Audio Clip
Juárez Activists March To Denounce Disappeared Women
Mónica Ortiz Uribe
Protesters march past posters of missing women in downtown Ciudad Juárez.
CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — Mothers of disappeared and murdered women in the Mexican border city of Juárez took to the streets Sunday for International Women's Day.
The solemn-faced mothers gathered at a downtown Juárez plaza at noon and draped sandwich boards over their chests. An image of a disappeared daughter was plastered on each board.
Susana Montes Rodriguez's daughter went missing in 2009 when she went downtown to buy a pair of sneakers. Three years later her body turned up.
"They gave me bone fragments," she said.
Authorities discovered her daughter's remains in 2012 along with those of at least a dozen others dumped in a stream bed on the outskirts of town. A year later police arrested 12 people in connection with their deaths. Their case is still pending in court.
Mónica Ortiz Uribe
Protesters march past posters of missing women in downtown Ciudad Juárez.
Juárez has a dark history of violence against women. The city made international headlines two decades ago when hundreds of women were brutally murdered and dumped in the desert. When an eruption of drug violence hit Juárez six years ago, young women began to disappear from the city center.
Salvador Gonzalez Ayala, a Juárez resident concerned for the safety of his own two daughters, marched with the women on Sunday.
"We want the authorities to know that this has not been forgotten, and we want the authorities to know that we want justice be done," he said.
Women continue to go missing in Juárez. Dozens of unsolved cases remain in the hands of local and state police.