Australian, Pheona Donohoe only spent a few months in the city of El Paso, TX. This short period was long enough for her to join the fight to stop the reoccurring deaths plaguing women in the Juarez, Mexico area.

Pink and black crosses mark the street poles in downtown Ciudad Juárez. They are a constant reminder of how easy it is for a woman to disappear. Symbolizing the victims of femicide, each pole is hand-painted by a family member of the murdered and missing women from Juárez. Earlier this year Amnesty International estimated that 373 women had been murdered in Juárez since 1993. Many were killed as the result of domestic violence, gang or drug related, or from the horrifying kidnap, rape and torture by alleged serial killers. Despite the Juárez femicide becoming a mass-media commodity, these crimes have not ceased with two more murders in the past several months. This gross abuse of human rights is happening within kilometres of El Paso, Texas. On one side of the border is poverty and corruption. On the other is democracy, justice and freedom. America's international dominance has come at cost however, and is partially to blame for the moral chaos in Juárez.

Logos for American corporations are plastered on the exterior walls of 80% of the factories in Juárez. Some of these factories assemble parts for General Motors, Sony, Ford, Phillips and RCA. Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect, Juárez became the largest industrial zone in Mexico, housing almost 300 maquiladora's (foreign-owned sweatshops). A majority of the factory workers are female and many have relocated to Juárez from remote villages and towns from the south of Mexico. Over the past 10 years, many of the women employed at maquiladora's have disappeared. Some bodies have been found in the Chihuahua desert, some remain missing.

The last victim in the Juárez femicide is Alma Brisa Molina Baca, a maquiladora worker who never made it home on Saturday July 24. Her body was found on waste ground several days later. Autopsies revealed she had been raped and strangled. This follows the death of Guadalupe Santos Gomez, a 24-year-old bar waitress originally from southern Mexico. Her strangled body was found in an empty lot in a south Juarez suburb on Monday May 28. Santos shared physical traits consistent with two thirds of the victims; dark skinned, tall and thin, with long, dark hair, aged between 11 and 25. Over one third of the victims have never been identified.

To date, the handling of the Juárez murders by local authorities has been a farce. State authorities have lost, contaminated and even washed evidence, wrongly identified bodies, announced victims names to the media before their families, forced suspects into confessing after torturing them with electric prods, threatened and harassed family members of the victims, and allegedly have a direct involvement in the murders. In early July the Mexican government bowed to pressure and released its first report on the murders in Juárez. Compiled by Maria Lopez Urbina, the federal prosecutor in charge of investigating the femicide, this was the first real analysis of the situation despite its eleven-year history. This report was not why or how the women were killed, but rather how the investigation of their murders was handled by officials. Not surprisingly, 81 Chihuahua officials were harshly criticised for their incompetent handing of the cases; 24 police officers, 17 forensic experts, 30 state investigators and three investigative supervisors. Most alarmingly, the report only contained information on 50 of the murders.

In addition to victims' families receiving little to no help from authorities to solve the murders, they are currently being exploited by media outlets capitalising on their loss and turning the femicide into pop-culture. Dozens of movies, TV shows, songs, theatre performances, artwork and books are in production with storylines inspired by the femicide in Juárez, many sensationalising and glorifying the murders. Most recently, Mexico's second largest television network, TV Azteca, began airing a five-part, soap-opera style drama called Tan Infinito Como El Desierto (As Infinite as the Desert). Shot on location in Juárez, the series dramatises a different type of murder each episode suggesting women fell victim to snuff movies, satanic rituals and copycat murders inspired by serial killers. The executive producer Genoveva Martinez claims that the episodes are based on police investigations. Family members in Juárez are infuriated by the series and many have threatened legal action against the broadcast company for unauthorised use of their daughter's names and images.

In addition to the Mexican television show there is a film by Kevin James Dobson The Virgin of Juárez currently in production, a book by Diana Washington Valdez Harvest of Women due to be released later this year, a text/illustration book compiled by actress Mia Kirshner is due in 2006, a song Mujeres de Juárez on the new los Tigres del Norte album, and other documentaries in the making. Chihuahua state has responded quickly and on April 21 the president of the state assembly, Victor Valencia, banned the los Tigres del Norte song claiming it was immoral for the band to be making money from singing about the murders.

A respectful insight into the Juárez murders is the 2001 documentary Senorita Extraviada (Young Missing Women) by Mexican-American filmmaker Lourdes Portillo. Containing interviews with victim's families and a survivor of police brutality, the documentary helped to raise international awareness including a recent screening in Melbourne, Australia. The Melbourne documentary screening drew a sell-out crowd to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and launched a fundraising campaign which also included a concert and series of t-shirts. AUD$5,500 was raised and forwarded to Amigos de las Mujeres de Juarez in New Mexico.

Despite the international attention, Mexican federal government reports and constant media coverage, the pink and black crosses continue to fill the streets of Juárez where men kill with impunity. Twenty-four years ago The Pop Group released an album How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? We've learned little in the quarter century since that album's release and in Juárez the authorities don't just tolerate it, they cover it up.