Socialist Action /October 2002
FILM REVIEW:
Who is Murdering the Women of Juárez?
By GAETANA CALDWELL-SMITH
SEÑORITA EXTRAVIADA
A film by Lourdes Portillo.
In English and Spanish with English subtitles, 2001.
When documentary filmmaker Lourdes Portillo first heard about the serial
murders of young women occurring in her home country and that the numbers
had grown from 160 to more than 300 since 1994, she had to act. Hence, her
film "Señorita Extraviada" ("Young Missing Woman").
"I came to Juárez to track down ghosts and listen to the
mystery that surrounds them," she narrates in the opening shots.
The murdered women are workers in the maquiladoras (sweatshops) of Ciudad
Juárez. Some as young as 13 have come from the countryside to this
city, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, to work for little more
than slave wages on the assembly lines.
The multinationally owned maquiladoras evolved as one of the results
of NAFTA, in order to churn out goods and clothing to satisfy the demands
of U.S. and European markets.
As Portillo interviews the murdered women's relatives on film, one sees
in their care-worn faces the anxiety and confusion, the hesitation to speak
for fear of retaliation by the murderers.
One woman's brother told Portillo that some maquiladora bosses change
a worker's shift without notice, leaving her with no way home at night,
the bus having already left.
Mothers beseeched the police to act when their daughters went missing.
So the governments of Juárez and the state of Chihuahua conducted
searches, discovering hundreds of shallow graves in the desert. Portillo
was able to get hold of government film clips of the graves, which held
little more than skeletons, making identification nearly impossible.
In one instance, a missing woman's DNA did not match the remains thought
to be hers, though bits of her clothing were found at the site. Authorities
told Portillo dismissively that the murdered women were prostitutes anyway,
so she should not be surprised at how they died.
Some relatives say the police are guilty of the murders. Portillo believes
a web of complicity between the police and the government exists, and independent
investigators also suspect a cover-up. These suspicions appear valid.
Portillo interviewed a victim who had escaped. In the film, she is called
María to protect her identity. When she and her husband went to the
police, they took her into protective custody, and denied her husband visits.
Her guards beat and raped her.
At night, when they drank, she heard them brag about raping and torturing
young woman, cutting their faces and bodies, then executing them in the
desert.
One guard showed María photographs of bodies sprawled on the ground
like torn rag dolls. (Portillo filmed the photographs for evidence; they
are included in the film.) María bore the guards' abuse, knowing
she would end up like these women if she spoke out. Months later, she was
released.
The police arrested a man, Abdel Latif Sharif, for the crimes. His attorney,
Irene Blanco, told Portillo that they fingered him to take the heat off
themselves. Still, after the arrest, more women showed up dead; officers
then claimed Sharif headed a gang of murderous maquiladora bus drivers which
he led from his cell.
Portillo interviewed Suly Ponce, the special Prosecutor for the Investigation
of Murdered Women in the state of Chihuahua. Ponce seemed evasive under
Portillo's questioning. The mothers of the dead girls, as well as private
investigators, complained to Portillo that Ponce is not doing enough. The
murders continue.
At the film's release, Portillo said: "'Señoritia Extraviada'
is an investigation into the nature of truth, a truth that I have always
found elusive ... especially in this documentary about the sex-murders of
hundreds of girls in a Mexican border town
" I ask myself why are poor young women so close to the U.S. left
forsaken? I feel that for me to stand by and witness these crimes without
acting, I am being degraded morally, so I decided to act and focus my work
in telling their harrowing tale.
"The story is told chronologically, so as to make order out of chaos
and misinformation. What emerges are undeniable truths in the courageous
testimonies of the victims; their voices shed light on the fate of these
innocent victims.
"[This film] is my offering to the hundreds of young women who have
been sacrificed along the U.S.-Mexican border. It tells a story of imposed
terror and deadly silence as the new world of globalization flourishes."
"Señoritia Extraviada" won the Nestor Almendros Prize
at the Human Rights Watch New York Film Festival, one of many awards it
has received worldwide. Watch for it.
Socialist Action /October 2002 |