Mexico to Focus on Crimes Against Women

By E. Eduardo Castillo
The Associated Press

Thursday 31 January 2008

Mexico City - Mexico has created a new federal position to prosecute violence against women and human exploitation, as rights groups urge the government to do more to investigate the killings of women, especially along the U.S. border.

The position, announced on Thursday, will replace a similar post created in 2006 and will add migrant smuggling, child labor and other human exploitation to its caseload.

The new prosecutor, Guadalupe Morfin - who previously served in a similar post aimed at combating violence against women in Ciudad Juarez - will report to Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora.

The attorney general told Radio Formula that he welcomes the expanded role for his office.

Human exploitation "is a serious problem that we see daily, and we don't have the adequate structure to deal with it," Medina Mora said.

Since 1993, an estimated 423 women have been killed in Ciudad Juarez, across the U.S. border from El Paso, Texas - at least 89 between 2004 and 2008, the National Human Rights Commission reported Tuesday.

In about 100 of the Juarez killings, women were abducted, often sexually abused and strangled before their bodies were dumped in the desert. Many were last seen in the city's downtown area or taking buses, and their bodies often did not resurface for months.

Commission President Jose Luis Soberanes called the investigations into the deaths "terrible."

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