Introduction
There are various forms of human conflicts. The causes of these human conflicts vary. They include gender, tribal, and racial conflicts. Conflict between genders is a key theme in literature.
However, gender violence concerning females during the time of war or other circumstances of dispute and conflict is a matter of utmost importance. Naturally, men seek to have superiority over the females.
In extreme conditions, they adopt violence as a way of suppressing the women. This assures total frustration of women so that they willingly submit to the men. During war, men accomplish this by raping, using physical torture and murder. In some countries, this behavior becomes an issue of national concern.
For example, the death of women in Ciudad Juarez is one of the most tragic phenomena that the world experiences in term of gender violence to women. It is a condition that the authorities finds difficult to control and maintain. The Spanish refers to the female homicide taking place in Juarez as Femicide.
In this homicide, serial murderers have been killing women in the city since 1993. Ciudad Juarez is a town which is in the northern parts of Mexico at the border of Rio Grande and El Paso. Researchers estimate the number of deaths to about five thousand people.
This phenomenon has attracted some international attention due to the perception that the government of Mexico has remained indifferent and reluctant to solving the situation. International bodies have a perception that the authorities play a significant role in promoting gender violence against women in Ciudad Juarez.
Nature of Victims
There is evidence which suggest that the nature of women targeted in Juarez has certain similarities. Investigators say that most victims are laborers of Maquiladora and students. Most women share physical similar appearances. Most victims share physical similar appearances.
The murderers torture and mutilate the victims before killing them. The statistics of female homicide remains conflicting. There are different reports with varying statistics about the number of murders. As a result, the Amnesty International gives insufficient data concerning the committed crimes in Chihuahua.
This Femicide has raised conflicts around it blocking the pursuit for justice. Amnesty international argues out that, by February 2005, the murders exceeded three hundred and seventy in Ciudad Juarez.
Prosecutors from Chihuahua suggested that, by the year 2010, organized gangs killed about two hundred and seventy ladies in that state. Out of the two hundred and seventy murders, two hundred and forty seven of them came from Juarez.
In his report, Carlos Manuel Salas reported that there were two hundred and twenty two murders since the month of January to August of the same year. In total, the gangs killed over three hundred females in Mexico.
It is thus exceptionally clear the number of murders happening in Ciudad Juarez is higher than those happening in other cities of Mexico and U.S.A (Alba 2005).
Perpetrators
The properties of the perpetrators, the relationship they have to the victims and their motives remain uncertain. This uncertainty is due to the unjust system of government in Mexico which does not allow adequate investigation and documentation of the crimes.
Literature attributes the murders to patriarchal buckles that operate against working females. It considers this as a potential reason for the killings. In this case, women employment has challenged the opportunities available for men.
This raises conflict between the genders. Some researchers attribute the killings to the Mexican crisis in their structure. These crises include poverty migration, poverty and injustice.
Traditions also purport gender violence against females in Ciudad as a way of dominating, controlling, suppressing and excising power over women (Foweraker and Ann 1990).
Murders to Murders
As a matter of fact, there exists intensive violence against women in Ciudad than any other city in Mexico. This violence has led to many negative effects to the city of Ciudad Juarez. These include unnecessary migration, existence of orphans among many others (Morris 2009).
As human beings, the world expects the city of Juarez learn from their mistakes. However, the behavior is spreading and increasing in other parts of Mexico and U.S.A. This spread is as a result of the pre-existing femicide in Ciudad Juarez.
In other words, the murder of women in Juarez has encouraged and supported the growth of this problem in the society in various ways. These ways attach on the factors that contribute to femicide in Ciudad Juarez. These factors when combined with the femicide contribute to the spread of the problem.
Suppressing Women
To begin with, men in the society consider violence against women as a way of oppressing and dominating them. This is a traditional methodology that elevates men above women. As a matter of fact, this has certainly managed to suppress women in Juarez.
The men in Juarez can, therefore, consider this methodology as a suitable tool of obtaining superiority. In the literature, it researches prove that humans tend to take up the behaviors of those they relate and socialize with in the society. They also tend to copy and emulate what they see in other people especially if it is favoring them.
Consequently, men in the society view this as a tested and approved methodology of suppressing the females in the society. This has supported the spreading of this problem the society. We can, therefore, conclude that Juarez has set a poor example to the society.
International Shame
It is, also, evident that the authority of Mexico considers this homicide as an international shame to the country. As a result, the government, therefore, obscure investigations concerning the murders and the victims affected by the gender violence against women, in Ciudad.
In addition, it neglects the pursuit for justice by family members and relatives who lose their loved ones. They do this in a bid to prevent the international intervention in the matter which would consider them as unable to protect and guard their citizens against gender violence.
As a result, the murderers take advantage of this condition and increase the killings. It also allows sufficient freedom for the killers to expand and spread to other areas in the society.
In fact, there are several rulings by international bodies against the government of Mexico challenging their indifference, insufficient response to the matter in question and the rising cases of murder that the country experiences.
The international bodies assert that the government reluctance and exhibition of tolerance to such crimes contributes to spread and growth of the murders. In addition, it is quite ironical that while hundreds of killings have happened in the country the police have convicted a negligible number of people.
Many questions have emerged challenging the integrity and method of investigations carried out in the administrative system. The corruption exhibited by the Mexican government has set a poor example to the society.
The neglect by the government to curbing gender violence in Juarez has played a significant role to the spread of the problem.
Authority Supporting Gender Violence
Ironically enough, the policemen whom the society expects to offer security involve themselves in the gender violence that gangs launch against women. They practice the abuse of power in their line of duty. A woman by the name Espiona suggests that the chief has given the police some powers that they should not have.
She has a firsthand experience of power abuse. She says that, during one night, she received orders to enter into her car by policemen pointing guns at her. Afterwards, the police commander got into her car and made some sexual advances with her.
She says that she experiences emotional setbacks over the sexual harassment that happened to her. In this case, the authority, which we expect to protect the citizens from gender violence, involves itself in propagating the violence. As a result, this supports the growth of gender violence in society.
Preventing Media Overage
The government of Mexico makes a lot of efforts to prevent the coverage of gender violence in Ciudad Juarez by the media (Ruvalcaba and Ignacio 2010). As a result, international authorities cannot identify the frustrating crimes against humanity.
The citizens in other parts of the society are unable to learn from the crimes happening in Ciudad. The media are does not get a chance to warn people against such happenings. It is also unable to counsel the killers to refrain from such actions. This total public ignorance about violence against women makes the society remain ignorant about its existence.
They, therefore, take less or no measures of safety against it. Consequently, the people behind it get a better chance to propagate it in the society and hence its growth.
Spread of Drug Trafficking
It is also evident that the drug traffickers influence abductions and killings that take place in Ciudad Juarez (Watt and Roberto 2012). In the modern society, drugs and drug trafficking is one of the most challenging matters. It is spreading and getting popular every day.
Drug traffickers have expanded at an extremely high rate. Most expectedly, when the drug traffickers expand their territories they also spread the other immoral behaviors that they have. In this case, the drug cartels encourage abduction and killing of females directing a lot of violence to the Mexican population.
When the drug cartels are expanding their territories, they encourage the spread of female violence in society. Drug trafficking and governmental reluctance propagate the society to adopt the culture of gender violence.
In addition, gender violence that the drug cartels have exhibited in Ciudad Juarez has encouraged other drug cartels in the society to engage the same behavior. Gender violence in Ciudad Juarez is also as a result of organized gangs and robbers on the border.
In fact, an investigation carried out in Colegio de la Frontera suggests that 9.1% of the killings of women are as a result of drug organized gangs. The gangs rob women and abduct them for prostitution. Some of these gangs are extremely strong such that they become permanent.
As a result, they engage and specialize in gender violence against women as permanent groups. Therefore, they try to get more women in other places other than relying on the border. They thus spread this violence to other places in the country.
Furthermore, prostitution has become an indispensable vice in the society. It is a significant source of money to those who engage in it. The abduction and murder of women in relation to prostitution in Juarez thus sets a poor example to the society.
As a result, that prompts the societies that engage in prostitution. The society adopts the same behavior hence encouraging its growth.
Spread by Gang
The other way in which murders in Ciudad Juarez contributes to growth and support of this problem is by activism. Following the gender violence in Ciudad Juarez, selected women volunteer to claim and fight for their rights as women.
They commit their lives to protest against violence against females. They do this in a bid to reduce the death, mutilation and torture in the society. Most expectedly, the society looks forward to the reduction of this violence as a result of the activism.
However, the killers shift to targeting the activists and murdering them. In addition to that, they also kill their relatives and families, as a result, to the activists, behaviors. This indicates that the murders in Juarez which lead to activism also cause an increase in the number of murders of women.
Countering Activism
For example, Susana Chavez who was a famous activist against this gender violence against women died as a result of her activism. She protested against the incompetence of the city’s authority in finding the perpetrators who were responsible for the murder of hundreds of ladies since 1993 in the city of Ciudad Juarez.
She looked forward to putting a stop to the killing of women which started even before the domination of drugs in Ciudad Juarez. She used a popular slogan “Not one More Death”. Murderers killed the lady at the age of thirty six years as a result of her effort.
Her mother says that she waited for her for a whole night, but she never came back. She was driving to a restaurant to take a meal in the celebration for the arrival of 3 kings in the country. However, they attacked her some streets away from her residence.
Initially, they had said that the activist had joined them for a drink, after refusing to give them sexual favor they killed her. After her death, her parent found her body after days of serious searching. They found the body in an abandoned house.
The parents found the body without the left hand. Researchers suggest that they cut hand to suggest that her death did not have any relationship to her activism. In fact, the officials said that murder did not have any relationship to her activism.
In addition, the Attorney General described her death as an “unfortunate encounter (BBC news – home, 2012). On the contrary, the group of human rights, Amnesty International argued that her murder indicated that violence against females was increasing.
They attributed this rise to a possible empowerment of the serial killers as a result of her death. This implies that, her activism lead to support and the growth of this behavior in the society.
In another case, the killers murdered a prominent activist by the name Marisela Escobedo Ortiz near a government building. Before her death, unknown people had threatened Marisela against her activism. They had hung up a banner in front of the school which she teaches.
They warned her against teaching a female by the name Malu. The group said that if Marisela continued doing so, it would have killed her son. They further said that they had her son’s on the list of the victims. She was a mother to a young girl whom they killed at the age of seventeen years.
She had spent years campaigning against gender violence against women. Masked men pulled from a vehicle in front of her while protesting. They began talking to her after which she ran away across the street where they shot her onto the head to death.
This happened in front of the office of the governor in Chihuahua. The boyfriend to her daughter is the suspect for the two murders.
They also killed Josefina Reyes, who was also an active activist against related to crimes against females and violation of women rights by the army, near Juarez in the year 2010. Surprisingly, four of her relatives have also been killed since her death (Staudt 2008).
Most undoubtedly, the murders have killed the four relative so as to remove the possibilities of continued resistance by her relatives and family members. Therefore, it is clear that activism launched against gender violence on women has supported the growth of the problem.
Risk of Migration
Gender violence against women in Juarez forces women to migrate from the area to the city of El Paso. From statistics, two hundred and thirty thousand people left Juarez in the year 2009 abandoning thirty two hundred and seven hundred homes.
Researchers have reported that fifty four percent of these people moved to El Paso. The migrants move from their mother country in pursuit of peace. However, the American government has intensively fought against this illegal migration into its country.
As a result, the migrants find an alternative path for migration (Wilson 2009). In this case, they borrow permission from other illegal gangs like the La Linea.
They expect the gangs to offer a more secure path for their migration than the path they used earlier. However, the gangs attack and kill them in the process instead of protecting them. In August 2011, the gangs killed seventy two women in Tamaulipas which is in the northern part of the country.
Researchers suggest that in the process of the women expose themselves to higher risk of abduction and murder as they travel across the desert. Unexpectedly, corrupt policemen and the immigration officials blackmail, abduct and kill some of the victims.
The researchers say that most gangs kill the migrants with the help of the local authorities. This way, the existing murders, play a role in supporting the same behavior.
In addition, the researchers have observed that the migrants carry with them the same behaviors they had in Juarez. The old residents of Santa Maria Atzompa say that when they looked around they only saw new arrivals.
They see children flooding their schools, women laborers in work areas and new businesses everywhere. However, Marcelino, who is a local artisan, say that before they came everything was tranquil. She adds that they only brought complications in the city and no benefits.
As an implication, the continued migration of women and men form Juarez into the city is a tool that will contribute to the spread of this behavior which made them run away from their homes. Moreover, the change of pattern in migration has also worsened the situation.
This change in the pattern is due to the strict rules of the American government against illegal migration. Consequently, they choose to settle in more peaceful cities like Oaxaca and Merida. This phenomenon leads to spread of such behaviors to a larger area.
As a matter of fact, this migration is an enormous challenge and yet a surprise to the cities in the future.
Forced Labor in Maquiladros
Another important way in which the death of women in Ciudad Juarez has contributed to the growth of the problem is through forced labor. When men kill and torture women in Ciudad, they feel inferior and unworthy. The murders instill fear and inferiority in them.
They become into poor and dependent. Consequently, factories employ them as workers but pay them less. They prefer women laborers since they are more productive than men. Though they appreciate the high productivity, they pay them seriously little amount of money.
They use the little payments to prove the inferiority and unworthiness of women. The most critical part of this phenomenon is that the supervisors torture and even kill the workers. They torture them emotionally and physically making them submissive.
A young woman by the name Maria says that she has worked over years in the factory. When she was working there, she was burnt by the chemicals for a number of times. Most of the chemical names are in English making the difficult for them to understand.
They cannot read the warnings on the labels. Surprisingly, they never get compensation for the physical loss (Prieto 1997). Instead, the managers fire the workers who suffer such burns immediately. Her coworker, Carmelina tells a similar story.
She worked in the factory for thirty five years. The owners abuse them physically and emotionally. The bosses blame all accidents that happen on the workers. The workers die poor and young. In fact, they consider women as bodies instead of human beings.
As a result, they kill those who get such accidents and interchange the dead with new bodies. In fact, they argue that the labor value of a maquiladora worker decreases with time. According to them, a woman’s value as a worker diminishes after years of exhausting hours of work in the factory.
More over the researchers suggest that the gangs target the workers in Maquiladora factory. This is because; males do not like to see employed women. Men, therefore, kill some of the workers as they move to and from the factory.
The researchers also suggest that, in some incidents, the factory management recommends the death of some workers by the gangs. In this way, the pre-existing deaths of women contribute to the death of more women.
Machismo and Mariansimo
Murder of women has increased the ideology of Machismo and Marianismo. These are two terms that Mexicans use categorizing the male and female status. Machismo represents the male power and aggressiveness.
On the contrary, Marianismo represents the ideology that women should carry out domestic roles only (Vulliamy 2010). Women should carry out domestic chores as wives. They should not be paid for any labor they offer.
As a result, women who seek employment in the factories go against the ideology of Machismo. It challenges the sense of hyper masculinity that exaggerates the ability and status of men. Given that, death of women has encouraged Machismo it directly encourage men to torture and kill women without fear.
This ideology does not only lead and encourage men to torture women, but it also leads to mental and emotional torture. Scientist approve that emotional torture causes a sizeable number of deaths within the population.
As a matter of fact, Mexican women are not an exception to this indictment. The ideology of Machismo also encourages little care to the females. Therefore, the society neglects their health and welfare. This increases deaths of women in the society of Mexico.
For example, some factories testify in the public that they cannot employ pregnant women. This is because; the society considers women as object of service as a result of this same ideology. As a result, the death of women supports the growth of murders of females.
Murder in Pretext
The existing murders have also encouraged murder of other innocent women in the pretext of pre-existing murders. In this case, other people kill their relatives and for other reasons, but people the authority assume that it is as a result of the existing murders.
To add on to this, some individuals kill their friend through the existing serial killers. It offers a solution to disputes especially between married men and women. Such actions express a feeling which suggests that the society is supporting the ideology of gender violence against women.
This encourages the growth and spread of the behavior among the society.
Habit of Murder
Lastly, murder of women by the serial killers in Ciudad Juarez has created this behavior which is difficult to abandon. In literature, when a community or a group of people get into a given behavior without guidance or opposition, they increase their aggressiveness.
In this scenario, the culture that supports murder of women in Ciudad Juarez has created a habit that the society can hardly eradicate. Therefore, without any control measures the behavior is more likely to spread than deteriorate.
Though this argument might seem philosophical, it represents a clear image of human beings’ behavior. The Mexicans are not an exception to these rules of other human beings.
Conclusion
In conclusion, gender violence against women is a conspicuous challenge to the society of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and the neighboring countries. Through the above discussion, it is clear that the problem propagates itself to higher levels of complexity and danger.
It is evident that the existing murders of women led to increase, spread and growth of the behavior. This is not a matter of national concern, but an issue that the whole world should address. If the involved will not work to eradicating the prevailing murder cases, the condition will worsen.
Individually, people should fight the cultural ideology of hyper masculinity and encourage gender equality in the society. The society should collectively discourage drug abuse in a bid to prevent such vices as gender violence, arising as a result of their use.
Local and international authority should protect and guard their citizens with diligence against gender violence. Corruption, negligence and irresponsibility, are vices that all people should fight in the society.
Works Cited
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