Femicide: Violence against women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Introduction
Melina Ponte, MA in International Crime & Justice
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY
ICJ 715: Research Methods in International Crime & Justice
Professor: Katarzyna Celinska, Ph.D.
Fall 2017
Running head: Femicide: violence against women in ciudad juarez, mexico
Femicide: violence against women in ciudad juarez, mexico
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Abstract
This research proposal will examine the ongoing problem on Femicide in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. In this proposal the research will present the biggest problem that the government of Mexico is facing toward this unstoppable crime against women. How the machismo[footnoteRef:1] culture of Mexico and the incompetence of state and federal authorities to work in a
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(2006). Murder in Ciudad Juarez. Violence Against Women, 12(5), 417-440
Fregoso, R. L. (2000). Voices Without Echo: The Global Gendered Apartheid. Emergences: Journal for the Study of Media & Composite Cultures, 10(1), 137-155
Leal, L. G. (2008). Combating Impunity and Femicide in Ciudad Juarez. NACLA Report on the Americas 41(3), 31-33
Ravelo Blancas, P. (2005). La Costumbre de Matar: proliferacion de la violencia en Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Nueva Antropologia 20(65), 149-166 [ The custom of killing proliferation of violence in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico]
Resumen Ejecutivo: La violencia femicide en Mexico, aproximaciones y tendencias 1985-2014. SEGOB. Retrieved from http://www.gob.mx/segob [Executive Summary: The femicide violence in Chihuahua, Mexico approaches and trends 1985-2014]
Romero Inchaustegui, T., Barajas Lopez, M.P. & Echarri, C. (2013). Violencia Femicida en Mexico. Caracteristicas, tendencias y nuevas expressions en las entidades federativas 1989-2010. Retrieved from http://www.unwomen.org/es/digital-library/publications/2013/2/violence-and-femicide-in-mexico [femicide violence in Mexico. Characteristics, trends and new expressions in the federal
In the Documentary “Mexico’s Drug Cartel War”, it displays a systematic approach of drugs and violence. The Drug War has been going on since the United States had a devastating impact on Mexico after the recession where it nearly doubled its interest payments. Mexico could not afford the interest payments but did have many agricultural imports. This created the trade between the United States and the land owned by the two million farmers. It spread the slums to Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez to work in maquiladoras (assembly plants just across the border) (Jacobin, 2015). This paper will focus on explaining how drugs are related to violence in Mexico, how drug enforcement policies influence the relationship between drugs and violence, and how battle for control in their own country.
Introduction The exponential growth of gangs in the Northern Triangle countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras) has led to an epidemic of violence across the region. The two largest and most formidable gangs in the Northern Triangle, the Mara Salvatrucha-13 (MS-13) and the Barrio 18, wage battles against one another to control territory and defend against incursions. In 2011, Honduras led the world in homicides, with 91.6 per 100,000 people; rates were also alarmingly high in El Salvador and Guatemala, at 69.1 and 38.5 per 100,000 people, respectively. In El Salvador, a country with a population of only 6.2 million people, 4,354 were the victims of homicide in 2011 alone, with the Catholic Church estimating that more than 1,300 of these deaths were the direct result of gang violence. To counteract the growth of the gang phenomenon, during the 2000s the Northern Triangle countries favored a mano dura (iron fist) approach to dealing with the increasing belligerence of gangs.
Femicide is violence and hate towards women due to the extreme aggressive machismo, gender inequalities and discrimination, and economic disempowerment embedded in Latino culture (Prieto-Carron, 26). To put differently, femicide is an epidemic that has occurred for years in Latino countries, but is more prevalent today due to the systematic corruption in society and media coverage. For instance, in the poem this issue is expressed when I assert “I watch for my sisters. I grieve for those who have been raped and killed, only to be forgotten and marginalized” (Line 15-16). To clarify, many women in Central America are killed due to this gender-based violence that is historically linked to the colonial period, when the Europeans categorized women inferior to men. This patriarchal mentality is instituted to many systems that it becomes normalize and ignored. According Mariana Prieto-Carron, who analyzes femicide in Central American countries, states, “those in power, both in the household and in state institutions, can exert greater control over women’s behavior and mobility” (Prieto-Carron, 30). In other words, this is a form of social-control from the elite in order to regulate women and keep them from going against hegemonic patriarchal society. These social constructs are restraining women from social mobility and freedom. Correspondingly, when I
National data gives us an indication of the severity of this issue. When 1 in 5-woman report being victims of severe physical violence (NISVS, 2010), we must ask ourselves if enough is being done to prevent this from occurring. From a historical point, there has always almost been a distinction from men on woman violence. Based on the disparity of cases reported, male inflicted violence on females is much higher and prevalent. When the perpetrators of DV, and IPV are predominately males, we can no longer dismissed this issue as a cultural, or
According to confirmed murder statistics by the Mexican government, cartel and prostitute violence has been linked to more than 179,000 murders since 2006. There have been few atrocities reported on the news about their ruthless acts in several states of Mexico. A prime example of their ruthlessness is when they kidnap a person, chop off body parts, and send the severed parts to the victim's families for no apparent reason. Although their organization began in Mexico, members are located all over the world including the United States where
An overwhelming number of murders of women have not been clarified or resolved in our country, so that these offenses remain in impunity. Impunity of femicide in Guatemala is due to:
Domestic violence involves the systematic use of force, threats and intimidation by one partner upon another in order for the dominating partner to have control over the victim. In general, women who are abused physically are often isolated. Their partners tend to control their lives to a great extent as well as verbally degrade them. Even though the Latina women are particularly vulnerable to domestic violence because of their culture, it does not mean that this situation does not exist in other societies. Domestic violence happens in all races, religions and social statuses. It could appear in any family and in order to prevent it, everyone in the society must have knowledge of the problem, and try to contribute to stop it. There are many reasons why Latina women that have been abused by their husbands do not ask for help or call the police. The most common ones are the cultural background, the language barrier, and the fear they have of being alone. In the Latin culture there is the belief that when a woman gets married, she should obey he...
For this paper, I will be considering the intersection between women in the United States of America and Mexico, in regard to the status of drug treatment in each country, and the roles that it plays in these women’s lives through a feministic perspective. Further, I will be discussing how gender is in direct juxtaposition to the outcomes of drug treatments in both countries, in regard to the base of the models used to treat. Another key issue in regard to the status of treatment is the notion of the Other, with special consideration to women. Whereby in this sense, I am defining the Other, as implying a double standard set of stigma to the female, not only as the “gendered” other, but further, into the Other as seen as a drug abuser/addict, which plays an important role in treatment as well, and especially when considering further role obligations that are attachments to women’s live, such as having and/or caring for children. Finally, it is imperative to consider these issues under a veil of feminism, for women are not equal in either country, and there is a need to understand some of the social constrictors that are unique to women, before we can expect there to be meaningful drug treatment outcomes.
The statistics available on violence against women are startling. Domestic violence is the major cause of death and disability for European women ages 16 to 44 and accounts for more deaths and injuries than automobile accidents and cancer. The Russian government estimates that over 14,000 women were killed by family members in 1999, but there is still no legislation that specifically addresses domestic violence. In South Africa, more women are shot in the home by relatives than are shot on the streets or by intruders (web.amnesty.org).
They each control various cities in Mexico and along the US-Mexican border. For the sake of this report, the Gulf cartel will be discussed. The Gulf cartel is one of the major organized crime organizations in Mexico whose prime interest is drug trafficking, with their main operations in Nuevo Laredo, Miguel Alemán, Reynosa, and Matamoros (Brophy, 2008). Although the Gulf cartel is powerful enough with their large numbers of followers, places of operation, and weapons, they also work together with another group called the Zetas. The Zetas can be classified as mafia style group that specializes in one type of commodity, and in this case, the commodity is protection (Brophy, 2008). They defend the Gulf cartel and their territory, as well as act as their hitmen and assassins, and engage in kidnapping, trafficking arms, money-laundering, drug dealing, and collecting payments (Brophy, 2008). With both of these powerful groups controlling many parts of Mexico, the drug trafficking community is intense, violent, and the cities often suffer dire consequences when in conflict with the groups. The illegality of the drug trade has largely to do with the extreme amount of violence when it comes to feuding drug cartels and law enforcement (Brophy, 2008). The Gulf cartel and the Zetas are not only powerful due to their weapons and violence, but they have a great mount of influence as well, especially though politics, and this will be discussed further in the report. With the Gulf cartel being but one of many threats in Mexico, the country is also affected in many others ways not only by the cartels, but by the United States as
According to Angelari, Marguerite (1997), “this is a technical term used to collectively refer to violent acts that are primarily or exclusively committed against women. Similar to a hate crime, which it is sometimes considered, this type of violence targets a specific group with the victim's gender as a primary motive”. This means that these violence acts are specifically directed to women in our society. Examples of the types of violence against women are: financial, emotional, physical, social and sexual violence. According to Prugl, E (2013), “forms of violence perpetrated by individuals are rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, coercive use of contraceptives, female infanticide, prenatal sex selection, obstetric violence, harmful customary or traditional practices such as honor killings, dowry violence, female genital mutilation, marriage by abduction and forced marriage.”
The media does not report on the everyday lives of ordinary people living in drug trafficking communities because the media is concerned with coverage of famous drug lord who use violent tactics on innocent people to protect their drug trafficking endeavors. In order to study a particular culture like narco culture, it is important to understand that every individual has a distinct role within the culture and it cannot be examined solely on several individuals from one social class. After reading the ethnography, I realized that one of the reasons Muehlemann conducted research on narco culture was to focus specifically on the economic opportunities available in the drug trafficking industry based on gender differences. Women are not represented in narco culture as much as men in the media. However, it is important to understand that women in narco culture have important roles in the drug trafficking industry. Women associated with narco culture are more economically and emotionally vulnerable than men. This vulnerability is due to the high rates of incarceration and deaths of males. Coming from a traditional Mexican household, I learned that men are often the economic provider for their families. Women who lose their husbands or any male kin will lose their main source of income and
Assessing government efforts became very difficult. It’s difficult to get the government’s support when some traffickers are willing to become victims. Prosecutors need the help of the government to win trafficking cases. The Mexico government issued forced regulations for the 2012 anti-trafficking law. According to state.gov “continued to operate a secured shelter in the capital for female sex trafficking victims involved in the legal process against their traffickers.” The government is trying to come up with the best prevention activities and ideas. According to state.gov “It was difficult to receive government efforts to identify and help victims and to look into prosecuting trafficking cases, as data collection on victim identification and law enforcement efforts was uneven.
Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. "Violence Against Women." Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. 5th ed. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 263-64. Print.
Tjaden, P., Thoennes, N. (2000b). Full report of the prevalence, incidence, and consequences of violence against women: Findings from the Violence Against Women Survey. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.