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Show LIA MULD By Dan King Gaito Rosario Acosta is a mother of two, a native of Mexico, a human rights activist and a woman with the courage to walk against the terror induced by a conspiracy that troubles the democratic and civilized world. She came to Park City, in a tour to the. extrangero to present, “Senorita Extraviada”, a film by director Lourdes Portillo, to advocate for the families of the dead women of Ciudad * Juarez, a frontier city in the other side of El Paso in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, | With 400 women already murdered, “the women in the developing town of Juarez are still in danger of being kidnapped or mur- dered. The Mexican government attention to the issue reflects an inhumane lack of dedication to the families of these women, and human rights for that matter. In the film “Senorita Extraviada,” presented by the Park City Performing Arts Foundation, in association with Sundance Institute, Portillo depicts the complexity of the murders and the The film “Señorita Extraviada" was presented by the Park City Performing Arts Foundation last December. lack of legal support from both the state of Chihuahua and the federal a of Mexico. women living in the poor barrios in the outskirts of Juarez. Most were also working in It was 1993 when he first young woman as reported missing, with her cadaver found a onth later in the desert. According to Max Blumenthal, a reporter for Salon.com, “most experts place it close to 325, an average of 32 a year, nearly three every month;” this was reported on Dec 4th 2002. | With the number adding up to more than 4.00, Noeleen Heyzer, executive director for United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) felt obligated to get involved. Heyzer ask the federal government in Mexico to intervene “immediately to the murders of Juarez to Jemonstrate their [Mexico's] commitment to the international conventions that protect the rights to the feminine public.” There are similarities between the women that have disappeared. They were all young 8 VENCEREMOS SUMMER 2003 maquiladoras at the time of their murder. Maquiladoras In 1994, with the approval of the North. American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), foreign-owned companies took their business to Juarez where it was welcomed with great enthusiasm. Mexico greeted foreign investors with low taxes and low labor costs. These characteristics of keeping expense down brought 300 maquiladoras to the state of Chihuahua. According to Acosta, maquiladoras bring in $60 billion in revenue due to the advantages that Mexico offers in production. This is part of the reason why the population in Juarez has gone up to 1.2 million in the last decade. Juarez is growing at twice the rate of the national average; its population is expected reach2 million by 2010. Maquiladoras are assembly plants that pay up to $10 a day. Most of all the women that were murdered worked in the assembly lines of maquiladoras, making up to $2 a day. Considering the income potential of the women . who worked there, it is a great salary. However, the cost of living in Juarez is now almost the same of El Paso, Texas, where the minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. - Since most of the women working in the maquiladoras live in the developing rural colonias around Juarez, the maquiladoras provide them with a shuttle system to and from the colonias, most of which have no electricity, indoor plumbing or an adequate sewer system. In regards to the murders, the maquiladoras reject the idea that such problems exist, as these foreign corporations “have maintained a stunning silence even as their female workers are slaughtered,” reports Blumanthel. |
