For four and a half years Eva Arce has waited for her daughter to come home from work. But Sylvia isn’t coming home, she was murdered, and her assailants have yet to see justice. Arce and the family members of other femicide victims from Chihuahua, Mexico spoke out against injustice at a panel Wednesday night.

“We are the mothers whose daughters have disappeared and have been murdered, and we are seeking justice,” Arce said.

Patti Cervantes spoke of her struggle to obtain justice for her daughter Nevra Cervantes, who disappeared on May 13th 2003 after leaving work.

“Like all the other mothers I only want to know what the truth is. Our rights are being trampled, and I ask you as a mother and as a woman to support our cause. Our daughters are clamoring for justice, so please don’t abandon us,” Cervantes said.

Paula Bonilla Flores’ daughter disappeared in 1998. When officials presented her with a body bag containing bones they claimed to be her daughter’s, she demanded a DNA test. After undertaking several unsuccessful tests to identify the remains, Flores still does not know for certain if the body found was her that of her daughter.

“I am going to continue my struggle for justice and I have proof of everything that the government has done to us. They will be held accountable,” Flores said.

“It begins when you get your seventeen-year-old daughter back in a bag.” -Paula Bonilla Flores

Many of the families spoke of corruption within the government, of officials who concealed or lost evidence and protected the accused. Arce claims that though the report on her daughter’s case was filed four and half years ago, government officials have yet to collect statements from the accused.

“They think that when they give us a body that it the end of it. But for us, the family, it is only the beginning,” said Malu Andrade.

Andrade’s sister Alejandra was found strangled just hours after her death. Evidence of her assailants was everywhere at the scene, including DNA samples under her fingernails. But when the family tried to obtain a report on the evidence, they were told that, “the photos had been lost from the digital camera”. To this day no one has been convicted for Alejandra’s murder.

“I would give anything to not be where I am now, to sit in the audience and listen to these stories, but I am on this side and no matter what the officials say they will not silence me. I have received threats on my life, but if they kill me, the people standing beside, behind, and before me will take my place. We will have peace and we will have justice,” Andrade said.            

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