Stop Violence Against Women
Appeal Cases: Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua
The five cases featured here describe the circumstances surrounding a small number of the murders in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua -- and they illustrate the ways the Mexican authorities have failed the hundreds of women who have been murdered or "disappeared." Each appeal case includes the addresses of the relevant authorities and suggestions for letter-writing and other activities.
Please join us in demanding justice for the victims and protection for Mexican women.
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Failure to Respond to Crime Reports:
At 10.15 pm on 19 February 2001, people living near waste ground close to a maquila in
Ciudad Juárez dialed 060, the municipal police emergency number, to inform them that an
apparently naked young woman was being beaten and raped by two men in a car.
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Unjustified Delays:
Silvia Arce and Griselda Mares went missing at 2.30 in the morning of 12 March 1998 after
leaving their jobs at a night bar in Ciudad Juárez. Workmates last saw them with three men in
a car which, thanks to eyewitness statements, was identified by the authorities in the course of
the investigation.
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Contradictory Forensic Examinations:
On 6 and 7 November 2001 the bodies of eight women were found in a former cotton field opposite the offices of the Association of Maquiladoras for Ciudad Juárez, in the middle of the city.
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Falsifying Evidence:
On 3 March 2002 the mother of 16-year-old Paloma Angìlica Escobar Ledesma, a worker at
the Aerotec maquila in the city of Chihuahua, reported her daughter missing ... That same day, Commander Gloria
Cobos Ximello, Head of the Sexual Offences Unit of the State Public Prosecutor's Office
(PGJE) in Chihuahua was put in charge of the investigation.
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Criminal Investigations Refused:
Rosalba Pizarro Ortega, aged 16, Julieta Marleng González Valenzuela, aged 17, Yesenia
Concepciòn Vega Márquez, aged 16, and Minerva Torres Abeldaúo, aged 18, went missing in
the city of Chihuahua between February and March 2001. They did not know each other. But many clues and testimonies would seem to establish links between the four cases.
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