The bad side of Juarez: Female homicides in Ciudad Juárez

Unfortunately, over the last years, Ciudad Juarez became quite (in)famous because of the large number of unsolved female homicides. Apparently I have to tell you about this, and definately I'm not proud (or even close) of this.

So when in Ciudad Juarez, you talk about the female homicides , you're talking about a series of murders that add up to 460 murders and 600 missing persons, sin 1993. The worst part about this is that there's little information of motives or even being close to finding the person responsible for them.

For some time, the supposed murderer was "The Egyptian" Abdel Latiff Shariff, and he was caught in 1995 and arrested. As of 1999 he is supposed to be spending 20 years in prison for his crimes (although I think he's dead now), however this murders continued after he was arrested.

Among the persons and organizations that have helped on the investigation we can find the Mexican Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR), the American FBI, Several foreign investigators and Criminalists and other organizations.

According to the Organization of American States's Inter-American Commission on Human Rights:
    The victims of these crimes have preponderantly been young women, between 17 and 22 years of age. Many were students, and most were maquiladora [workers in foreign owned factories]. A number were relative newcomers to Ciudad Juarez who had migrated from other areas of Mexico. The victims were generally reported missing by their families, with their bodies found days or months later abandoned in vacant lots or outlying areas. In most of these cases there were signs of sexual violence, abuse, torture or in some cases mutilation.

As of August 2006, the investigation of these murders has ended, because the government decided to drop it. These crimes continue unsolved, sadly enough.