 |
Frontera
NorteSur |
|
|
|
February 26,
2004 Visteon, one of the world's largest automotive suppliers, is opening a design and engineering center to be located on the Chihuahua City campus of the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM). The new center will be responsible for the invention and engineering of automotive parts and systems for existing and future vehicles. It is estimated that the "Centro Técnico de Visteon" will employ more than 200 engineers from Mexican universities. Given that the center will be located on the Chihuahua City campus of the ITESM (commonly referred to as the Tec de Monterrey), university officials are hoping that these jobs will fall to many of their graduates. To reach this end, ITESM has begun offering a course on electronic and mechanical design that is offered to students during their final semesters before graduation. The goal of the course is to make sure that students are familiar with the engineering design process so that they can perform well once in the workplace. ITESM faculty members are also involving students in their research. This gives them another way to experience real-world projects, often in a business environment. The Visteon building should be completed by July 2004 and will provide 5,000 square meters of office space. Visteon has over 73,000 employees around the world and was ranked 97 in the Fortune 500 survey of 2003. Sales revenues for 2003 were more than US$17 billion. Source: El Heraldo de Chihuahua, February 25, 2004. In 2003 the Mexican medical system in Chihuahua state performed 6,987 tubal ligations, a medical procedure which effectively sterilizes women. Of these operations, 2,548 (37%) were performed on women under the age of 20, according to data from the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (Mexican Social Security Institute, IMSS). Gustavo Rivera Vázquez of IMSS's department of Reproductive and Maternal Health said that women under the age of 20 in Chihuahua make up 20% of the pregnancies that IMSS sees every year. Dr. Eduardo Rico Escobar, also of Reproductive and Maternal Health, stated that 35% of women that have a child before age 20 will have another one before they reach that age. Rico added that women under age 20 often seek out sterilization as a method of family planning even though they are only beginning their period of fertility. Rivera said that most women want an average of just two children--not as many as eight as in the recent past--because they want to be able to offer their sons and daughters a higher standard of living. Rivera estimates that 60% of the states tubal ligations are performed in Ciudad Juárez, 27% in Chihuahua City and the rest in Delicias, Cuauhtémoc and Parral. In Cd. Juárez, tubal ligation operations take place in IMSS's Gynecological Hospital. In 2003, IMSS assisted 49,786 people in their first time use of birth control. Nearly 19,000 patients used an IUD, 14,000 birth control pills, and 8,000 hormone injections. There were nearly 7,000 tubal ligations and 1,700 vasectomies. Although the article in the Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario about tubal ligation states that the procedure can be reversed when a woman wants to have a child, it does not specify if this reversal procedure is paid for by IMSS. An article about tubal ligation at an Emory University website notes that it is difficult to reverse tubal ligation and that the operation to do so is "highly technical, expensive, and its results cannot be guaranteed." Of possible significance to the women under 20 years of age that are having this medical procedure done, is Emory's statement that "Regret after tubal sterilization is greater if a woman is under 25 when her operation is done, if she divorces or remarries, if a child dies, or if a woman has just had a baby or an abortion when she has her operation." The Emory information on tubal ligation is available at http://www.emory.edu/WHSC/MED/FAMPLAN/tuballigation.html Source: El Diario, February 12, 2004. Article by Pedro Sánchez Briones. February 19,
2004 Approximately 3,000 people marched through the streets of Ciudad Juárez on Saturday, February 14, Valentine's Day, to demand the end of violence against women and insist on justice for the victims of serial sexual killers in Cd. Juárez and Chihuahua City. The day's events began with separate protests in Cd. Juárez and El Paso. Later, the two groups met up on one of the international bridges that connect the two cities. Together they then marched to an ecumenical memorial service at a Cd. Juárez park. The Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario reported the participation of civil groups, unions and educational institutions from Cd. Juárez and Chihuahua City in the demonstration. The newspaper also noted the presence of 13 US and Canadian organizations. Organized by local Chihuahua and US groups, Amnesty International and V-Day, the march saw the presence of actors Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Christine Lahti, Laura Flores, Marintía Escobedo, Lilia Aragón and playwright Eve Ensler, creator of the Vagina Monologues and founder of the V-Day organization to stop violence against women. The march was attended and led at points by the mothers of many of the Cd. Juárez and Chihuahua City serial killing victims. Also present at the day's events and leading portions of the march were family members of some of the people who said they were tortured into confessing to many of the serial murders. María López Urbina, the recently appointed federal investigator into the serial killings, and Guadalupe Morfín Otero, the commissioner appointed by President Fox in 2003 to prevent and punish violence against women in Ciudad Juárez, also participated in the march. US Representative Hilda Solis of California returned to Cd. Juárez for the demonstration after an official visit to the city in late 2003 with other US representatives. Events in Cd. Juárez ended with a free performance of the Vagina Monologues by many of the above mentioned actors. Earlier in the day, a mass was said on the third anniversary of the disappearance of Lilia Alejandra García. García disappeared on February 14, 2001 and her body was found a few days later wrapped in a blanket in an empty field across from Plaza Juárez Mall. The mass was also said for Claudia Ivette González (found dead November 2001), Brenda Berenice Delgado (murdered February 2003), Silvia Irene Rivera Morales (murdered 1995), María Elena Chávez Caldera (disappeared), Silvia Arce (disappeared 1998) and Cecilia Covarrubias Aguilar (murdered 1995). Sources: El Diario, February 15, 2004. Article by
Araly Castañón and Pablo Hernández. February 10,
2004 Approximately 1,800 Philips workers in Ciudad Juárez have lost some of their benefits in order to insure their competitiveness with workers in Brazil, Eastern Europe and China, said Roberto López, the head of personnel for Philips' Plant 5 in Ciudad Juárez. López stated that Philips needs to lower costs so as to be able to avoid job cuts. He noted that since the year 2000, Philips has closed two plants in Cd. Juárez that cost the city 5,000 jobs. "The corporation gave us a general outline. It told us: it is essential that Juárez operations have a lower cost basis to be competitive. At the local level they were analyzing different scenarios and we suggested this change to avoid firings so as not to throw more unemployed workers into the community," López said. The benefits that Philips is cutting are of course the ones that are not required by Mexican labor law. Effective Monday, February 9, Philips no longer gives 550 pesos (approximately US$50) gifts to employees when they get married or have children. The annual year-end or Christmas bonus known as the aguinaldo has been frozen at 18 days' pay and contributions to workers' saving plans have been cut from 13% of their wages to 9%. López said that these cuts were chosen so as to
insure that that workers' take-home pay would not be reduced. This means
that they continue to receive attendance and on-time bonuses in addition
to a few others. February 3,
2004 Since January 23, 2004, twelve bodies have been found in the backyard of a Ciudad Juárez house. Thirteen state police officers have been arrested in relation to the killings and as of January 24, 2004 more than ten Cd. Juárez police officers have failed to report to work. Chihuahua state authorities still want to detain four fugitive state police officers including Miguel Loya Gallegos, a former group chief in the state police’s northern region. According to an article in the February 3, 2004 edition of the El Paso Times, the search at the Cd. Juárez home has been completed. However, authorities are waiting for search warrants to enter six more houses, possibly to look for more bodies. Drug testing To help rid the office of corrupt police, more than 200 agents in the state police’s northern region were submitted to drug tests on February 2, 2004. The Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario reported rumors that two agents failed their drug tests. Although the agents’ names were not given, one of them is said to belong to the Special Office for the Investigation of Women’s Murders (Fiscalía Especial para la Investigación de Homicidios de Mujeres). Chihuahua authorities have said that they will fire all agents that test positive for drugs. In the case of the two agents that failed the Feb. 2 tests, both agents had to surrender their service weapons and police identification. A third agent also tested positive for drug use but was allowed to continue in his position. He had a prescription for a controlled substance related to a recent surgery on his nose. New, young
internal affairs investigator appointed Rafael Nava Córdoba, age 24, has been named the new head investigator for the internal affairs office of the Chihuahua state police’s northern division. A law school graduate, Nava has been the coordinator for the “Diverse Crimes” group in Chihuahua City, subchief of preliminary investigations in Cuauhtémoc, and a subagent and agent with the Public Ministry in Cuauhtémoc, in addition to other positions. Nava speaks English and has taught English and law, according to El Diario. He has also participated in training sessions held by the FBI and other US law enforcement agencies. Weakened
internal affairs offices? Despite the naming of a new internal affairs director for Northern Chihuahua, El Diario raises the issue of whether Chihuahua Attorney General Jesús Solís Silva is committed to a strong internal affairs structure and process given his past gutting of the office. Since Solís took office on January 7, 2002, he has dismantled internal affairs offices around the state, according to statements made by an unnamed member of the Attorney General’s Office. Referring back to its own January 16, 2002 article, El Diario noted that the internal affairs office space in Cd. Juárez was taken over by another group only nine days after Solís had taken office. According to El Diario, there is only one internal
affairs office left in the state. It
is located in Chihuahua City and has a staff of four. El
Diario (Cd. Juárez), February 1 & 3, 2004.
Articles by Armando Rodríguez, Javier Saucedo Alcalá and Silvia
Macías Medina.
January 27, 2004 In 1999, the world media descended on Ciudad Juárez to report on searches for buried bodies at three ranches near the city. Although law enforcement initially expected to find 100 or more bodies, the final tally, after ten days of searching, was nine. Now, since Friday, January 23, 2004, eleven bodies have
been discovered in the backyard of a Juárez home at 3633 Parsioneros,
near the intersection of the major avenues Tecnológico and Teófilo
Borunda. Seven of the bodies were found on Monday, January 26, 2004
according to a press release from the Procuraduría General de la
República (Federal Attorney General's Office, PGR). The Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario noted that some of the bodies were buried at depths of between 1 meter (approximately 3 feet) and 1.5 meters. There has also been mention of the bodies being covered in lime and/or plaster. Three of the men were found nude and one had on underwear. All were said to have been tortured. Both El Diario and El Norte (also a Cd. Juárez newspaper) identified three of the bodies as those of Luis Cardona, Juan Pérez Pérez and Omar Cepeda. These men were said to have been abducted from a home by heavily armed men during the second week of January 2004. One theory holds that the house on Parsioneros was used
by Humberto Santillán Tabares as a safe house. Santillán was
arrested in El Paso, Texas in mid-January according to El Diario.
The newspaper also states that US law enforcement identifies Santillán as
an important figure in the Juárez Cartel. The Juárez cartel is
considered the most powerful drug organization in Mexico and is primarily
dedicated to moving marijuana and cocaine. Source: El Diario, January 27, 2004. Articles by R. Ramos, A.
Rodríguez and A. Quintero.
January 16, 2004 At the same time the Ciudad Juárez
police department is improving its training of recruits, it is also having
trouble attracting qualified candidates. In February 2004 the police
department hopes to begin training a new group of officers but only
fourteen qualified people have turned in applications. The department says
that it will not start training new officers until it can begin a class
with at least forty people. According to an article in the Cd.
Juarez newspaper El Norte, background requirements for the job keep many
people from applying. Before would-be officers can be accepted into the
training program, they must show that they have successfully finished
junior high (secundaria),
possess a driver’s license, and do not have a criminal record. Cd. Juarez police chief Ramon
Rodriguez Perrea said that despite the low number of applicants it is more
important for the department to be selective in bringing in new agents. Located behind the Babicora police
station in Cd. Juarez, the City Police Academy has six instructors all of
whom have graduated from Mexican and/or US police training programs. In
addition to its police instructors, each course also receives a visit from
a lawyer from the regional lawyer’s bar. An abuse crisis center, Casa Amiga,
provides information on family violence to students at the police academy.
Centro de Integración Juvenil presents on the topic of substance abuse
and the state human rights office also works with the training program. Source: El Norte, January 13, 2004.
Article by Armando Delgado.
January 9, 2004 Despite its association with a decade of sexual serial killings, the total number of murders in Ciudad Juárez fell by 27% in 2003 when compared with year-end statistics from 2002, according to data released by the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office (Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado, PGJE). In 2003, there were 185 murders in Cd. Juárez. The same figure for 2002 was 253. The border city also saw reduced crime and violence in other areas as well. Injuries related to violence in 2003 fell to 2,781 from 3,097 in 2002. The number of violent business robberies fell to 929 in 2003 from 1,144 in 2002. However, the total number of reported business robberies increased to 1,623 in 2003 from 1,514 in 2002. Likewise the number of violent vehicle robberies decreased in 2003 to 185 from 243 in 2002 but the total number of vehicle robberies increased to 5,995 in 2003 from 5,663 in 2002. State officials in Cd. Juárez saw only a small change in the number of reported crimes between 2002 and 2003. In 2003, 31,553 crimes were reported in the city to state officials. In 2002, there were 31,702 crime reports filed. Number of State Law Enforcement Officials Reduced Less fortunate public safety news for Cd. Juárez is that the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office is losing personnel due to cutbacks in state spending. In it's northern sector which includes Cd. Juárez, Nuevo Casas Grandes, Villa Ahumada and other cities, the PGJE and its state police will lose 25 positions. Some of the cuts will come from among administrative personnel and the Ministerial Police. Source: El Diario, January 4 & 9, 2004.
January 5, 2004 According to local claims, the Chihuahua city of Delicias became the state's first "bike town" six months ago with the opening of specially-dedicated bike lanes on city streets. Although use of the lanes has fallen short of expectations--possibly out of safety fears--the city is already talking about the expansion of this system that the press refers to as an urban experiment. Located near the center of the state, about 50 miles northeast of the state capital Chihuahua City, Delicias is a city of approximately 120,000 people. Goverment officials there launched the project as both a way to encourage the use of bikes for environmental, health and economic reasons and as a manner in which to incorporate bike riders into the city's traffic control system. The program is also intended to link the city's cultural and recreational areas and provide a public space of its own. Finally, because the bike lanes were installed at the same time other changes were made to the city's traffic lay out, the city actually decreased the amount of time that vehicles need to get around Delicias. While almost everyone asked about the bike lanes by the Delicias newspaper El Heraldo likes the project, they all questioned its safety saying that people do not obey related traffic signals and signs. Indeed, people can be found driving their cars in the bike lanes or parking in them. At other times bike riders are noticed headed the wrong way in the lanes. One city official told El Heraldo that the paths are till subject to change if necessary. He also stated that, like all new things, the bike paths should be given the benefit of time to see if they will become successful. Considering that plans are already underway to expand the lanes to the southern part of the city and out to Delicia's locally beloved baseball stadium, it appears as if city residents will have quite some time to decide if they will accept and use the new bike paths. Source: El Heraldo de Chihuahua (Chihuahua City), January 5, 2004. Article by Ivan Vazquez-Froilan Meza. |