Last news from Ciudad Juarez

Early this morning I had email contact with reporter Diana Washington Valdez in El Paso,Texas, getting an update on the current situation in Ciudad Juarez. This is what she shared with me:

336 people were killed in Juarez violence in August, nearly half were women. Since January, about 2006 people were killed in what authorities say are mostly drug-related homicides. They say that about almost all the murders of men and women without first investigating.
Combat-like conditions make it dangerous for everyone, man, woman or child. Recent events include car-bombings, armed hitmen bursting into a movie theater to kill someone, into a VIP's restaurant to kill another man, into hospitals -- no place is safe. People have a hard time trying to go about their daily affairs.

We continue to receive reports of young women disappearing, but the cases are not publicized by the authorities. We know from individual accounts that some women are kidnapped for ransom, others are taken elsewhere for sex-trafficking and others are killed and their bodies disposed of clandestinely.