Femicides in Ciudad Juárez

Drug cartels operate in Juárez, which has resulted in high levels of violence against the local population, including women and girls.[9][10][11]

Misogyny is a common trait of gang activity.[11] According to a study conducted in 2008, 9.1% of the murders of women were attributed to organized crime and drug trafficking activities.[5]

Maquiladoras are widely known for their cheap labor and their exploitative conditions, such as regularly violating basic human rights, that often target women.[10] Women and girls often migrate from villages or rural areas in other parts of Mexico in search of work in the maquilas.[12] According to Livingston, this migration of women created, "a new phenomenon of mobile, independent, and vulnerable working women," in cities like Ciudad Juárez.[12] Many of the murder victims in Ciudad Juárez have been maquiladora employees.[10] Despite the expansion of the maquila industry, Juárez still remained a relatively poor and undeveloped city lacking infrastructure in some parts such as electricity and paved roads.[10] As a part of their daily commute, many women maquila workers walk through such areas to and from company buses creating vulnerability to be victimized.[12][10] In addition, the increased involvement of women in the labor force may also be a contributing factor to the victimization of women and girls because of the competition for economic resources in decades in which male unemployment has been high.[12][10]

The implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 resulted in the expansion of the maquiladora industry and created new opportunities for employment for women outside of the home and in the factories.[10] The availability of cheap labor made it attractive for business owners to open factories in Mexico, and the availability of cheap employment attracted many, especially women, to border towns such as Ciudad Juárez. Research has shown correlations between economic and political issues and violence against women along the border.[10]

Academic Katherine Pantaleo has argued that "NAFTA, as a capitalist approach, has directly created a devaluation of women and an increase in gendered violence."[10] Further, according to Wright, in the time period between the implementation of NAFTA in 1994 and 2001, "the homicide rate for men increased by 300 percent, while for women it increased by 600 percent."[13] Such studies indicate the importance of exploring the effects of NAFTA when considering the possible causes of the murder of women and girls in Ciudad Juárez.[10] Consequently, it has been suggested that amendments be made to NAFTA that include human rights provisions.[10]

Sociocultural attitudes to traditional gender roles have influenced violence against women.[10] According to Pantaleo, "Under the view of patriarchy, two expressions are commonly used in Mexico to show the difference in the status of males and females; these expressions are machismo and marianismo."[10] Machismo is characterized by male power and aggression; while marianismo is characterized by subordination and domestic duties.[10] Women who leave their homes to seek employment in the maquila industry directly challenge the marianismo.[12] Olivera suggests that this changed situation challenges hypermasculinity.[11] According to Livingston, gender-directed violence in Ciudad Juárez may be a negative reaction as women "gain greater personal autonomy and independence while men lose ground."[12]

According to Pantaleo in 2006, "While around 400 girls and women have been abducted and murdered, few arrests and convictions have resulted."[18] For convictions that have been made, there is a great deal of controversy that surrounds them.[18] Police have been accused of conducting rushed investigations with questionable methodology and integrity.[19] Further, suspects that have been apprehended have claimed that they were tortured into confessing.[19][18] This has caused uncertainty of the legitimacy of both investigations and convictions.[19][18]

In 1996, an Egyptian, Abdul Latif Sharif, was convicted of 3 murders and sentenced to a 30-year prison term.[19] After his arrest in 1995, the murders continued and authorities claimed that Sharif directed members of the "Los Rebeldes" gang to continue the murders while he was incarcerated.[9] These members were indicted and convicted as a result of this connection.[19] The gang members accused of carrying out murders under Sharif's orders claimed they were tortured while in police custody.[9] According to Monarrez Fragoso, "In the year 2000, it was known that the body of Elizabeth Castro Garcia, whose murder was attributed to Omar Sharif Latif, does not belong to her."[9]

In 2001, Victor Garcia Uribe and Gustavo Gonzalez Meza were apprehended for eight murders.[19] Gustavo Gonzalez Mesa died suspiciously while in police custody.[19] In 2004, Victor Garcia Uribe, a bus driver, was convicted of eight murders that took place in 2001.[19] He confessed to these murders, but claimed that he was tortured into confessing by police.[19]

In 2008, 16-year-old Ruby Frayre Escobedo was murdered by Sergio Barraza Bocanegra who was acquitted at his first trial for lack of evidence. Following two years of activism, a retrial convicted Bocanegra, who remained on the run. In 2010, Ruby's mother, Marisela Escobedo Ortiz, was assassinated by a shot to the head at point blank range while demonstrating for justice in front of the Governor's Palace in Chihuahua.[20][21]

• The American television series The Bridge (2013) used the disappearance of the girls of Juárez as part of the backdrop to a series of murders.
• This American Life (Public Radio Exchange), Episode 506 - Secret Identity, Act Three: The Blonde Avenger, about a real life avenger with a secret identity against sexual violence from bus drivers in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. October 4, 2013. Podcast with transcript.
• The Netflix series Narcos: Mexico Season 3 references the murders of the young women working in the maquiladoras as a subplot.

• The documentary Blood Rising (2013) directed by Mark McLoughlin, which examines the phenomenon of femicide in Juárez through the work of an artist, Brian Maguire.[24]
• The film Backyard: El Traspatio (2009), directed by Carlos Carrera, is based on these events.
• The film Bordertown (2007), starring Jennifer Lopez and Antonio Banderas, is based on these murders.
• The film Señorita Extraviada/Missing Young Woman (2001) by Lourdes Portillo, is a documentary following the femicides of Juárez.
• The documentary film Equal Means Equal (2016) directed by Kamala Lopez features a segment on the women of Juárez.
• The documentary film Bajo Juárez: La Ciudad Devorando a Sus Hijas (2006) directed by José Antonio Cordero and Alejandra Sánchez hints at the many layers of political collusion and indifference from local, state and federal authorities.
• The documentary Las tres muertes de Marisela Escobedo (2020) directed by Carlos Pérez Osorio looks the story of a woman in the midst of a tireless struggle to achieve justice and prevent her daughter's femicide from being forgotten in impunity.[25]
• The documentary Flowers of the Desert: Stories from the Red Note (2021) directed by Estefanía Bonilla Hernández and produced by Craig Whitney, looks at the murder and disappearance of women along the border in Ciudad Juarez for the last 25 years, exploring the web of corruption, drug violence and sex trafficking at the root of the crimes.[26]

• Tori Amos wrote a song about these incidents titled "Juárez", for her album To Venus and Back (1999-2000), after reading about them.
• At the Drive-In's song "Invalid Litter Dept." (2001) contains lyrics about the murders.
• Los Tigres del Norte's song "Mujeres de Juárez" discusses the lack of government action in finding the perpetrators.
• The Misfits wrote a song about Juárez titled "Where Do They Go?" from their 2011 album The Devil's Rain. In the lyrics, the incidents are referred to as femicides.
• Gloria Trevi's song "Inmaculada" from her 2007 album Una Rosa Blu was inspired by the murders.
• The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die's song "January 10th, 2014" is about the murders and the vigilante justice that took place in their aftermath.[27]
• Intocable's song "Día 730" has an example that links it to one girl who was going to become famous, but instead became one of the victims for femicide.
• Sheer Mag's song "Can't Stop Fighting," from their third EP, references the phenomenon in its first lines.
• Misty L. Dupuis wrote a choral work in honor of the missing and murdered women of Juárez called Mujeres de Juárez.

• In Roberto Bolaño's novel, 2666 (2004), the murders serve as inspiration for a major section entitled "The Part about the Crimes", although the novel is actually set in "Santa Teresa", a fictionalized version of Ciudad Juárez.
• Alicia Gaspar de Alba's mystery novel, Desert Blood (2005), addresses this topic.[28]
• Each and Her (2010) by Valerie Martinez is a book-length poem that addresses the murders in the context of politics, gender oppression, mythology, art, and more.
• If I Die In Juárez (2008) by Stella Pope Duarte
• In Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues, female homicides in Juárez feature in the monologue "Memory of Her Face".
• Señorita X - Song for the Yellow-Robed Girl from Juárez (2007) by Juan Felipe Herrera
• The Daughters of Juárez: A True Story of Serial Murder South of the Border (2007) by Teresa Rodríguez[29]
• The Way She Spoke by Isaac Gomez
• The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women by Diana Washington Valdez
• Suffering and Salvation in Ciudad Juarez by Nancy Pineda-Madrid reads the feminicide theologically and makes advances on the Catholic soteriology
• Iphigenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell That Was Once Her Heart (a rave fable) by Caridad Svich contains a chorus of murdered girls and directly references Juárez several times.