Os in the desert

Of OS in the desert (Huesos in el desierto) is the title of a work of the journalist and writer Sergio González Rodriguez reporting the history of the murders in series of women in the town of Ciudad Juárez, with the Mexico, murders always not elucidated. Published in Mexico in 2002, it was translated into French and was published in the Passage editions of north/western in August 2007.

Since 1993, nearly 500 women were assassinated in Ciudad Juárez. They generally were violated and tortured before being put at death. Several hundreds of other women are reported missing. According to Rodriguez, the authorities minimize the facts, bâclent the investigations and indicate against any obviousness that the crimes ceased and that their authors for the majority were apprehended.

Rodriguez denounces in particular the collusions between the drug traffickers and the authorities of the State, the protection granted by the police force to some of the principal suspects, the culpabilisation of the victims and their families, the whole on bottom of endemic misogyny in an over-populated border region, in prey with poverty and violence. Several times death threat, it has escaped with an attempted murder in June 1999.

In a postface written in 2007, Rodriguez brings back the intimidation campaigns of the government whose the journalists are victims who carry out independent surveys on these crimes: “To quote only my case, he writes, I am under monitoring as soon as I take appointment with somebody by telephone. The civils servant in charge of this kind of listenings are called " moniteurs" or " oreilles". They work for the ministry for the Interior or the Research center and national security. Sometimes, I note also the presence of odd people installed in vehicles, close to at home. They seek to intercept my phone conversations, my postal or electronic mail. ”

With the passing of years, it was often asked to me whether I were afraid to continue this investigation because of all the dangers which it implied. To this question, I always bring the same answer because I do not have of them others: the courage of which the victims made proof when they faced until the last moment the unworthiness of their death must deliver us forever fear.

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