Killing Women for Sport
Trip Start
Nov 25, 2006
1
71
103
Trip End
Ongoing
Juarez, Mexico
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Over 400 women have been abducted, abused, tortured, and murdered in Juarez since 2001 in conditions fueled by drugs, syndicates, and police and government corruption. Their lives apparently aren't worth bothering with; authorities avert their eyes as the wealthy and powerful prey on women, abduct them in broad daylight from downtown Juarez and toss their mutilated bodies all over the city.
"The best information we have is that these men are committing crimes simply for the sport of it. The authorities know who the killers are, and nothing's being done about it," summarizes Diana Washington Valdez, a local journalist, who has relentlessly tracked this story and published it in The Killing Fields--Harvest of Women. An appalling and disturbing account, it changes the way I feel about walking around the Border. Not "old news," murder statistics are even higher in 2008, a year just six weeks old.
![before memorial to slain woman [photo:NPR]](http://images.travelpod.com/users/billiegreenwood/borderexplorer.1203221160.before-memorial-to-slain-woman-xphotoxnprx.jpg)
You can click on the Amnesty link above & sign the petition. Rent Bordertown. Or rent Border Echoes, the documentary on Diand Vashington Valdez's work. Read her book or blog. Visit The Juarez Project's website. We can't allow this to continue. If we don't act to stop it, how are we any better than the corrupt politicos who look the other way?
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time-sensitive update: click here for a Feb '08 TV news video on the Juarez femicides. Watch it for the interview of Diana Washington Vadez. I'll have to remove this link when the station removes the video. Thanks for not turning your eyes away from this evil.
Comments
Thank you for writing this entry. Truly a very moving story about a terrible situation.