|
Rare justice beckons in infamous Mexican town
GLIMMER OF HOPE:
Ciudad Juarez is notorious for hundreds of unsolved murders of young women, but at least one case may now result in a conviction
AP, CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO
Saturday, May 07, 2005, Page 7
A woman who was raped, beaten and left for dead on Thursday outside Ciudad Juarez -- infamous for more than a decade of largely unsolved slayings against women -- survived and identified her attackers.
Maria Guadalupe Tobar, an 18-year-old employee at one of the assembly-for-export plants common along the Mexico-US border, said she was abducted and raped by three male acquaintances several weeks ago.
She returned to the factory on Thursday to quit her job, but the same assailants were waiting for her.
This time they raped and beat her severely.
dumped
Then, believing she had been killed, they dumped her in the countryside, near a highway south of Juarez.
Tobar was still alive when she was discovered by a passer-by, who called the authorities.
A criminal complaint she filed led to two arrests and police were searching for a third suspect in the case.
It was an unusual ending to an all-too familiar scenario of attacks against women in Juarez, a city of 1.2 million across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas.
Investigators say more than 350 women have been killed here since 1993.
About 100 of those cases follow a similar pattern involving young women who were sexually assaulted, strangled and dumped in the desert.
beaten to death
Earlier on Thursday, local police discovered the body of a 20-year-old woman who had been beaten to death and dumped on an unpaved street on the outskirts of the city.
The woman, who had yet to be identified, had bruises to her chest.
She was found in the Colonia Aldama, a neighborhood plagued by street-gang violence, said Claudia Banuelos, a spokeswoman for state investigators in Chihuahua state, which includes Juarez.
Police were looking for an alleged gang member she was seen with, Banuelos said.
The 20-year-old, who was found laying in a fetal position, was reported to authorities by an anonymous caller.
Banuelos wouldn't say whether the victim had been sexually assaulted.
This story has been viewed 1593 times.
|
Print
Mail
wiki links