Protesters use Day of the Dead to spotlight murdered Mexican women

Published: 2003-11-04

MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Women dressed in black lit candles, burned incense and built altars outside Mexican government offices around the world, using Mexico's Day of the Dead festival to call attention to the unsolved killings of hundreds of young women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Protesters say Mexican authorities have not done enough to solve the brutal murders, in which many victims have been raped, or to protect women from attacks over the last 10 years. Mexico's Justice Department reports that 258 women that have been killed in or around Ciudad Juarez since 1993, while human rights groups estimate there have been as many as 400 murders. Only one person has been convicted -- for one of the first of the killings.

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