Eve Ensler Addresses Letter to Special Prosecutor in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

Eve Ensler Addresses Special Prosecutor in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico in a letter, joined by Casa Amiga, Amnesty International, UNIFEM, Equality Now and prominent international women and men

Attn: Prosecutor Of Justice, Lic. Oscar Valadéz, Ciudad Juarez

CC: Sr. Vicente Fox Quezada, Presidente Constitucional de la República Mexicana

CP Patrico Martinez, Gobernador del Estado de Chihuahua

Lic. José de Jesús Silva Solís, Procurador General de Justicia del Gobierno del Estado, Chihuahua

On February 7th, I joined hundreds of women in Ciudad Juarez to demand action for the over 300 missing and murdered women whose cases remain unsolved over the last decade. We marched to raise awareness and show solidarity with our brutally murdered and mutilated sisters.

We met with you to implore you to focus all of the power of your office on this issue, to request that you conduct and pursue an open transparent investigation with a community-based commission, including professional investigators that represent the international community.

Immediately following that action and that meeting, four new bodies were discovered: three young women who had been strangled, two of them found with their hands tied behind their back, and the fourth, a six-year old girl who had been raped, was found with her eyes cut out. And in the past weeks there have been a rash of kidnappings that surprise even the authorities.

Today, I, along with many leading international human rights groups and many prominent people of the world, urge you to take swift and direct action to find the murderers and stop this deliberate horrific femicide.

The conditions in Juarez have already been the subject of protests and actions by Amnesty International, Equality Now, V-Day and many other international organizations. V-Day has been working to raise awareness of this issue throughout Mexico via "The Vagina Monologues" and direct support to Casa Amiga, as well as internationally through our thousands of activists. Amnesty International is already investigating the inadequate response of authorities to these hundreds of murders and disappearances in Juarez and has launched 2 international Urgent Actions about several of the cases. Equality Now first raised this pattern of abduction and murder in 1999 with the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which conveyed its concern to Mexican authorities, and continues to seek effective intervention by the United Nations to ensure that justice is done. The Executive Director of UNIFEM, Noeleen Heyzer, has visited Juarez and raised international attention on these issues.

Women from all over the world are outraged and our eyes are on Ciudad Juarez. If immediate action is not taken to resolve these murders, there will be a massive action taken on the part of women in the world.

We can wait no longer. It is an outrage. We cannot stand by as more bodies appear.

Signed,
Eve Ensler, Founder/Artistic Director V-Day

Joined by:
Bonnie Abaunza, Director, Artists For Amnesty, Amnesty International
Sheila Dauer, Director of Women's Program, Amnesty International USA
Taina Bien Aime, Executive Director, Equality Now
Esther Chavez Cano, Executive Director, CasaAmiga
Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM
Jerri Lynn Fields, Executive Director, V-Day
Alexandra Arriaga, Director of Government Relations, Amnesty International USA
Morris Gilbert, Director General, OCESA Entretenimiento / División Teatro
Professor Alicia Gaspar de Alba, UCLA
Sandra Cisneros – Escritora
Jesusa Rodríguez - Actriz
Liliana Felipe - Compositora
Cristina Michaus - Actriz
Pilar Sánchez - Activista
Maria del Consuelo Mejia. Directora Católicas Por el Derecho a Decidir
Gabriela Rodríguez.- Articulista
Angélica Aragón- Actriz
Patricia Mercado - Directora México Posible
Sandra Lorenzano - Escritora y Catedrática
Carmen Beatriz López Portillo - Directora Claustro Sor Juana
Martha Lucía Mitcher. Diputada
Andrea Legarreta - Actress
Susana Alexander - Actress
Sofia Alvarez - Actress
Pilar Boliver - Actress
Laura Flores - Actress
Ana Karina Guevara - Actress
Joanydka Mariel - Actress
Anabel Ochoa - Sexologist and Actress
Stephanie Salas - Actress
Blanca Guerra - Actress
Carlos Monsivais-Writer
Carmen Montejo-Actress
Cristina Pacheco-Writer and Journalist
Daniela Romo-Actress
Elizabeth Aguilar-Actress
Gina Morett-Actress
Lilia Aragon-Actress and Political Activist for the National Association of Actors
Adriana Roel-Actress
Patricia Reyes Spindola-Actress
Bianca Marroquin-Actress
Jana Raluy-Actress
Pilar Pellicer-Actress
Gino d'Artali, Director, the C.A.U.S.E
Harvey Keitel
Howard Zinn
Lourdes Portillo
Sr.Francisco Hernández Juárez, Secretario General del Sindicato Nacional de Telefonistas
Trudie Styler
Kavita Ramdas, Global Fund For Women
Meryl Streep
Charlotte Bunch
Calista Flockhart
Pat Mitchell
Carole Black, President & CEO, Lifetime Entertainment Services
Glenn Close
Beth Dozoretz
Kathleen Chalfant
Henry Chalfant
Gloria Steinem
Joan Steinberg
Anjelica Huston
Agata Racan, The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia
Laura Flanders, Working Assets Radio
Jane Fonda
Zeljka Antunovic, Vice Prime Minister And Minister Of Defence, Republic of Croatia
Paula Wagner
Nicolas Cage
Melanie Griffith
Salma Hayek
Hon. Christine Quinn, New York City Councilmember
Beth Swofford, Creative Artists Agency
Ambassador Swanee Hunt, President, Hunt Alternatives
Claude Boucher, Les Amis du Bus des Femmes
Tanya Lopert
Mario Velasquez, President, Rock the Vote
Brooke Shields
National Association of Latino Independent Producers
Benicio del Toro
Professor Chon Noriega, Director UCLA Chicano Studies Research
Center
Esai Morales
Alejandro Moreno, National Compadres Network
Susan Sarandon