1. Setting 2. Maquiladoras and Mexico 3. Violence against women 4. Impunity 5. Actions

Setting  Ciudad Juárez doubled in size ; current population 1.3 million, but perhaps as much as 2 million. Growth outstrips infrastructure. Forty percent of population are migrants. Distortions if US observers talk of Ciudad Juárez as "the other."  Rootless, rapid growth connected to border functions as transit route, cross-border commerce/entertainment (licit and illicit including narcotics), and home to around 300 maquiladora plants. Largest maquiladora location on border in output and employment (approx. 250,000 workers).  Electronics, transportation equipment, and textiles account for about three-quarters of Mexican maquiladora output.

Maquiladora industry and Mexico  Dependent capitalist industrialization. Need for manufactured exports. Maquiladora industry produces close to half of Mexico's exports.  Rapid growth of northern border maquiladora industry after creation of Border Industrialization Program in 1965 and inauguration of NAFTA in  Investors heavily US capital. Distant corporate ownership of largest plants. No responsibility for developing community infrastructure or social services. Recent large losses of maquiladora jobs to East Asia. Relatively low technological transfer. Low wage basis. Today about 50 percent female employment.

Violence Against Women  Family violence, runaways, sex trafficking, and other patterns of violence against women. Ciudad Juárez and now Chihuahua, Chih. seem unique in terms of high level of reported killings, disappeared, mutilations, and other forms of violence. Amnesty International (Sept 2003): Chihuahua state, , over 370 women murdered; at least 137 of them sexually assaulted; over 70 missing according to authorities, perhaps 400 according to non-governmental organizations.  Discourse of "blaming the victims" for feminicidio. Reverse discourse in case of Cancún. Active work by women's organizations and human rights groups in Ciudad Juárez over this issue. Distortions of abstract "disposable people" and "model of globalization" type of rhetoric. Discrimination of class and gender. Victims young, pretty, dark-skinned, and of modest to poor economic circumstances.

Impunity  No punishment and accountability. Major test of more open electoral system's ability to bring human rights into meaningful reality.  Use of torture and other disreputable techniques. Negligence, ineptitude, and willful blindness. Weak lower and middle-level institutions in the criminal justice system. Lack of public confidence. High-level denial and cover-up. Federal/state dynamics.  Whole sectors of public life beyond accountability: narcotraffickers, maquiladoras, sin/entertainment industries.  Varieties of supposed causes.

Actions Justicia para Nuestras Hijas Casa Amiga Comité Fronterizo de Obreras Amnesty International