Teresa Rodriguez - The Daughters of Juarez

Praise for The Daughters of Jurez

This story is more horrifying than a Stephen King novel, has more twists and turns than an Agatha Christie plot, and has a higher body count than any James Bond flickand it is all true. You will never forget The Daughters of Jurez, which is exactly what the authors intend and accomplish brilliantly. This book must be a beacon, a catalyst for justice, that rare commodity so nonexistent in Jurez. The authors bring to life the human faces, shattered families, and lost dreams of those who must not be forgotten.

National Public Radio An eye-opening account.

Carlos Santana The Daughters of Jurez not only investigates, with facts and information, but illuminates how innocence and purity are sacrificed al most daily on this desert altar. Teresa Rodriguezs book can make a difference only if you and I get involved to assure that this will never happen again to anyone.

Edna Buchanan, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Love Kills

The Daughters of Jurez is a book you cannot put down and will never forgetit will shock you and it should. The authors have done a remarkable job piecing this horrific puzzle into one lucid account of the atrocities that have befallen Jurez, Mexico. This is truly an ex traordinary book.

Isabel Allende

A haunting, exhaustive book.

Vibe magazine

Heres the deal: you are murdered and your death is not counted, you are murdered and your death is not investigated, you are murdered and someone is framed for your death. This is Jurez, the jewel of our free trade theories. This is a book everyone should read. And then wonder about the United States and Mexico and this hell of dead women they paper over with lies.

Charles Bowden, award-winning author of Down by the River

The Daughters of Jurez is a crucial, chilling, and detailed account of the mutilations and murders of hundreds of women and girls in Jurez, Mexico. It is a cry for an end to these atrocities and it is a righteous call, after all these years of horror, for justice now.

Eve Ensler, Obie Award-winning playwright and founder of V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women

A real-life Silence of the Lambs a worthy piece of journalism.

The Herald (Glasgow)

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To the murdered women of Ciudad Jurez, State of Chihuahua, Mxico

To Victor, Julian, and Tony, without whose love and support this book would not have been possible

I N 1993, LIFE IN J UREZ, M EXICO, began to change for many young women. One by one, their violated and mutilated bodies began to appear in the vast desert areas that encircle the city. At the time of this books publication, the killings continue and there remain dozens of unresolved cases. Although some say the dead can speak, the families of the victims ask themselves if anyone is listening.

Among the theories, insiders and advocates for the victims have suggested that a serial killer or killers may be on the loose; that members of Jurezs powerful drug cartel and a handful of prominent buisnessmen on either side of the border in conjunction with police may be responsible for a number of these crimes. They believe that some people in power are more interested in covering up the crimes and shielding the perpetrators than in resolving the cases in any way that can bring peace of mind to many bereaved families.

I am Teresa Rodriguez, anchor and investigative reporter for Univision, the largest Spanish-language television network in the United States. I traveled to Juarez, Mexico, on four separate occasions, both with my news production team and on my own, to carry out my investigations.

My own family emigrated from Cuba when I was nine months old. While I grew up with few luxuries, that fact never seemed to matter. My mother could sew, so I never lacked for new clothes. I was always told I could be anything I wanted to be if I just set my mind to it. The women I am going to tell you about are fighting for that same right, but their struggle is marked by a trail of blood and their abusers remain at large despite repeated calls for justice.

We expect fair trials in the United States of America. And yet even in our own country, we know that justice is not always served. However, as you read this book, you will see that in the state of Chihuahua and perhaps throughout Mexico, many of those rules that we take for granted dont exist. People are living in substandard conditions, and political corruption reigns.

In the following pages, you will read an incredible and disturbing account of serial murder, police corruption, and political indifference. Drawing from a variety of sources, including interviews with law enforcement personnel, civil rights leaders, victims families, local journalists, and others, I bring you a firsthand account of the atrocities against women that are occurring just south of the U.S. border.

Among the dozens of interviews I conducted while in Mexico was an exclusive one-on-one sit-down with the alleged mastermind behind the murders, Egyptian chemist Abdel Latif Sharif Sharif, who died in jail proclaiming his innocence. His allegation that members of the Chihuahua State Police Department, working in concert with high-ranking government officials, narcotraffickers, and perhaps even wealthy businessmen crossing into Mexico from the U.S. city of El Paso, are behind the killings is not without merit and, in fact, has been bolstered by inquiries conducted by representatives from the United Nations and Amnesty International.

Yet, despite the findings of these studies, the formation of numerous commissions, the appointment of federal special prosecutors, and the undying efforts by local womens rights activists to right the wrongs, the abuses against Mexicos young women continue seemingly unabated.

T HE HOWLING OF THE COYOTES is nothing compared to the stillness that falls on the desert once it swallows its prey; when the sun sets and one life stops in Jurez. And it isnt the coyotes that strike, with the ferocity and stealth of predators, nor any animal that inhabits the arid terrain. This marauder walks among his victims, examining their every move, perhaps even befriending them. And when she least expects it, he unleashes a deadly sting, like the venomous scorpion common to this parched region, violently raping, mutilating and slaughtering his prey, leaving her to die among the tumbleweed knowing her desperate cries for help will be pointless and trackless. No one will hear her in this barren wilderness. And when his job is done, the beast rejoices. In his warped and perverted mind he is confident that soon, she too will rot away, like the other daughters of Juarez becoming one with this desolate wasteland.