The investigator for women's rights from the Inter-American Human Rights Commission has expressed dissatisfaction with the police investigations of murders of young women in Juarez, Mexico. There have been around 300 cases of women raped and murdered in Juarez since 1993.

The Inter-American Human Rights Commission official, Martha Altolaguirre says she is disappointed by the slowness and the negligence that has characterized the investigations.

She says "it is indisputable that there has been a degree of negligence and that the authorities have not put every effort into the investigation of these cases." She also criticizes local and state authorities for not doing enough to protect young women from future attacks. Ms. Altolaguirre notes that it has been known for several years now which streets and byways are the most dangerous and authorities have done nothing to increase security in those areas.

The Human Rights investigator says that the Juarez murders could end up as a case before the Inter-American Human Rights Court. She says that "if there is sufficient evidence that the state violated the rights of the murdered women, then the case will go to court."

Womens' organizations and various civic groups in Juarez have protested against the government's failure to properly investigate the 300 some cases. More than 70 of the murders show evidence of having been committed by one or more serial killers.

A top investigator with the Chihuahua State Attorney General's office resigned last month claiming that his superiors were failing to examine physical evidence and were trying to frame two suspects in order to close the case. Two men arrested in November in connection with eight murders, have since claimed they were tortured into confessing. A lawyer representing one of the men was shot to death by police last week in what authorities describe as a case of mistaken identity. The lawyer representing the other suspect says he has received death threats.

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