Juarez: Stages of Fear

I watched "Man on Fire" today. It was a great movie, but for other reasons was a very emotionally difficult movie to see. Let me tell you why:
Since 1993 there has been close to 300 women raped and murdered in a single city that is 5 minutes from my own.

That is an average of 24 murders a year, 2 a month. They are all Mexican women and are usually maquiladora (factory) workers. Authorities beilive that 70% of these events were committed by single man. Despite these numbers no one seems a bit interested in capturing the killer; not US, Canadian, nor European (Interpol) forces have done a thing other than to send down an agent or two to help with evidence collection in the latest killing. No one cares, because it has only been poor Mexicans.

And yet, this is the tip of the iceburg. Hundreds more are killed, kidnapped and murdered every year in just that city by someone other than that serial killer (Whose profile shows with 90% confidence is from the US.).

A couple of stories: First my psychology professor had a good friend whom he grew up with in Mexico. One day, he and his newlywed wife were driving home in the afternoon when they were forced over by a couple of cars. The men from the cars forced them out and held them at gunpoint. As the husband was covered and able to do nothing the men beat and raped his wife. When they were done they beat him and then shot him. This all happened at sunset. The husband lived but the wife did not. After that the man was panick stricken by the site of a sunset, unctrollably bursting out in tears and yells. My proffesor tried to help and talk to him. A year later the police grabbed him from his home, took him to the desert, and proceeded to beat the shit out of him until he would confess to killing his wife (So as to have a scape goat since it was most likely them or other cops who did it). Again, this happened at sunset. My professor again tried to help him, but he had turned suicidal. A year later he called my professor that he was going to kill himself. My teacher rushed over to his house to stop him, the man had waiting, and as my professor came into his door and stood before him he pulled the trigger.

Someone I knew, not really a friend, but someone who was engaged to someone I love for many years recently passed away. He was a Mexican government official. He was found in a ditch, in his underwear, all ten of his figures chopped off, and a bullet in the back of his head.

It is very common for people in Juarez to legally get jobs over here. A "friend" at work is one of those people who drives for 45 minutes a day to get to work for a poor ass paying job. When I had asked what her husband did, she very unabashadly stated that her husband was a drug smuggler. She stated it as if it was not only a normal thing, but that it was a lucky thing as drug smuggling was a hard job to get.

It is no wonder that Mexicans so often turn there back when they come over, what is there to look back to? I think about my family's country and I want to cry. It is simply atrocious. And there seems to be no sign of changes anytime soon.

If you want to know more about these things watch Juarez: Stages of Fear. Really I dont think it will show anywhere other than in border towns and California, but if you have a chance dont miss it. I would also like to encourage its showing. I did not find any website for the movie, but if someone in genuinely interested in showing it somewhere I could call certain numbers and find out.

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