The Feminicides of the cotton field (Spanish: Feminicidas del campo algodonero) is the media name for murders committed by two Mexicanserial killers, Edgar Ernesto Álvarez Cruz and José Francisco Granados de la Paz (born 1979).[1] Both were active between 1993 and 2003, in the city of Ciudad Juárez.[2] According to his own statements, Granados kidnapped, tortured, raped and murdered at least 8-10 young women,[3][1] but according to the Attorney General of the State of Chihuahua they murdered at least 14 women.[4] This corresponded to the 8 corpses found in cotton fields in the city's outskirts and 6 more found in Mount Cerro Negro, also adjacent to the city.[5]
Granados was an assiduous consumer of cocaine, had a long criminal record in the United States, consisting mainly of low-impact crimes such as illegal entry and residence in the country and consumption and possession of illicit substances; there are records that indicate that Francisco's first arrest was made in 1995, when he was 16 years old, on charges of illegal stay in the country and resisting arrest.[6]
While in the custody of the Texas police in 2006, Granados confessed to having participated in at least 10 murders of women, perpetrated between 1993 and 2003.[7] In his statements he indicated that he was not fully aware of what he did, as he committed his crimes while drugged:
"...I told some cousins, a cousin bought me a pizza and asked me what I had, I told him it was because of the deaths in Juárez, that I felt used and that I was threatened as a minor and drugged with benzos twice. I told him that I had killed two women, he looked at me and said 'It's not true, do not tell me anything...'
— Francisco Granados during a press conference in 2008[8]
He identified Edgar Ernesto Álvarez Cruz as the alleged mastermind of between 10 and 17 murders. He also mentioned of the participation of a third man, Alejandro Delgado Valles, known as El Calas, who was later exonerated. He indicated that Álvarez used to provide him drugs during the crimes, so he did not remember the exact events.
According to statements by Francisco Granados, the women were kidnapped or taken with deception to unpopulated areas of the outskirts of the city inside Álvarez's car, an eighties-model Renault, where they were tied and raped, then mutilated and murdered in the midst of satanistic rituals chaired by Álvarez, who used to dissect the hearts of his victims.[9] The bodies were buried or simply abandoned in vacant lots, with some buried in Álvarez's own home. In later investigations, a corpse was exhumed on the premises of Álvarez's home.[10]
In his confession Granados identified 6 murdered women, and mentioned a sixth and seventh victim whom he partially identified only under their supposed names:[7]
Mayra Juliana Reyes Solís
Esmeralda Herrera Monrreal
Laura Berenice Ramos Mónarrez
Claudia Ivette González
Verónica Martínez Hernández
Guadalupe Luna de la Rosa
Rosario ("Chayito"): she supposedly died when she was intentionally run over by Álvarez with his car.[10]
The intervention of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights was based on requests from victims' relatives, who filed a complaint against the Mexican State, motivated by the lack of response from the same.
In 2005 the Inter-American Court approved and admitted the case, and in January 2007 it accumulated the files of González, Monrreal and Mónarrez, whose bodies were found in Juárez's cotton fields.
On November 16, 2009, the court issued a judgment against the Mexican State.[11]
From the sentence that was issued the following recommendations were highlighted:
Conduct the criminal process properly
Publicly acknowledge their international responsibility
^José Luis Elías García. "Feminicides, new edition" (in Spanish). Editions and editors (La Palabra.com). Archived from the original on 16 December 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
