So far in April, 15 women have been murdered.  The dead include a 1 and a
half year old baby and several other minors. No arrests have been made in
these murders.   A summary of the numbers of total homicide victims and
women victims from 1993-2011 is posted below the articles.  Added to those
totals The article indicates that these are figures for violent deaths of
women and that Juarez is the only municipality in the country that reports
this statistic nationally. [I’ve never seen that clearly stated before. It
calls into question how useful these numbers are if none of the other
municipalities in the country report the same data or define the crime(s)
in the same way. How can the rates of women’s homicides (feminicidios) be
compared from one place to another if the crimes are not defined and
reported in the same way… ?] This year, the numbers are as follows:

2012                total homicides 361                women 53   percent
of total who are women     14%

(as of April 20)  Women are a higher percentage of the murder victims so
far this year than in any year since 2005.

The other article below reports on a statement earlier this week from
Chihuahua Attorney General Jorge Gonzalez Nicolas that 90 percent of the
homicides of women are related to organized crime and that the rest are
domestic or gender violence. “The topic is very delicate because we are
talking about organized crime and common crime. They are using women for
the commission of illicit activities and in many cases, they are involved
with people close to them, their domestic partners, fathers, brothers or
another family member,” explained the head of the Fiscalia.  molly