IRELAND: Justice for our Daughters is touring Ireland to raise awareness of Mexican women kidnapped and murdered over the last 12 years, writes Angela Long
Mexico has many more problems than its leaky border with the United States as it heads to the general election on July 2nd. In two northern states, in particular, are situations which suggest that the rule of law is very fragile - at least for sections of the population.
Two Mexican campaigners are touring Ireland this week to raise consciousness, and enlist support for pressure on both the outgoing federal government of Vicente Fox, and state governments, particularly in Chihuahua in the north and Guerrero in the south.
Patricia Cervantes, from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, is the mother of Neyra, who would have been 23 this month. But Neyra disappeared near her home shortly before her 20th birthday in 2003. "All I ever saw again was her bones," Ms Cervantes says. "My husband couldn't bear to come and look. But women are braver than men - they have to be." Ms Cervantes speaks for Justicia para Nuestras Hijas (Justice for Our Daughters), an organisation formed to fight for justice for the hundreds, even thousands, of young women who have disappeared in similar circumstances in her home state. Ciudad Juarez is just a few hours' drive from the US border, and efforts have been made to get help from US authorities, without much success.
"In this situation we feel hopeless, because there have been 12 years of crimes, and one government follows another, and still nothing happens." Not only has the Cervantes family had to suffer the loss of their beautiful daughter, but her cousin has been arrested on charges of her rape and murder. This, Ms Cervantes says, is a common ploy that has been used to silence and intimidate male family members of the disappeared girls, forcing the women forward to protest.
The 10-year figure for the disappeared girls used by Amnesty, which is sponsoring Ms Cervantes in Ireland, is 400. But Ms Cervantes herself says the number could be 10 times as much. "There is still a disappearance rate of one a month," says Jim Loughran of Amnesty Ireland.
The visiting campaigners had a lengthy meeting at the Mexican embassy in Dublin, where ambassador Cecilia Jaber said that these situations are difficult, partly because of the demarcation line between state and federal power.
Ms Cervantes says one of the puzzling and difficult factors in the disappearances is lack of common thread - except that the young women have been overwhelmingly poor and indigenous. "We don't even know if many of them were sex crimes, because, like with Neyra, only the bones are found." The only link, in her case, is that about 10 girls killed in the past few years attended the same school. "The company which runs this school and others is run by someone who we know is a friend of the president, so we wonder if this has stopped an investigation." There have been suspicions that the kidnappings and murders might be linked to prostitution, pornography, or organ trade. But, because of lack of action by the authorities, as Ms Cervantes says several times, "we just don't know. It has to be investigated".
Felipe Arreaga Sanchez, travelling with Ms Cervantes, is an environmental campaigner in Guerrero, a formerly forested state. He was jailed in 2004 on trumped-up charges of murder and criminal association, and released only after a massive campaign, mostly involving letters, by Amnesty. A charismatic figure wearing one of the region's typical cowboy hats, he says such action is very important and should be used to force the Mexican government to act in cases such as the disappeared women, the destruction of the environment, and the shady connection between logging and drug smuggling.
"It is very dangerous to talk about these things," he says. He is a founder of an organisation with the Spanish acronym OCESP, which has worked to stop wholesale destruction of forests and the accompanying way of life. He is a comrade of Subcomandante Marcos, famous for his campaign to save traditional life in the more southern state of Chiapas. "I saw the subcomandante last week, and we talked, and discussed how we must keep to non-violent ways," Mr Arreaga says.
Ms Cervantes will be speaking at An Tigh Fili, in Cork city at 8pm tonight, and at other venues during this week. See www.amnesty.ie