For the past twelve years, residents of the Ciudad Juárez-El Paso metropolitan area, often referred to as fronterizs (border people), have been confronted with alarming reports of women being brutally murdered, a crime known as femicide (or feminicidio in Mexico). Since 1993, out of approximately 370 female victims, a third were young teenagers subjected to horrific, sexualized torture, as reported by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), official records, and detailed in Amnesty International’s 2003 monograph, "Intolerable Killings."


These young women suffered rape and mutilation, with their bodies often abandoned in desert outskirts or urban streets. Annually, around thirty women are killed in the metropolitan area of Juárez, home to over two million people. While the murder rate for men in Juárez is even higher, with more than 200 males killed each year, their deaths typically do not involve sexual torture.

This ongoing tragedy encompasses more than the victims and the violence. In the 1990s, mothers of the murdered girls started organizing, galvanizing numerous human rights and feminist activists, as well as some members of the general public, to heighten awareness about gender-based violence and overall public safety concerns. Despite not achieving justice for their daughters yet, the activism of these mothers is fostering a move towards a deeper democracy and a more effective rule of law in the border region.