It is now almost 11 years since the brutal cycle of abductions and murders of young women
began in Ciudad Juárez in northern Mexico. Over the last year there has been intense national
and international pressure to stop violent crimes against women and to end the impunity with
which many such crimes have been committed. In 2003, the Federal Government1 finally
began to implement a programme of measures to prevent and prosecute acts of violence
against women in Ciudad Juárez.