Last Tuesday, Maria Esther Valerio was found dead in a lot in the southwest area of the city. She is the 29th woman to be killed in Juarez this year. On the same day, the police chief of the city was replaced by Guillermo Prieto, who served in the same position some time ago. Yeah, that should help.
Although I use sarcasm to hide how dispirited I am over the 400 plus Juarez women who have been murdered over the past decade, a wee bit of hope is coming to El Paso during the first week of December. The National Organization for Women’s (NOW) board is scheduled to meet December 2nd, 3rd and 4th for a discussion of what action they are going to take in response to the murders.
El Paso’s NOW chapter is also in the works of restarting as well; hopefully this will help lead the people of Juarez out of this shit storm of injustice. If you’re in the area (or not) and interested in getting involved, email nowborderlands@gmail.com.
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Questions from/for the ignorant (me):
Is the number of women being killed disproportionate to the number of men being killed?
Are the deaths of women not being investigated and killers being brought to justice when the deaths of men are?
Are the deaths of the women typically in conjunction with some form of sexual assault?
Just trying to get some context. There is another border town where it seemed the drug dealers were literally just about killing everyone, with shootouts in upper scale neighborhoods. The police chief quit and the only person brave (stupid?) enough to take the job was killed within about an hour of being sworn in. Don't think gender factored much into those killings. Just wondered if the situation in Juarez was different.