[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 129 (Tuesday, September 4, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H10048]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2015
            ADDRESSING THE MURDERS OF WOMEN IN CIUDAD JUAREZ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SOLIS. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to discuss recent efforts to 
address the ongoing murders of the women of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, 
located just 5 minutes from our border near El Paso.
  Over the past 14 years, well over 400 women, and I mean young women 
and girls, have been slaughtered, brutally murdered or raped in the 
city of Ciudad Juarez. I hold up this poster here tonight to show you 
the list of over 400 names of young women whose bodies have either not 
been found or identified, but we know have been missing, many who were 
those victims that were found slaughtered in the streets of Mexico. 
These are the names of young women who were taken from their families 
too soon. In fact, the profile of many of these young girls is within 
the age range of 15 to 20.
  Slender with long black hair, olive skin, many working in the heart 
of Ciudad Juarez in what we call maquiladoras. Those are American-run 
corporations where many of these women were forced to work to help 
provide for their families.
  The fact remains that many of these murders still remain unsolved. 
Many of these women were put on a track to work four different shifts. 
Given if you have a young woman or child working on a shift from 12 
midnight to 8 in the morning, how was she transported there? Were there 
any security protections put in place to protect her? Was law 
enforcement aware and knowingly, maybe somehow acknowledged that these 
murders were taking place but did nothing?
  That is why we are crying out today, along with the families of 
Ciudad Juarez and along with those families I represent in my own 
district. I was reminded that there are some relatives who were 
murdered. In fact, one young man whose cousin was missing went to 
Mexico to find out what happened. When he began inquiring about that 
particular case, the police there informed him that he should stay away 
and not ask questions and inquire about his cousin. Well, he didn't 
just leave it there. He kept insisting on finding out what the facts 
were and why this death was not given the full extent and force of the 
law. Evidently, at that point the police said, if you do not stay away, 
you will be the one that will end up in jail. And sure enough, that is 
what happened.
  It is unfortunate that laws there are not given the same kind of 
credibility that we have here in the U.S. I cry out here with my 
friends and families because we are saying that the U.S.-Mexican 
Government has to do something.
  After the recent election of President Calderon, he states that he is 
going to do everything he can in his power to provide enforcement of 
laws that protect women against violence, yet we still have not seen 
enough done where we find the culprits who have been involved in these 
vicious murders over the last few years. Given he has just recently 
been elected and has spoken about bringing his office behind the 
enforcement of violence against women, he has even helped to try to 
enact legislation to do that, but every single state in Mexico has to 
adopt those provisions and those codes. What I am finding is that many 
of those states in Mexico are not following along that line.
  I have to ask myself, when we can help women in Iraq and Afghanistan 
who have been murdered by the Taliban, why can we not ask for the same 
kind of respect and dignity from our partners in the south, from 
Mexico. I know this is not a partisan issue. Here in the House we were 
able to send a letter to President Calderon. In fact, 90 Members of the 
House signed onto the letter, and I thank the subcommittee Chair, Mr. 
Engel, of the Foreign Affairs Committee on this particular area, and 
also Dan Burton, for being so gracious and helping to support this 
resolution passed by this House, H. Con. Res. 90, and also a letter 
that we recently sent to President Calderon.
  I ask that the House speak up about this issue because this continues 
to go on. In fact, I was pleased we had a delegation go down 2 years 
ago to visit alongside the border and meet with the families and meet 
with public officials and ask why there was nothing being done to help 
expedite these cases. In fact, our government went as far as to even 
provide assistance through USAID to have forensic experts come in to 
help identify the cadavers of these young women. I believe there are 
79, maybe more now, cadavers that have not been identified.
  Families have contacted me and other Members of Congress asking for 
help on our side because we have the tools and instruments to do that. 
I know this country has the goodwill and can do some things, but I am 
also pleading to those parliamentarians and to the President of Mexico 
to do the same thing. While he is asking for us to help in immigration 
reform, which I am strongly supportive of, I also ask him to do what he 
can to help with law enforcement, with reform, and also to help 
expedite those cases that still have to be processed, and would ask 
that our Congress also support the continuance of oversight on this 
particular issue for the women and families of Ciudad Juarez.

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