The murder and mutilation of a woman in Ciudad Juarez is not unusual… in fact, the murder of anyone in Ciudad Juarez is not unusual.
With some 300 murders out of a population of 1.4 millions in 2007, these rose by 500% for 2008 with a compounded 60% rise in 2009. New figures for 2010 show that there were over 3,100 murders, almost all of which can be attributed to turf-battles between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels.
Before the upsurge in the narco-wars, the murder of Juarense women had been well-above the national average for over a decade. Beyond the usual domestic murders and those of prostitutes by their pimps, there was as much as one third of ‘femicides’ either unexplained or linked to one or more unidentified Rippers.
Almost exactly 18 years ago, on 23 January 1993, the body of 13 year old Alma Chavira Farel was found on the city outskirts having been horribly raped. Since then, between hundreds (by official records) and thousands (by anecdotal and NGO reports) sexual murders have occurred as the city descended into a murderously misogynistic malestrom.
A recent victim was 17 year old Rubi Escobedo whose dismembered and burnt remains were found in rubbish bins in July 2009. Her boyfriend, Sergio Barraza was arrested for and confessed to the murder, as well as being suspected of being a member of the Los Zetas drugs-gang.
In April 2010, a still-unsubstantiated decision by three judges led to his released. Her mother, Marisela Escobedo Ortiz launched a campaign to have him re-arrested which, in December, moved onto a vigil outside the state prosecutor’s office.
Three days later, she was shot dead at the site of her vigil by three men assumed to be led by Barraza: the family-owned lumber yard also has been burned down.
This week saw another murder that linked drug and sexual violence with terrible coincidence, as 36 year old Susana Chavez was found strangled and with one hand hacked-off.
A poet and community activist who popularized the phrase “Ni una muerta mas” (“Not one more death”; chanted by outraged crowds after Escobedo Ortiz’ murder), her murder is not thought to have been a cartel-backed hit. Instead, three 17 year old men have been confessed to carrying out the murder in a drug-induced frenzy after she rebuffed their advances by claiming to be Police.
