Mexican rights official says Juarez killings continue, slams investigations

Wednesday, January 30, 2008
By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO, AP

MEXICO CITY -- Women are still being killed in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's top human rights official said on Tuesday, calling investigations into their deaths "terrible."

An estimated 423 women have been murdered since 1993 in the city of 1.3 million, across the border from El Paso, Texas, said Jose Luis Soberanes, president of the government's National Human Rights Commission. About 89 of the deaths have occurred since 2004.

A series of eerily similar killings of more than 100 mainly young women began in Ciudad Juarez in 1993, but appeared to have tapered off by late 2004 or early 2005.

In those cases, women were abducted, often sexually abused and strangled before their bodies were dumped in the desert. Many were last seen in the city's downtown area or taking buses, and their bodies often did not resurface for months.

Women continue to be murdered in Ciudad Juarez, Soberanes said, calling investigations and government work to end the phenomenon gravely deficient.

"I see tremendous negligence" and a lack of results, Soberanes said during the presentation of a report on the wave of killings. Investigations carried out so far "have been terrible," he said.