Mexico adds post to fight violence, exploitation

Associated Press

Article Launched: 02/02/2008 12:00:00 AM MST

Mexico has created a new federal position to prosecute violence and exploitation against women and children, the government announced Thursday.

The position comes as human- rights groups urge the federal government to do more to investigate the killings of women, especially along the northern border.

The new position will replace a similar post created in 2006 and will add child sex and labor exploitation to its caseload.

The new prosecutor, Guada lupe Morfin -- who previously worked in a similar post aimed at combating violence against women in the border city of Juárez -- will report to Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora.

Since 1993, an estimated 423 women have been killed in Juárez, across the U.S. border from El Paso -- at least 89 between 2004 and 2008, the National Human Rights Commission reported Tuesday.

Mexico president says 'culture of machismo' still strong

ASSOCIATED PRESS

1:13 p.m. November 26, 2007

MEXICO CITY – President Felipe Calderón said Monday said that despite the passage of anti-discrimination laws, millions of women suffer from workplace bias and physical and psychological abuse due to an enduring “culture of machismo” in Mexico.

“As a citizen, as a husband, as a father, as president, I am worried and indignant over the mistreatment millions of Mexican women still receive,” Calderón said during an event on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

Last year alone, the president said, more than 30 million Mexican women suffered some type of violence, while more than 80 percent of women who were murdered were killed in their own homes.

Earlier this year, Mexico enacted a law obligating federal and local authorities to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women. Yet only a handful of states have formally adopted it, Calderón said.

At fault? A culture still dominated by “the false premise of subordination, submission and even inferiority of women with respect to men,” he said. “This is a cultural obstacle that we have to reverse."