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The three-year old, Ciudad Juárez based, murdered women's group
Voces Sin Eco (Voices Without Echo, VSE) is disbanding according
to organization spokesperson Guillermina González Flores. González
said that journalists, NGOs and the media were profiting from the
losses of the murdered women's families and this was the reason
that the group was disbanding. However, González also stated that
former VSE members will continue to demand justice for their slain
family members.
Formed on July 18, 1998, Voces Sin Eco sought to support the families
of missing women and to seek justice in the cases of their missing
family members. Comprised of six families, none of the families'
cases have been resolved, according to González.
González said that people in the media and in NGOs were profiting
from VSE and that the group never wanted money to be a central concern.
"From the beginning our objective was not to make money or
profit, we fought with what we had, with the little that we had,
this was the idea," she said. González's sister María Sagrario
González, age 17, was murdered on April 16, 1998.
VSE also complains that people in Mexico and other countries were
trying to raise money for the group but they never received anything.
González stated that VSE helped in the production of documentaries,
books and movies and that one group said that part of the earnings
from a documentary were to have gone to the group. VSE never received
a cent, according to González.
To cover some expenses and the rent on the small apartment that
they used for an office, González said that the group sold used
clothes and raffle tickets.
"We have been used by the US and Italian press," said
Irma Pérez, a mother of one of the victims. "As many as three
interviews a day were given by one poor person [family member],"
she added.
González also criticized Casa Amiga, the only rape and abuse crisis
center in Ciudad Juárez, and its director Esther Chávez Cano. González
accused Chávez of manipulating public sentiment to gain funds for
Casa Amiga. González also asked in the Cd. Juárez newspaper El Diario
that Chávez not give out the group's or group members' phone numbers.
Chávez responded by saying that she only gave out VSE's phone number
because the victims should speak for themselves. Chávez never wanted
to speak for them, "because the pain is theirs and they should
speak about it, not I."
Chávez continued by saying, "I love them [the VSE members]
a lot. Their suffering has touched me and I've helped them and I'm
ready to help them again whenever they need me. I won't attack them.
I respect them and all society should respect them. They know I've
helped them and I'm not spiteful because they're victims and they
feel pain."
Reflecting on its three years of existence, Paula Flores Molina,
the mother of spokesperson Guillermina González Flores and murder
victim María Sagrario González Flores, said that the group had made
some solid gains. For example, families are now allowed to view
their daughters' bodies before an autopsy is performed. "We've
also lost our fear of authorities," she said. "We used
to sit for three hours before they would talk to us. Now we walk
into the investigator's office as if it were our home."
Since 1993 over 210 women have been brutally raped and murdered
in Ciudad Juárez.
Source: El Diario, July 9, 2001. Article by Araly Castańon.
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