Killing spree engulfs tough border city

Vicente Fox

The number of women murdered in the notorious border city of Ciudad Juarez has surged this year, despite a Government effort to crack down on crime, prosecutors say.

More than 340 women have been strangled, beaten and stabbed to death in the city, south of El Paso, Texas, in a 12-year killing spree that has provoked outrage in Mexico and abroad, and led to calls for action to end the crimes.

Chihuahua state prosecutors say 30 women and young girls were murdered in the city from January 1 to November 30, compared with a total of 19 murders last year, when the Mexican President, Vicente Fox, created a special prosecutor's office to investigate the crimes.

Some killings have been particularly gruesome. A 2-month-old girl was sexually assaulted and killed last month.

Rights groups have criticised the authorities' handling of the investigations, saying they were marred by inefficiency and corruption. But prosecutors said they had charged suspects in 80 per cent of the murders committed this year, and could not be blamed for the increase.

Claudia Cony Velarde, Assistant Attorney-General in Juarez, said: "Our job is not crime prevention. While the murder rate has regrettably risen [in recent months], this year has been the most effective to date for prosecutors."

Various motives have been put forward over the years to account for the murders, about a third of which involved rape or sexual assault. Some blame serial killers and rogue drug cartels, but Velarde said about 80 per cent of the recent murders fit a pattern of "domestic or intra-family violence".

"There isn't a serial killer loose on the streets," she said.

Many victims were poor working mothers employed in factories in the city of 1.3 million.

- INDEPENDENT