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 Entertainment | September 2007 
Mothers of Slain Women Unhappy with Juárez Films
 Alfredo Corchado - Dallas Morning News
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Juarez - The mothers wanted the world to hear of their daughters' brutal slayings. Their hope was that movie producers in Hollywood could keep their memories alive and reignite the fight for justice.
But critics panned the two Hollywood motion pictures inspired by the killings of hundreds of young women in Juárez, across the border from El Paso. And the films' limited release will have little impact, despite the star power of Jennifer Lopez, Antonio Banderas and Minnie Driver.
"Virgin of Juárez," in which Driver plays an investigative journalist looking into the Juárez murders, went straight to video.
And the twice-delayed "Bordertown," starring Lopez and Banderas, appears to have been delayed again. It had been rescheduled for release last month. The movie has not secured a distributor, and its release will probably be limited, if it's released at all.
"It's a wasted opportunity," said Irma Monreal, whose 16-year-old daughter, Esmeralda, was killed. "Without international attention, this movement doesn't stand a chance."
More than 450 women have been killed in this factory city since 1993 - including more than 120 of whom were sexually assaulted and slain in serial fashion.
The killings have been condemned worldwide and in a scathing report issued by the Washington Office on Latin America earlier this year. The report criticized the governments of Mexico and Guatemala, where similar killings have been reported, for their failure to solve the cases and prevent further acts of violence against women.
The few Juárez cases that have been prosecuted have been undermined by allegations of confessions extracted under torture and flimsy or concocted evidence. Theories on the perpetrators have included serial killers, drug cartels to people harvesting organs.
Barbara Martinez Jitner, who helped produce "Bordertown" and whose experience posing as a Juárez factory worker inspired Lopez's character, did not return messages requesting an interview.
The movie flop is the latest setback for the mothers-turned-activists and their Mexican and international supporters, whose global campaign to find justice in the face of endemic impunity is becoming a losing cause.
Fourteen years after the first of many mutilated bodies was found - dumped in ditches, empty fields and the region's vast desert - Monreal and dozens of other women are in a race against time.
Mexico's statue of limitations for murder is 14 years, and many cases are nearing that limit.
The administration of President Felipe Calderon - who as a candidate vowed to resolve the killings - recently eliminated a special commission originally organized solely to investigate the murders. The commission merged with an organization known as Inmujeres, responsible for all crimes against women nationwide.
In early August, 92 members of the U.S. Congress signed a letter to Calderon, urging action and a reprieve from enforcing its statue of limitations. Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif., initiated the letter, which was signed by a bipartisan group of House members.
Esther Chavez, director of Casa Amiga, a women's advocacy group that first raised international awareness about the killings, is angry at the government's actions.
"The original commission wasn't perfect," she said. "But it was a sign of the government's commitment. Now some of those suspects may be released from jail without ever establishing their innocence, or guilt. Far from finding clarity, we now feel forgotten."
Chavez, 74, has been waging a campaign since 1993. Casa Amiga maintains a Web site that lists the murdered women by year, along with details of the killings.
But she is now battling lung cancer and laments that her fight has not given mothers any sense of peace.
"Impunity in Mexico is alive and well," she said. "I feel impotent." |
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