San Diego Bar Mexicali

So far this year, eight prostitutes have been murdered in Mexicali, and according to Carlos Martínez Vieyra, president of Unidos en Apoyo a Grupos Vulnerables (“United in Support of Vulnerable Groups”), 16 “sexoservidoras” are still missing from 2010.

At a recent group meeting, 40 prostitutes exchanged information and established safety rules, such as not getting into clients’ cars and not going to hotels on the outskirts of town. The group wants to keep the action in the traditional area of practice — “la primera quadra” (the first block) of Mexicali, where the bars and cabarets have long been established.

According to Martínez, the police are searching for an individual or group that has been torturing and murdering ladies of the night. The most recently murdered woman was found last week floating in a canal, her genitals disfigured. Authorities are reportedly concerned that the killer’s/killers' modus operandi may have changed, since the victim in the most recent circumstance was contacted through a classified ad placed in a local paper.

“We don’t want Mexicali to turn into another Ciudad Juárez, ” Martínez said in an interview, noting that the disappeared females there have included women working in maquiladoras.

One of the suspects used a firearm to get his victim to submit, and last week a young girl was kidnapped off the streets but managed to escape. Martínez pointed out that some 280 women work as sexoservidoras in the first block of the city, an area on which police can keep an eye.