Juarez Femicides Lawyer Murdered

All lawyers involved in the defense of two Juarez bus drivers falsely accused of femicide have been executed; state police shot one in the head.

Two unidentified gunmen executed Mario Escobedo Salazar and his son Edgar Escobedo Anaya, also a lawyer, in their Juarez office on Tuesday, January 6.

The double homicide comes nearly seven years after Chihuahua State Judicial Police killed Escobedo Salazar's other son, Mario Escobedo Anaya, during a chase. The police originally stated that Mario Escobedo Anaya died when his vehicle crashed during the chase. It was later revealed that he died of a gunshot wound to the head fired by state police.

Prior to Mario Escobedo Anaya's 2002 execution, he, his father, and a third lawyer, the late Sergio Dante Almaraz Mora, represented the two Juarez public transportation bus drivers accused of murdering eight women whose bodies were found dumped in an area of Juarez known as "the Cotton Field." Escobedo Salazar's recent execution means that the entire defense team is now dead; all were executed. One of the bus drivers also died under suspicious circumstances while in police custody.

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Six Women are Killed Within 24 Hours

Six women were killed in a period of less than 24 hours. Among the victims was a 3-year-old who was innocent victim in an attempt on his father.

These cases added to the 33 murders of women registered in December, placing it as the most violent of the year against women and created a new record in the history of the city.

One day before the end of the New Year, 163 murders have been committed against women, according to the journalists who follow crimes statistics from official sources.

The Attorney-General for Justice in the Northern Zone of the region reported that currently the Special Prosecutor for the "Homicidios de Mujeres" "Investigation of Women's Homicides" has the cases of only 25 of the crimes, while the remainder, ie 138 cases, are being investigating by the "Special Investigation Unit of Crimes Against Life," or "Unidad Especial de Investigación de Delitos contra la Vida."

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Women in Black March on Ciudad Juarez

A caravan aimed at upholding women’s rights and stopping violence against women in Ciudad Juarez and Mexico is headed to the U.S. border. Organized by Women in Black along with other women’s and human rights organizations, the caravan set off from Mexico City on November 10.

Prominent Chihuahua City women’s activist Irma Campos Madrigal spoke to about 100 people gathered in the Mexican capital as the Exodus for the Life of Women prepared to embark on its journey.

“The great distance between Mexico City and the old Paso del Norte is shorter than the breadth of impunity,” Campos said, “but never greater than the demand for justice for women murdered in the city in which [Benito Juarez], present here today, and the lay Republic, found refuge in during the 19th Century.”

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