Unsolved killings pile up

last updated 8 January 2015

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

Hundreds of women and girls have been murdered in Ciudad Juarez since 1993 in what women’s groups describe as an epidemic of violence, The New York Times reported. Police estimate the toll is 280, but activists—who have found mass grave sites—say it’s closer to 600. Detectives blame serial killers, rapists, and the drug traffickers who thrive in Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. Others have been killed by envious men, said Vicky Caraveo, a women’s leader. Nearly 400 factories make goods in Juarez for the U.S. market, and most hire mainly women. “That is where some of the tension begins,” Caraveo said. Human rights groups periodically demand answers from the police, but most of the killings remain unsolved. “The killings keep happening,” said an 18-year-old factory worker, “and there is no one to protect us, except us.”