200 demand action in women's slayings

March for justice

Zahira Torres
El Paso Times
Sunday, December 4, 2005

Upon hearing chants such as "Without justice there is no peace," South Side resident Eva Bustamante rushed to her front yard.

About 200 people, most of them women, marched from Armijo Park to the Paso del Norte Bridge and into Juárez to demand that the government take action on the murders of more than 400 women in Juárez and Chihuahua City.

"It's good. It's time so much violence is stopped," Bustamante said as she watched the group march past her home. Bustamante regularly goes to Juárez to visit her mother: "Even I get goose bumps. I am scared to go down there."

Hundreds of people stopped along sidewalks to watch the group walk by. Representatives of national and local groups, including the National Organization for Women and the Coalition Against Violence toward Women and Families at the Border, demanded that the United States government and U.S.-owned maquiladoras play a more active role.

"Most people in this country know about the violence against women in the Sudan or in Iraq," said Hannah Riddering, president of Texas' National Organization for Women and a member of the national NOW board. "It's amazing how many people don't know what's going on in our sister country.

"It is important that we know what is going on and we understand American corporate complicity," Riddering said. "These companies are certainly profiting by having the maquiladoras in Mexico. They should at least make sure that their employees can it make to work and home safely."

Penny Anderson, one of the event's organizers and vice president of El Paso NOW chapter, said the group will continue to focus on the plight of women in Juárez and Chihuahua City. "It is something that is continuing and a lot of people don't hear much about it anymore," Anderson said. "We want to bring the focus back to the issue because it is still a problem that needs to be resolved.