve been done
within the first 72 hours.”

Alvarez still faces charges in the 1998 killing of teenager Silvia Garbiela
Laguna Cruz, a murder he also vehemently denies committing.

If Alvarez’s legal victory is upheld, it would mark the third time
Chihuahua state and federal cases against suspected cotton field killers
have wound up in tatters. Previous investigations unraveled amid
revelations of tortured suspects, extracted confessions, wild stories,
mismatched bodies and other irregularities.

Although questions swirled around Alvarez’s August 2006 detention from the
very beginning, Chihuahua State Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez and
representatives her office repeatedly told the press that additional
evidence against Alvarez and two other accused men would be forthcoming.
In the end, however, none materialized.

What distinguished the Alvarez affair against the prior cotton field cases
was the key role played by the United States. Alvarez was living as an
undocumented worker in Denver, Colorado, when he was arrested based on a
confession made by Jose Francisco Granados de la Paz to the Texas Rangers.
Held on an unrelated charge, Granados tied Alvarez to the cotton field
killings. Later revelations seriously questioned Granados' credibility as
a witness, painting instead a picture of a disturbed, drug-abusing
individual who was prone to delusions.

Despite the flimsiness of the Alvarez case, as well as the previous use of
torture in the cotton field investigations, the US government quickly
deported Alvarez to Mexico to face trial. He has sat in jail ever since.
At the time of Alvarez's arrest, US Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza hailed
a major breakthrough in solving the Ciudad Juarez femicides.

While the US-Mexico investigation of the cotton field killings verges on
collapse, three of the victims' mothers are taking their quest for justice
to an international legal body. Last December, the Costa Rica-based
Inter-American Court of Human Rights notified lawyers for the women that
it has accepted their case for review.

The cases were originally pursued in the Washington-based Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) by the mothers of victims Esmeralda
Herrera Monreal, Laura Berenice Ramos Monarrez and Claudia Ivete
Gonzalez. Transfer of the case to the Inter-American Court means that the
Mexican government did not follow the IACHR’s recommendations it earlier
issued to ensure justice for victims' relatives. In a separate report late
last month, Mexico’s official National Human Rights Commission criticized
all three levels of the Mexican government for not following its own
justice recommendations related to the Ciudad Juarez women’s murders.

Karla Michel Salas Ramirez, an attorney for the three mothers and a member
of Mexico's National Association of Democratic Lawyers, said the Costa
Rica case could set a legal precedent for other femicide cases. The
Mothers' lawyers will argue that Mexico is in violation of the Belen Do
Para Convention, an international agreement which obliges states to
protect women from gender violence. The plaintiffs also seek sanctions
against Chihuahua state government officials who were responsible for
handling the cotton field investigation. Unlike the advisory nature of
the IACHR’S recommendations, rulings from the Costa Rica court are
obligatory for member states.

On another international note, the Ciudad Juarez femicides drew a sharp
comment from United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise
Arbour, who was on an official visit to Mexico this week.

"In Mexico, the issue of impunity is the greatest challenge that has to be
confronted and overcome," Arbour said. "The case of the femicides, in
which the justice system doesn't protect women, is worrisome."

In Ciudad Juarez, meanwhile, media outlets, business groups, human rights
organizations and just plain ordinary citizens are all alarmed at the
escalating homicide rates for both men and women since the beginning of
the year. Nine women and girls have been killed for different reasons
since January 1. Also last month, a woman's skeleton was recovered from an
area frequently used as a dumping ground for both male and female murder
victims.

Additionally, a 15-year-old high school student, Adriana Enriquez
Sarmiento, was reported missing from downtown Ciudad Juarez on January 18.
The young girl had attended the private Ignacio Allende Preparatory, the
same institution three previous femicide victims, including Laura Berenice
Ramos, had also attended,

In a blog entry this week, El Paso author and longtime femicide researcher
Diana Washington Valdez reported that a female Allende Prep student was
accosted outside the school January 31 by a man who exposed himself to the
girl. According to the journalist, an intervention by prominent Ciudad
Juarez labor rights activist Cipriana Jurado, who just happened to be in
the vicinity of the school at the time of the attack, prompted the man to
run away before police could detain him.

Amnesty International’s Visit to Mexico

Ni UNA MAS — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 08:46:39 GMT

MEXICO - Amnesty International’s Visit to Mexico: The Shameful Conclusions

Emilio Godoy, IPS

Friday 3 August 2007, posted by Manuela Garza

IPS - “They tortured me, took away my shoes, and beat me brutally, with a lot of hatred and fury,” said Pedro Alvarado, a human rights activist arrested by Mexican police in 2006.

Alvarado was one of the victims of a crackdown in San Salvador Atenco, 15 kilometres from the Mexican capital, during a clash between local residents and police in May.

After his arrest, the activist was released on bail and is facing prosecution on charges of attacks on the public highway and the transport system.

His testimony and that of others involved in the affair in the farming town of San Salvador Atenco was heard by a delegation from the London-based Amnesty International (AI) during their current visit to Mexico.

The experts also investigated other episodes of human rights violations and impunity, like the so-called "dirty war" against dissidents and government opponents in the 1970s and 1980s, the repression of a popular uprising that broke out in the southern state of Oaxaca in May 2006, and the hundreds of women disappeared and murdered in Ciudad Juárez in the north.

The mission, headed by AI secretary general Irene Khan, has met this week with members of human rights organisations and visited Oaxaca. From this Thursday the delegation will hold meetings with members of the federal government, including conservative President Felipe Calderón of the National Action Party (PAN).

Khan told the press that the Calderón administration, which took office in December, has not fulfilled its promise to respect human rights, and impunity is part of the problem. She said it was very sad and discouraging to listen to stories about failure to respect human rights and shortcomings in the quality of justice.

In Atenco, the security forces arrested over 200 people, searched houses without warrants, and beat and abused a number of women, as documented by human rights groups.

In 2002, people in Atenco had taken direct action to resist the building of an airport on their land, and were successful. The same organised group clashed with police in 2006 over the eviction of a group of flower vendors from the local market.

In Oaxaca, meanwhile, social conflict broke out in May 2006 between a striking teachers’ union and the state government headed by Ulises Ruiz, which grew into a general popular uprising demanding the governor’s resignation, led by the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO), an umbrella group of some 300 local organisations.

The conflict quickly became violent. About 20 people were killed, most of them allegedly by police action or at the hands of thugs ordered in by the governor, and 370 were injured. Three hundred and fifty people were arrested. Because Ruiz, widely regarded as corrupt, remains in power, the protests resumed in June this year.

On Tuesday AI released a report on the human rights situation in Oaxaca, one of the poorest states in Mexico, which documents 18 unsolved murders, and cases of arbitrary detention and police brutality committed between June 2006 and April 2007.

Ruiz, a member of the most conservative wing of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which governed Mexico for 71 years, dismissed the report which he said was written "by APPO advisers."

Khan said that her visit to Oaxaca and her interview with Ruiz had clearly shown that he lacked the political will to confront the grave human rights violations that have occurred in the state, many of which had been documented by AI.

One day after the AI delegation’s visit to Oaxaca, a bomb went off in a department store in the capital city, also called Oaxaca, causing material damages. The Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) claimed responsibility. Another bomb placed in a bank was disarmed.

The EPR, formed in 1996, also claimed responsibility for the Jul. 10 sabotage of gas pipelines owned by the Mexican state oil company in the states of Jalisco, in the west, and Querétaro, in the centre of the country, in support of its demand for the release of two of its members who allegedly disappeared in Oaxaca in May.

At Khan’s meetings this Thursday and Friday with Ministers of the Interior, Francisco Ramírez, of Public Security, Genaro García, and of Foreign Relations, Patricia Espinosa, "the Mexican government will authenticate its full commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Mexicans," the Foreign Ministry said in a communiqué.

The AI mission also heard complaints from relatives of the victims of the dirty war, and of the wave of gender violence in Ciudad Juárez, where at least 350 women have been murdered since 1993.

"Sometimes we just want to give up the fight, it’s as though we were up against a brick wall," Patricia Cervantes, of the non-governmental organisation Justice for Our Daughters, told IPS. Her daughter Neyra disappeared in May 2003 in Chihuahua, the state where Ciudad Juárez is located. Her body, bearing signs of rape, was found in June that year.

The government decided to close down the Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women, created in 2004 to look into the Ciudad Juárez killings. Another 16 women have been murdered so far this year.

"We haven’t had access to justice for 30 years. We don’t see any possibility of bringing those responsible to trial," said Alicia de los Ríos, whose mother, also called Alicia, was arrested by security forces in January 1978 and was never seen again.

Towards the end of his term, President Vicente Fox (2000-2006), also of the PAN, closed down the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Political and Social Movements in the Past, which he had himself established in 2001 to investigate crimes committed during the dirty war.

In the view of human rights organisations, the outcome of the Special Prosecutor’s Office was poor: it investigated 532 cases which resulted in seven arrest warrants, but not a single conviction.

One of the unfulfilled challenges of the Special Prosecutor’s Office was to clear up the massacres committed on Oct. 2, 1968 and Jun. 10, 1971, when police and paramilitaries fired on unarmed civilians, killing an undetermined number of people.

In July the Supreme Court ruled that these actions were genocide, but no one can be held to account for them, as the interior minister and former President Luis Echeverría (1970-1976) at the time was exonerated by the Court.

"The Special Prosecutor’s Office failed, and the issue of the past is off this government’s agenda," said Rupert Knox, an AI investigator for Mexico who is participating in the visiting delegation.

According to the Special Prosecutor’s Office, 12 massacres, 120 extrajudicial killings, 800 forced disappearances and 2,000 acts of torture against detainees were committed by security agents in the late 1960s, the 1970s, and the early 1980s.

Next week a delegation from the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will arrive in Mexico, led by its president, Florentín Meléndez. Their itinerary will include a visit to Oaxaca.

http://www.ipsnews.org/news.asp?idnews=38781

Congress Puts Pressure on the Mexican President

Ni UNA MAS — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 07:51:52 GMT

Lawmakers Urge Action on Juarez Murders

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

More than 90 members of Congress signed a letter to Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Wednesday urging action on the murders of young women in the border town of Ciudad Juarez.

The letter was initiated by Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif., and signed by 92 other members of the House, Democrats and Republicans.

"We are very pleased that the Mexican federal government has made good-faith efforts in recent years to combat violence against women in Ciudad Juarez and throughout Mexico. Nevertheless, the brutal assaults and murders continue," the lawmakers wrote to Calderon, who took office last December.

Hundreds of women have been murdered in Ciudad Juarez and the state of Chihuahua since 1993, and about 100 killings followed a pattern in which young women were sexually assaulted, killed and dumped in the desert.

The lawmakers applauded Calderon for signing a law prohibiting violence against women but urged him to fund it adequately and enact tougher penalties for such violence. They noted that the statute of limitation for murders in Mexico is 14 years and some murders are going unsolved longer than that.

"While there has been some progress in investigating the more recent crimes, the murders of women killed 14 years ago cannot be forgotten," the letter says.

Last year, both the House and Senate passed resolutions expressing sympathy with the families of the murdered women and encouraging increased U.S. involvement to solve the crimes.

The EU and Femicide

Ni UNA MAS — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 07:47:47 GMT

August 13, 2007

A European Showdown Regarding Mexican Femicide

Frontera NorteSur

An alliance of Spanish, Polish and German legislators is watering down a resolution in the European Parliament that proposes tougher actions against femicides in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and Central America. Moving behind the scenes, the lawmakers have introduced more than 100 killing amendments to the strongly worded document.

Sponsored by Green/European Free Alliance Deputy Raul Romeva Rueda, the original resolution would create a femicide coordinator; elevate women's murders to a priority status between governments; monitor the treatment of women employees of transnational companies in Latin America; require an annual report to the gender commission of the European Parliament; and carry out a review of femicide cases prior to the 2008 Euro-Latin American summit scheduled for Lima, Peru.

"This has more weight than any other international recommendation," said Humberto Guerrero of the Mexico City-based Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, a non-governmental organization that has been active in raising the profile of the women’s murders on the world stage.

In addition to the credibility of international treaties, the growing commercial relationships between Mexico and the European Union (EU) are at stake in the femicide resolution debate. Unlike the North American Free Trade Agreement, the 1997 EU-Mexico Agreement contains democracy and human rights provisions. Conceivably, Mexico could lose out on new European investments and trade if the women's murders and other human rights violations remain unpunished.

According to the Mexican Senate, economic transactions between Mexico and the EU jumped 103 percent from 1999 to 2005, reaching at least $37 billion. In the six-year period studied, Mexican exports to the EU soared by 123 percent. Currently, about 25 percent of foreign investment monies in Mexico come from Europe.

While Romeva's resolution awaits action, new economic initiatives like the Latin American Institute of Biotechnology planned for the state of Nuevo Leon are in the works between Mexico and the EU. The project also involves the Nuevo Leon state government, the privately owned Technological University of Monterrey, the Monsanto Company, and other organizations.

The Murder of a Dutch Woman

Although some EU legislators have condemned all the femicides, the 1998 killing of Dutch citizen Hester van Nierop, in Ciudad Juarez, helped place the issue on the inter-continental political agenda. The 28-year-old victim was found semi-nude, strangled and stuffed underneath a bed in a seedy downtown Ciudad Juarez hotel. Van Nierop was traveling alone to the United States after a long vacation with her family in Mexico when she was slain.

A squad of state police officers from the Chihuahua Office of the State Attorney General (PGJE), headed by Antonio Navarrete, was assigned to investigate van Nierop's murder. Navarrete was earlier involved in the controversial arrest of the late Egyptian national Abdel Latif Sharif Sharif, who was accused of multiple women's murders but widely regarded as the first scapegoat in a long line of slayings.

Navarrete and other agents involved in the van Nierop case were among officers named for possible crimes of negligence and omission in a 2004 report by former federal Special Prosecutor Maria Lopez Urbina. Several possible suspects in the van Nierop slaying emerged, including an escaped serial killer, Pedro Padilla Flores, but no arrests were ever made.

While on a trip to Ciudad Juarez and El Paso in 2004, van Nierop's outraged parents discovered that the investigation of their daughter's murder was paralyzed. Meeting in late 2005, European non-governmental organizations vowed to escalate their campaign against the Ciudad Juarez femicides by pressuring the transnational Philips Company, which operated maquiladora plants in Ciudad Juarez where several victims had once worked, and by lobbying for the triggering of the democratic and human rights clause of the EU-Mexico Agreement. In this context, Romeva's resolution set off alarm bells in Mexico.

Meet Mexico's New Crisis Manager

Last April, Romeva traveled to Mexico City for meetings with Special Prosecutor for Women's Homicides Alicia Perez Duarte, Chihuahua State Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez and other officials. According to Romeva, Mexican officials expressed concern that his resolution "would damage the image of Mexico."

The day before Romeva's trip, the Mexican Senate gave approval to the Calderon administration's appointment of Sandra Fuentes-Berain as Mexico's new ambassador to the European Union. In her new position, Fuentes-Berain would be the chief troubleshooter in charge of smoothing over thorny matters like the femicide resolution.

A 57-year-old native of Mexico City, Fuentes-Berain began her career with the Ministry of Foreign Relations (SRE) as a young woman in 1971, the same year government-supported paramilitaries mowed down students in Mexico City in the infamous Jueves de Corpus massacre.

Fuentes-Berain has served as Mexican ambassador in several countries, including a stint in Holland during the Hester van Nierop controversy. The career diplomat is credited with negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada, and with greasing the wheels of Mexico's entry into the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation pact. Ratifying the seasoned dealmaker as EU ambassador, the Mexican Senate noted Fuentes-Berain’s talent at encouraging "strategic alliances between foreign and Mexican companies, especially in the automotive, energy, banking and agro-industrial sectors."

Holding an honorary doctorate from Harvard University, Fuentes-Berain has generally enjoyed a non-controversial record of service. An exception came during the 2000 presidential election when she was criticized for allegedly using her government position to promote the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, Francisco Labastida, whose campaign later came under fire for receiving millions of dollars in public money from the Pemex state oil company.

Fire and Brimstone in the European Parliament

On June 25, European legislators gathered for a lively debate of Romeva's femicide resolution. Ambassador Fuentes-Berain and Chihuahua State Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez were on hand for the session. Chihuahua's top cop assured the lawmakers that the administration of Governor Jose Reyes Baeza was making steady progress in chipping away at impunity.

According to Gonzalez's data, of 413 female homicide cases opened from January 21, 1993 to May 18, 2007, fully 264 were in some process of resolution; eight of the cases were determined to have been suicides. According to the PGJE's statistics, only 139 cases were still under investigation.

Spanish parliamentarian Ignacio Salafranca of the conservative Popular European Party was among the deputies who spoke out against Romeva's resolution. In 2006, Deputy Salafranca headed a controversial EU observer delegation that gave a quick stamp of approval to the Mexican presidential election even as doubts about the official results mushroomed amid accusations of fraud, widespread irregularities and massive street protests. Mexican SRE official Lorena Larios, who collaborated with Salafranca while she was assigned to the European Parliament, coordinated Deputy Romeva's April 2007 official meetings in Mexico.

In the debate, Salafranca emphasized that violence against women was a "planetary" and "universal" phenomenon, and that it was unfair to single out Mexico. Turning to Romeva, he said, "Before you set out to save the world you should first look at your own house." Salafranca compared the Ciudad Juarez femicides to gender violence in Spain, where "150,000 complaints of physical mistreatment of women" were registered this year alone. Declaring that the European Parliament is not a tribunal to judge others, Salafranca urged a spirit of cooperation with Mexico.

Left Deputy Eva-Britt Svenson responded: "The fact that this is a world problem doesn't mean that one is not going to investigate in a certain region or country. We are not a tribunal, of course, but our responsibility is to investigate what goes on (in Mexico), a country with which we have signed a democratic clause, but it doesn't seem to be enough in this case."

Introduced by Salafranca, German socialist Deputy Erika Mann, Polish Deputy Ana Zaborska and other deputies, amendments to Romeva's resolution propose nixing a femicide coordinator; foregoing any monitoring of transnational companies; eschewing the reform of Mexico's legal system; and not requiring a review of the van Nierop murder and other femicides before the 2008 Peruvian summit. Another amendment praises Mexico's federal government for its "efforts realized in terms of (achieving) nondiscrimination between men and women."

The amendments, which can be voted up or down, are expected to be considered by the European Parliament's gender commission next month; the femicide resolution will likely be heard by the political institution's plenary in October. Mexican human rights activist Humberto Guerrero is dismayed by the latest developments. "One cannot be very optimistic,” he said.

Despite the existence of the democratic clause in the EU-Mexico accord, some critics have long accused the EU of practicing a double standard when it comes to human rights. In a 2005 article, Tobias Pfluger, a deputy for the United Left/Norwegian Greens, criticized the president of the European Parliament's Mexico delegation, Erika Mann, for allegedly being more interested in free trade than in human rights.

While Mexican human rights violations languished in impunity, Pfluger contended that the EU was abandoning principled action for economic gain. The EU was most interested in pressuring Mexico to open up 14 additional investment opportunities in the electricity, education, water and other sectors, Pfluger charged.

——————————

Sources: Cimacnoticias.com, August 3, 2007. Article by Lourdes Godinez Leal. Proceso/Apro, December 25, 2005 and August 2, 2007. Articles by Marco Appel and Tobias Pfluger. La Jornada, November 25, 2006. Article by Claudia Herrera Beltran. Senado.gob.mx. Conocimientoenlinea.com. Bones in the Desert, Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez. Editoral Anagrama, 2002. Harvest of Women, Diana Washington Valdez. Oceana, 2005.

The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women

Ni UNA MAS — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 08:27:00 GMT

The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women

The truth about Mexico’s bloody legacy

By: Diana Washington Valdez

Explosive book exposes the Mexican killing fields that claimed the lives of hundreds of women at the Juarez, Mexico border. The author's dangerous investigation reveals high-level corruption, a drug cartel run amok and more. Hollywood took note and produced a movie starring Jennifer Lopez and Antonio Banderas. Amnesty International, the United Nations and the U.S. State Department want the Mexican government to put an end to the murders and disappearances that have spread to other places. Exclusive material, including FBI interviews, puts this book at the frontlines of the issue. Author is the expert on the ghastly border crimes. It is the first nonfiction book in English about the murders that attracted international attention.

The movie Bordertown

Ni UNA MAS — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 08:38:08 GMT

Some of you have been asking about "Bordertown",the movie staring Jennifer Lopez that deals with the missing women of Juarez

The movie was due to come out in February but it did not and I am not sure why. According to www.ropeofsilicon.com the movie is due to come out on August 31st, 2007. I have found the trail for the film on YouTube, here is the link for those of you who may be interested.

(The trailer is in Spanish)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm8LyEJtcPU&mode=related&search=

(thanks Juarez Awareness for the update)

The Daughters of Juarez: A True Story of Serial Murder South of the Border

Ni UNA MAS — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 11:07:03 GMT

Book Description

Despite the fact that Juarez is a Mexican border city just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, most Americans are unaware that for more than twelve years this city has been the center of an epidemic of horrific crimes against women and girls, consisting of kidnappings, rape, mutilation, and murder, with most of the victims conforming to a specific profile: young, slender, and poor, fueling the premise that the murders are not random.

Indeed, there has been much speculation that the killer or killers are American citizens. While some leading members of the American media have reported on the situation, prompting the U.S. government to send in top criminal profilers from the FBI, little real information about this international atrocity has emerged. According to Amnesty International, as of 2006 more than 400 bodies have been recovered, with hundreds still missing.
As for who is behind the murders themselves, the answer remains unknown, although many have argued that the killings have become a sort of blood sport, due to the lawlessness of the city itself. Among the theories being considered are illegal trafficking in human organs, ritualistic satanic sacrifices, copycat killers, and a conspiracy between members of the powerful Juárez drug cartel and some corrupt Mexican officials who have turned a blind eye to the felonies, all the while lining their pockets with money drenched in blood.

Despite numerous arrests over the last ten years, the murders continue to occur, with the killers growing bolder, dumping bodies in the city itself rather than on the outskirts of town, as was initially the case, indicating a possible growing and most alarming alliance of silence and cover-up by Mexican politicians.

The Daughters of Juárez promises to be the first eye-opening, authoritative nonfiction work of its kind to examine the brutal killings and draw attention to these atrocities on the border. The end result will shock readers and become required reading on the subject for years to come.