2/13 NAFTA and Ciudad Juarez Murders

Since 1993, when 340 U.S. owned corporations relocated to Ciudad Juarez, over 370 young women have been brutally murdered, many raped, tortured and mutilated. At least 400 more are missing. The majority of the victims were employed in the maquiladoras and traveled from the south to find work for a better life for their families.

Both the police and the Mexican governement have refused to act minimizing the situation, blaming the victims and furthering the pain of family members seeking justice.

Lear, Ford, General Motors, Dupont are among the corporations that have exploited
the cheap labor available along the U.S./Mexican border. None of these profiteers
have been willing to provide lighting or any other safety measures to protect their
workers from the abductions that often occur when women are walking to or from work.
The outright expendability of these poor, desperate young women is further
highlighted by the deplorable living conditions, inadequate pay and the freedom
enjoyed by the killers. Now the factories are closing to move to India and other
Asian countries where labor is even cheaper.

Women have been called from all over the world to gather in Ciudad Juarez on
February 14th to show solidarity with the women living there and to demand the
Mexican government act in bringing justice to the victims and their families.

Berkeley Women In Black will demonstrate at the Mexican consulate at 4pm on February 13th, then walk to 16th and Mission to vigil from 5 to 6pm. Code Pink will be vigiling from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm on February 14th at Dolores Park. Berkeley Women In Black will join Code Pink. We hope you will join us on both days.

It is critical that people of conscience pay attention to atrocities everywhere corporations are doing their dirty work. Too often, major human rights violations go hand in hand with corporate resource extraction and profiteering. We cannot
allow it! STOP GENOCIDE!

SWANEAGLE HARIJAN frontlinemom [at] yahoo.com
JANE WELFORD wibberkeley [at] yahoo.com