Our friend, Kent Patterson has been writing about the femicides for Frontera Norte Sur for years. This is his latest report on the most recent murder in Chihuahua City.
March 20, 2008
Women's/Human Rights News
Femicide Resurfaces in Chihuahua City
Once again, the specter of femicide is haunting Chihuahua City. The murder of high school student Paulina Elizabeth Lujan Morales sparked outbreaks of "collective psychosis" and triggered youth protests this month. On Monday, March 17, hundreds of high school students marched through downtown Chihuahua City carrying placards and chanting the familiar slogan "Not One More". Halting the city government offices, the young people were nevertheless greeted with silence since officials were away on vacation.
A 16-year-old student at Chihuahua City's Cobach 2 school, Paulina Lujan was last seen leaving classes early on the evening of Monday, March 10. Her sexually assaulted and severely beaten body was discovered on Thursday, March 13 off the highway that leads from the Chihuahua state capital to the nearby town of Aldama. The young woman's shoes were located in a nearby arroyo.
Lujan's body was discovered in the same area where the corpses of other femicide victims were found in the past, including 16-year-old ECCO computer school student Paloma Angelica Escobar, who disappeared in 2002 under similar circumstances as Lujan did and almost six years to the day of the latest victim's murder. The Chihuahua-Aldama highway zone is near the headquarters of the Chihuahua state police.
The Lujan slaying bore resemblances to other women's killings that have struck Chihuahua City between 1999 and 2003. Besides having the same physical, age and occupational profile of other victims, Paulina Lujan was described as a tranquil, reserved young person by her mother. "(Paulina) was a model student who didn't have behavior problems," Patricia Morales Rodriguez said. "Let there be no doubt, we will get the murderers of Paulina," vowed Chihuahua Governor Jose Reyes Baeza, adding that authorities would not fabricate scapegoats in the murder case.
According to PGJE spokesman Rene Medrano, 18 persons have rendered declarations in connection with the Lujan crime. A young man who's been mentioned as a possible suspect, Alexis Garcia, complained that presumed friends and family of Lujan unfairly have harassed him. Garcia said he had "nothing to do with the crime." Early press accounts of the Lujan murder mention the possibility that the victim could have met her killer via an Internet blog and e-mail.
Paulina Lujan was the fourth woman murdered in Chihuahua City since last November. The other victims have been identified as Angelica Lopez Cruz, Claudia Janeth Llana Moreno and Irene Pena Monje. Lujan's disappearance occurred two days after International Women's Day, an anniversary which was marked in the borderlands this year by a protest rally in Ciudad Juarez staged by relatives of femicide victims from the border city and Chihuahua City. Only days earlier, victims' relatives were met with a police response in the Chihuahua State Legislature during an unsuccessful attempt to convince state lawmakers to renew a special commission dedicated to investigating the women's murders.
Additionally, the Lujan crime occurred within a border context of escalating violence in the region involving organized crime gangs and Mexican security forces. Two days prior to Lujan's disappearance, Mexican soldiers and suspected members of the Sinaloa drug cartel engaged in a bloody Chihuahua City shootout that left one army officer and six gunman dead.
Youths, meanwhile, demanded greater security for Chihuahua City's schools. Students said they were concerned bout loud strangers hanging around Paulina Lujan's school at dismissal time.
Sources: El Heraldo de Chihuahua, March 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 2008. Articles by Jorge Armendariz, Ever Haro Guillen, Octavio Marquez, E. Fernandez, Ernesto Topete, Jose Hernandez Berriors, David Pinon Balderrama, and Manuel Ruiz. La Jornada, March 15, 2008. Article by Miroslava Breach B. Lapolaka.com, March 13, 2008. Cimacnoticias.com, March 6, 2008. Article by Dora Villalobos Mendoza.
Frontera Norte Sur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
For a free electronic subscription email fnsnews@nmsu.edu
