Open AccessFeminicidio, Narcoviolence, and Gentrification in Ciudad Juárez: The Feminist Fight
Author(s) -
Melissa W. Wright
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
environment and planning. d, society and space/environment and planning. d, society and space
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.655
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1472-3433
pISSN - 0263-7758
DOI - 10.1068/d17812
Subject(s) - impunity , political science , sociology , gentrification , criminology , law , political economy , human rights , economic growth , economics
The fight against impunity continues along Mexico's border, especially in the industrial hub of Ciudad Juárez. In the 1990s feminists brought this fight to international attention as they launched a transnational justice movement against feminicidio, the killing of women with impunity. In this paper I create a feminist and Marxist frame to show that there is much to be learned from the fight against feminicidio for the ongoing struggles in a border city that is now also notorious for juvenicidio, the killing of youth with impunity, which is occurring in relation to the Mexican government's declaration of war against organized crime. By situating these justice struggles within a context of North American securitization and neoliberal gentrification along the Mexico—US border, I argue that the feminist fight against impunity exposes the synergy of symbolic and material processes within the drug war. And I argue that this synergy seeks to generate value through the extermination of whole populations, especially of working poor women and their families in this border city today.