ABSTRACT
The following extracts are taken from the 2003 Amnesty International report, “Intolerable Killings: 10 years of abductions and murders of women in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua:”
Over 370 women murdered, at least 137 of them after being sexually assaulted—this is the harsh reality of the violence which women and teenage girls of Chihuahua state have been subjected to since 1993, according to reports received by Amnesty International. In addition, over 70 young women are still missing, according to the authorities, though Mexican non-governmental organizations say the figure is over 400. The response of the authorities over the past ten years has been to treat the different offences as ordinary acts of violence committed within the private domain, without recognizing the existence of a continuing pattern of violence against women, the origins of which are more deeply rooted in discrimination. The fact that the authorities, both within the state of Chihuahua and at the federal level, have been unwilling to recognize the extent of the pattern of violence against women and to implement effective policies for dealing with it, has meant that Chihuahuan society has been left without the protection it deserves while the families who have lost daughters, mothers and sisters have been left without an effective judicial remedy.
[ … ] “Women who have a night life, go out late at night and come into contact with drinkers are at risk. It’s hard to go out on the street when it’s raining and not get wet” (Arturo González Rascón, Former Procurador de Justicia del Estado, El Diario de Juárez, 24 February 1999). 1
