Justice for Women

Mothers on the Mexican Border Fight Back Against Murder

Speaker Patricia Cervantes, from Chihuahua City, Mexico will present “Justice for Women on the Border, Stop Femicide!” at 12 noon on Monday, October 2, in the UMD Kirby Ballroom. The event is sponsored by the Hispanic/Latino/Chicana Learning Resource Center, the UMD Latino/Chicana Student
Association and UMD Women's Resource and Action Center.

Since 1993, almost 450 unsolved femicides, murders of women, have taken place in the cities of Juarez and Chihuahua City, Mexico. Patricia Cervantes and others in the group, Justice for Our Daughters, have made accusations of police corruption. In the case of the disappearance of Cervantes' daughter Neyra in May 2003, it is possible the police tampered with her remains to make their story fit.

Most of the women who are missing or have been found murdered, were working in assembly plants called Maquiladoras. With so many women missing, there might be dozens of different crimes. It is possible that women have been kidnapped and taken to the U.S. or other countries. The police, the factory management, and bus drivers, all have been accused of being part of the murders. Mutilated and raped bodies have been found in the nearby desert. Photo above: Patricia Cervantes.

The murders have become a major embarrassment in Mexico. "The Mexican government, by not investigating these murders, has sent a message to men -- not only in Juarez, but all over the world -- that you can kill a woman on the U.S.-Mexico border and get away with it," says Cervantes.
The mothers in the group, Justice for Our Daughters, understand that the murders may never be solved but they want them to stop and they want to know the truth.

For information contact Susana Pelayo-Woodward at 218-726-8444 or swoodwar@d.umn.edu.

NOTE: UMD Amnesty International is sponsoring a virtual National Guantanamo teach-in which will be simulcast to colleges and universities around the country from Seton Hall Law School. The National Guantanamo Virtual Teach-in will take place Thursday, October 5, 2006 from 10 a.m. -4:30 p.m. in Kirby Plaza 173.

Written by Cheryl Reitan and Hannah Kroll

UMD home page editor, Cheryl Reitan, creitan@d.umn.edu
NEW RELEASES, UMD media contact, Susan Latto, slatto@d.umn.edu, 218-726-8830