Incase you can’t download the Juarez video I made, here is a transcription.

On average, once a week - every 7.42 days, a woman disappears from Ciudad Juarez.  Every 12.8 days, a woman is murdered.  Every 40.34 days a woman is raped, tortured and murdered.

I feel uncomfortable talking about the femicide from a number crunching point of view, but it seems to be the only way to get across the seriousness of the mass murder of women in this area.

In the past 11 years, over 400 women have been murdered.  Many of those have been from domestic violence, drug or gang related, or from the horrifying kidnap, rape and torture by alleged serial killers.

The misogynist culture is obvious.  Over 135,000 women in the area have visited Casa Amiga since it opened in 1999, the only Mexican rape-crisis centre along the US/Mexico border.

Ciudad Juarez is a city in northern Mexico.  It is rife with corruption, poverty and drugs.

It sits at the top of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, separated from the US by the Rio Grande river.  It borders the US city of El Paso, Texas.

The class divide between its 2 million residents is tremendous.  Juarez has extremes of wealth and poverty, with no middle-class.  There are gated communities for the wealthy, like Campestre, and colonias populares [shanty-towns] such Anapra for the poor.

America is partially to blame for the moral chaos across the border.  There are over 300 maquiladora’s [sweatshops] in Juarez, employing over 200,000 people.  These sweatshops are infamous for low pay, long hours and shift work, sexual harassment, and exposure to toxins.  A majority of these employees are female.

Many of these maquila’s are for American companies including Ford, Motorola, General Electric, and Mattel.

Since I first visited Juarez in 2003, interest in the femicide has been growing to the point of exploitation.  Hollywood has come on board, with three feature films in the works distorting the situation and managing to twist the tale so it has a happy ending.

Although the exposure could be seen as public awareness, others view it disturbing that the femicide has become pop culture entertainment.

Feature film The Virgin of Juarez stars Minnie Driver, and although it was completed last year is yet to be released.  It may be beaten to box office by Bordertown starring J.Lo, Antonio Banderas and Martin Sheen.  Neither film was shot in El Paso or Juarez.  A third movie, as yet untitled, is in production, funded by HBO.

There are always independent films being made, more recently Muertas [Dead Women] by Ryan Piers Williams, Escaping Juarez by Elvira Carrizal and Stages of Fear by Cesar Alejandro.  A feature-length documentary by Steev Hise is also close to completion.

It’s not just the film industry who has jumped on board.  In this year alone there have been three books Cosecha de Mujeres [Harvest of Women] by Diana Washington-Valdez, Desert Blood by Alicia Gaspar de Alba and the fictional thriller La Frontera [The Border] by Patrick Bard.  Actress Mia Kirshner plans to release a text/illustration book called I Live Here next year.  There have been songs, plays, tv shows, murals and other artforms.

Too rarely are proceeds passed along to the families, and some “sympathetic” Americans are capitalizing from the devastating loss in Juarez.

The bodies of 11 women have been dumped in this location, the Cotton Fields in east Juarez.  Driving onto the land I was overwhelmed with emotion.  I felt like I was intruding, and like such a gringo [foreigner].  This cultural clash was highlighted when we were approached by police questioning our motives for visiting the location.  They couldn’t understand why my friends kept calling me “Pheona”, as when translated phonetically becomes “Big Ugly”.

Some of the bodies dumped here remain unidentified, such as this woman known simply as “Desconocida” [“Unknown”].  Many of the murdered and missing women remain unknown because they are from remote villages and towns throughout Mexico, drawn to Juarez for its abundance of work, even if it is in a maquiladora, and dreams of crossing the border.

They have no family when they arrive and often live in colonias populares [shanty-towns] with no sanitation, running water, electricity or paved roads.  They are invisible, making them the ideal target for kidnapping.

While driving to the Cotton Fields there were billboards plastered everywhere pleading men to stop their abuse against women.

Even in the tourist district of downtown Juarez there were similar messages.  This plaque is located in the park in front of Mission de Guadalupe and the Cathedral.

Americans travel to downtown Juarez for the cheap pharmaceuticals, alcohol, illegal drugs and prostitution.  Many Juarenses rely on this transient tourist dollar.

I felt uneasy travelling through downtown Juarez.  The first time I was here the El Paso tourist information centre told me that if I crossed the Santa Fe bridge into Juarez I wasn’t to veer off Avenida Juarez or Avenida 16 [dieciseis] de Septiembre alone.

This is a shame because it is such a vibrant city with lots of colour, music, food and culture.  I was lucky to have friends show me around to non-tourist areas.  I also attended Dia de la Independencia in Parque Chamizal and it was unlike any festival in Australia.  It was loud and electric.

Another striking image in downtown Juarez was the pink and black crosses, painted by family members of the missing and murdered women.

Progress in the handling of the murders has been slow.  In May, it was announced that Juarez police can now investigate a missing woman immediately, and not wait the previously required 72-hours.  In the first five months of this year, state prosecutors reportedly received reports of 350 missing women.  30 are considered to involve foul-play.

In August, Amnesty International followed up its 2003 which claimed 373 cases of femicide in a ten-year period.  Since then, there have been approximately another 50.  They have noted some progress in how the murders are being handled by authorities.  They partially attribute this to President Vicente Fox’s commissioner for violence against women, Guadalupe Mofin, and a team of forensic experts from Argentina.

The new Governor for the state of Chihuahua, Jose Reyes Baeza also appears to be sympathetic towards the femicide, more so than former attorney general Arturo Gonzáles Rascón who was quoted saying "Las mujeres que tienen vida nocturna salen a altas horas de la noche y entran en contacto con bebedores; por lo que están en riesgo.  Es difícil salir a la calle y no mojarse". ["Women who have a night life, go out late and come into contact with drinkers are at risk.  It's hard to go out on the street when it's raining and not get wet."].

Since Reyes took office, three suspects allegedly beaten into confession have been released from prison.  A forth suspect died while in custody.  Focus has recently shifted to another example of this police mistreatment of David Meza, accused of murdering his cousin.

Amnesty International did not pursue reports by former federal prosecutor Maria Lopez Urbina, who found 130 state authority figures from Chihuahua negligent in their handling of some the murders.  To date, none of these people have been punished.

Despite these advances, the femicide continues.  In September, two weeks before putting this film together, a mother and her daughter disappeared.  Their bodies were found murdered in different locations several days later.  Three security guards have been arrested.  The following week, a 13-year-old girl was murdered in her own bed.  There have been no arrests.

With federal elections approaching in Mexico, the femicide in Juarez may become a political pawn, as well as mass media commodity.