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Ashley Burke, Sydney, Nova Scotia:

The women that have been murdered, were they employees of a sweat shop and if so what company owned it?

From AI volunteer Helga Arnadottir, who researched this question:

Dear Ashley,

Thank you for your question.

According to Amnesty International's report, Intolerable Killings: Ten years of Abductions and Murders in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua, 32% of the murdered or missing women were employees of so-called maquiladoras at the time of their murder. But the assailants have also targeted waitresses, students or women working in the informal economy.

Maquiladoras are assembly plants for export products set up by multinational companies. Many multinational companies have maquiladoras in Ciudad Juarez, where there they can hire cheap labor, taxes are low or non-existent, they enjoy political patronage and the level of regulation is at minimum. Maquiladoras that employed women who have been murdered include CENECO, Mallinckrodt Medical, Motores Electricos, Electromex, LEAR 173, Admeco, FASCO and Venusa. Around eighty members of the Fortune 500 do business in the Ciudad Juarez area. Alcoa, General Electric, Du Pont, Ford, Thomson RCA, Honeywell, 3M, Amway, TDK and Kenwood are among the companies operating there.