Families of Murdered Juarez Women Call for Justice for Corrupt Officials Jo Tuckman - The Guardian
go to original July 21, 2015

Mothers of missing women hold white balloons in the shape of doves, during a protest outside a court in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. (Reuters)

Relatives of 11 women and girls who were murdered after being forced into prostitution in the border city of Ciudad Juárez have welcomed the conviction of five men over the crimes, but said that prosecutors should now pursue the gang’s leaders – and the corrupt officials who enabled the violence.

A three-month trial exposed how the ring systematically abducted, enslaved, and murdered women between at least 2009 and 2011, even as thousands of federal police and soldiers were deployed to the Mexican city to confront warring drug cartels. The court heard that the gang regularly paid off corrupt police officers and soldiers, who sometimes participated in the sexual exploitation of the women.

The trial recalled the murder of hundreds of women 15 years ago that made the city infamous and prompted numerous – unfulfilled – official promises to address the epidemic of femicide.

“Justice has been done in relation to these men, but they were small fry,” said Norma Laguna, the mother of one of the victims named in the trial. “There were many more people involved who had the power and the money to make the authorities shut up about this for many years.”

Read the rest at The Guardian

Related: Women in Mexico Rally Against Rampant Domestic Violence (Al Jazeera)

Related: Murdering Mexican Women with Impunity (Al Jazeera)

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