Territory, sovereignty and second state crimes: the writing on the bodies of the assassinated women of Ciudad Juarez

Abstract

The essay examines the case of the feminicides that rendered at least three hundred women murdered during the last twelve years in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, at the Northern Mexican border. In all these years, the authorities presented only a few suspects, without ever getting to convince public opinion of their culpability. Impunity and protection for the murderers are evident to local public opinion and to international observers. I argue that what is written on the body of the brutally murdered women is the signature of a local and regional power counting also with national connections. These acts of apparently irrational violence state beyond doubt the discretionary power of their perpetrators and the control they exert over the people and resources of their territory, thus sealing and reinforcing a pact of fraternity.

Expressive violence; gender violence; mafias; masculinity; territoriality