A few friends and I were listening to a song and my friend wanted to know what the lyrics meant... to us they seemed to mean nothing but for some reason we thought they were metaphorical. Anyway, he looked up the information on the lyrics and found this video. Apparently the story portrayed in this video is true and it is still happening! This is about the mass murders in Juarez. You can view the video on youtube here. I also created a blog post about this which includes the video and some links which include some information on this and an online petition you can sign.
Its true. I visit Juarez a few times a year. I also took in a woman who was working on the murders after she was very nearly killed by the police there. She went into hiding with me and and is gone to another safe place I won't disclose. She had a bad injury to her arm by the police. I won't go any further but its a pretty bad situation. Little known fact is there are many more men being murdered than women but it hasn't gained much press. Juarez is a trip!
It happens a lot in Mexico. In fact, just turn on any Mexican channel (if you have access to one), watch the news, and see how violence, political corruption, and any other type of wrong doing happens constantly. The most common is having groups gather and causing riots in the streets causing all-out war on the police and citizens. Just recently my dad went to Mexico to go see his sister since she has breast cancer. Mostly he was going to drop off some money but came back the next day due to a couple of rural gang members trying to mug him. Either his money or his life. Stuff like that happens all the time, unfortunately. There's no real way to stop it, at least not any time soon. It's been like that for as long as I can remember.
The reason I say Juarez is a trip is becuase it is even more crazy than most of Mexico. You definitely know when you walk across the bridge you just walked from the 1st into a 3rd world country and its like OZ. A very strange feeling indeed. Not unusual to see a pickup truck of "policemen" with machine guns in the back jump out and start arresting people or start questioning. I've been stopped myself. The wierdest thing I saw a couple weeks ago was a truck pulling a trailer with a half dozen awesome looking bengal tigers in the back at the main mercado. Guy had a bullhorn and was yelling out something in spanish...musta been a circus promo or something....people were freakin out on the tigers. Its really dirty and youll see stuff like cages with puppies and chickens outside stores. Hookers, clubs, trannies, tattoo shops, people hustlin for a peso, dentistas, pahrmacias, drugs, lotsa cops!, and believe me they will shake you down for money! You can usually "pay your fine" on the spot if you get stopped. Not sure why I love the place so much except it just gives me an adrenaline rush to walk through and hang out. They are as we speak though making big changes in order to attract tourists. A year from now it wont be the same at all.
Well I hope that eventually they clean that place up and help the people who live there. C'mon, something can be done! It's not fair that people are being treated like this. I wonder how much those women in the factories are making. It can't be much. You'd think that if Mexico put in a minimum wage, they'd be helping their economy by getting money circulating.
Me too. I have to say the women are just beautiful in so many ways. Corruption in Mexico is on a whole different level. Its very "wild west" in some ways. Theres a man there who is richer than Bill Gates! yet poverty abounds. Theres little social safety net (social security, welfare, rent subsidies, food stamps) which is why the US attracts the poorest. I live in a resort town 2 hours north and believe me the rich ones roll in here on the weekends to gamble and ski in hummers and escalades with money to burn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Slim_Helú The worlds wealthiest man. When you cross the border at the Santa Fe bridge you'll see huge murals on the concrete of the Rio Grande. One is anti-George Bush and the war on terror the other a tribute to cuban communist Che and Hugo Chavez. The line coming into the US is incredibly long I have stood there with literally thousands for an hour just trying to get back in the US. The whole scene is surreal to me.
Well I was never aware either, I live in the Middle East. Never thought that this could happen in Mexico.
My thought is that if the US chooses to do business with Mexico yet complains about how Mexicans come into our country, we could instill some measure to counteract that like push Mexico to change some of its laws. But sadly the US doesn't work like that and if Mexico were to create laws like that the US would just move its factories over to China.