Las Muertas de Juárez

The phenomenon of the female homicides in Ciudad Juárez, called in Spanish the feminicidios ("femicides") or las muertas de Juárez ("The dead women of Juárez"), involves the violent death of hundreds of women in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, a border city across the Rio Grande from the US city of El Paso, Texas. Most of the cases remain unsolved
According to the Organization of American States's Inter-American Commission on Human Rights:

The victims of these crimes have preponderantly been young women, between 17 and 22 years of age. Many were students, and most were maquiladora [workers in foreign owned factories]. A number were relative newcomers to Ciudad Juarez who had migrated from other areas of Mexico. The victims were generally reported missing by their families, with their bodies found days or months later abandoned in vacant lots or outlying areas. In most of these cases there were signs of sexual violence, abuse, torture or in some cases mutilation.

According to Amnesty International, as of February 2005 more than 370 bodies had been found, and over 400 women were still missing. In November 2005, BBC News reported Mexico's human rights ombudsman Jose Luis Soberanes as saying that 28 women had been murdered so far in 2005. Despite past and current unsolved murders, in August 2006 the Mexican federal government dropped its investigation.
Various individuals have been arrested in connection with the murders. However, the Mexican police have been criticized for making arrests with little or no evidence and failing to detain alleged perpetrators. Additionally, they have been accused of coercing people to confess to murders, destroying evidence, even kidnapping women.

One of the first arrests made was that of an Egyptian-born chemist, Abdul Latif Sharif (born in 1947), who was accused but never convicted of several rapes in the United States before moving to Ciudad Juarez in 1994 to escape a deportation hearing in Texas. Since his conviction and imprisonment for the murder of a young maquiladora worker in 1995, the police have arrested two groups of men whom they allege Sharif was paying "from behind bars" to rape and murder on his behalf in an attempt to establish his innocence of the crimes.
However, despite the arrests of Sharif and his alleged co-conspirators, the killings continued, leading the Mexican police and the public in general to consider many theories, among them that the real killer or killers are still on the loose or that the original killer or killers are in jail and copycats have moved to the area since. There are also accusations that there has been a conspiracy of silence and cover-up by Mexican politicians bribed by the killer or killers.
Many people have been surprised at how women could turn up dead while Sharif was in prison, but the police never failed to blame him for many of the murders.

Other suspects convicted in connection with the affair include Víctor García Uribe (El Cerillo), convicted in October 2004 for eight of the murders, and Gustavo González Meza (La Foca), who was arrested on suspicion in some of the killings but died in jail under suspicious circumstances on February 8, 2003. In January of 2006, their lawyer, Sergio Dante Almaraz, was murdered in Juarez. Some suspect he was ambushed by the same police officers who have killed before. On January 7, 2005, four members of the "Los Toltecas" gang were convicted of six murders and six member of the "Los Rebeldes" gang were convicted of another six murders. Jesús Manuel Guardado and four other "Toltecas" had been arrested in 1999. One was found not guilty. Five of the twelve convicted so far have been bus drivers.

On May 30, 2005, President Vicente Fox told reporters that the majority of the Juárez killings had been resolved and the perpetrators placed behind bars. He went on to criticize the media for "rehashing" the same 300 or 400 murders, and said matters needed to be seen in their "proper dimension". In response, the congressional special commission for the killings said that the president needed to be better informed about the situation.
A group of mothers, families, and friends of the victims, called Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa A.C. ("Our daughters to come back home, civil association") was formed to raise awareness about the situation and put pressure on the Mexican government to pay attention to these cases, some of which have gone unsolved for 12 years. Members of the group, including co-founder Norma Andrade, demand that proper investigations be carried out.

Another family organization, Voces sin Eco ("voices without a sound") was founded in 1998. They painted pink crosses on black telephone poles to draw attention to the problem and align themselves with family values. An informal group, which the press named Las Mujeres de Negro ("the women in black"), originated in November of 2001 in Chihuahua City, following the discover of eight corpses together. They attended the protest, which interrupted the celebration of the Mexican Revolution, wearing black tunics (as a sign of mourning) and pink hats. Since then, they have marched across the desert from Chihuahua City to Juárez and planted crosses (sometimes with plastic limbs attached) in prominent places.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_homicides_in_Ciudad_Juárez