SYDNEY WOMEN SAY: NO MORE FEMICIDES IN JUAREZ CITY MEXICO!
Sydney women plan to march against femicide on International Women's Day, Saturday 6th of March 2010, as part of a global initiative to raise awareness about the continuing violence and brutality against women in Juarez City, Mexico, and elsewhere. A fundraising concert for the dead women’s families will be held on Saturday 13th March in Paddington.
Artivism, a group of Mexican artists and activists, has called on women around the world to use their creativity to draw public attention to the unsolved rape, mutilation and murder of hundreds of women workers from the maquiladoras or sweatshops that now populate US-Mexican border towns such as Juarez. Most of the victims are young women, between 12 and 22 years of age. Amnesty International documented 370 unsolved murders between 1993 and 2005. ‘Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa A.C.’ (Civil Association for the Return Home of Our Daughters) was set up in 2001 to pressure the Mexican government to intervene and protect the women of Juarez.
This CONVOCATORIA or call is the latest in a decade-long effort to draw international attention to extreme anti-woman violence in Mexico. In 2006, high-profile Hollywood actors Jennifer Lopez and Antonio Banderas lent support to the cause by appearing in Bordertown, Gregory Nava’s movie about femicide in Juarez. Women in USA, Argentina, Canada, Spain and Australia have now joined the campaign.
Sydney Action For Juarez (SAfJ)
SAfJ was formed in December 2009 to raise awareness amongst the Australian public of the plight of the women of Juarez, and to encourage wide participation in artistic, media and political advocacy activities that draw global attention and seek solutions to the problem of femicide. SAfJ also seeks to fundraise and send monies to support the dead women’s families, through the organization, ‘Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa A.C.
We REMEMBER the victims of the violence. We DENOUNCE the Mexican Government’s inaction, incompetence and cover-ups that allow the violence to continue. We DEMAND the perpetrators be brought to justice. We EXPRESS our solidarity with the Mexican women who have organised, held marches, planted pink crosses in the killing fields and who continue the struggle for an end to the violence and impunity.
Please support SAfJ’s efforts by participating in any of the following activities:
· make a donation of $20
· participate in the banner making; pink cross making; altar making
· participate in political lobbying
· come to the IWD march (6/03/10) and bring four friends
· come to the concert (13/03/10)
To make a donation and/or receive updates on our activities please contact:
Rosarela T: 02 9698 9949 E: rosarela@hotmail.com
Liliana T: 0450 376672 E: mar_decobo@hotmail.com
Background Information
FEMICIDE IN MEXICO
The Mexican city of Juarez, which has a population of some 1.3 million people, sits just across the US-Mexican border from the Texan town of El Paso. Its economy is largely based on maquiladoras, or factories that import materials and equipment from the USA on a duty-free and tariff-free basis for assembly or manufacturing and then re-export the assembled product back to the USA. Maquiladoras have proliferated in the US-Mexico border region since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. Most maquiladora workers are young women. Hours of work are long and working conditions are poor. Most of the Juarez femicides have been maquiladora workers.
Juarez is also a key site in the cocaine smuggling route into the US. It is believed that the rape, mutilation and murder of women forms part of grisly initiation rites for members of the powerful Juarez drug cartel.
Commentators differ as to the number of women who have been murdered in Juarez since 1993, but most would agree that it is over 400. Typically, victims are reported missing, with their bodies found days or months later, abandoned in vacant lots, outlying areas of the town or in the surrounding desert. In most cases there are signs of sexual violence, abuse, torture and sometimes mutilation. Many women are still missing, presumed murdered.
The Mexican government has shown itself to be incapable of stopping the violence. Very few perpetrators have been brought to justice and the killings continue. In at least one case, that of David Meza, torture has been used to extract confessions from the innocent. This failure to act decisively, reflecting indifference towards rape and murder, coexists with and has perhaps contributed to a generalised spread of violence across Mexico.
Mothers of the victims have taken the lead in searching the ‘killing fields’ for their daughters, denouncing the violence and seeking justice. The main group is Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (‘May our daughters return home’), which has held public protests, marches and other events to publicise the Juarez femicides and promote respect for women’s human rights and an end to the killing. Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa was founded by the mother of 17-year-old maquiladora worker, Lilia Alejandra García Andrade, who in 2001 was abducted and tortured over five days before being strangled and her body dumped in a vacant lot.
Further information (English and Spanish) about the group Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa:
http://www.mujeresdejuarez.org/
Artivism is a Mexico City-based group of independent activist artists. Events for the women of Juarez will also be held in March 2010 in Mexico, the USA, Canada, Argentina and Europe. Further information about the Artivism initiative:
Spanish: http://unaoracionporjuarez.blogspot.com/
Further general information about the femicides of Juarez:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_homicides_in_Ciudad_Juárez