'War on Women' in Mexico Described as Growing Worse Diana Washington Valdez - El Paso Times
go to original April 9, 2012

Memorial honoring murdered and missing women of Juarez, Mexico. (One In Three Women)

Violence against women in Mexico grew worse during the country's war against the drug cartels, according to the preliminary findings of a recent fact-finding delegation led by two Nobel laureates.

The delegation from the Nobel Women's Initiative also found that the same trend of violence against women holds true for Honduras and Guatemala, where Mexico-based drug-trafficking organizations have extended their operations.

"The war on drugs and increased militarization in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala is becoming a war on women," said Jody Williams, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work to ban land mines.

"The government's efforts to improve 'security' in the region have directly resulted in insecurity for civilian populations, and most especially, for women," she said.

The Canada-based Nobel Women's Initiative has followed the evolution of violence against women in Juárez.

Mexican government statistics show that the homicides of women in Juárez increased dramatically in recent years: 23 in 2006, 27 in 2007, 117 in 2008 and 306 in 2009.

In Juárez, the war between two rival drug cartels began in 2008. Part of the government's response was to periodically deploy hundreds of soldiers and federal agents to the border city.

Williams and Rigoberta Menchú Tum led the fact-finding delegation, which visited the three countries in January. Menchú won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 for defending the rights of indigenous people in Guatemala.

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