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| Diana Huntress of Bus Drivers instils fear and respect in Ciudad Juárez | Diana Huntress of Bus Drivers instils fear and respect in Ciudad Juárez |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The No 4 bus always enjoyed a certain reputation. Wending its way west from Ciudad Juárez's dilapidated centre to a lower-middle class suburb, through nondescript roads and strip malls, this was always a quiet journey in an unquiet city. | The No 4 bus always enjoyed a certain reputation. Wending its way west from Ciudad Juárez's dilapidated centre to a lower-middle class suburb, through nondescript roads and strip malls, this was always a quiet journey in an unquiet city. |
| That was until a middle-aged woman with dyed blond hair, or a wig, killed two drivers on consecutive days at about 8am. On both occasions she had been sitting on the bus for about 15 minutes before moving to the front, taking out a revolver, shooting the driver dead and then getting off. | |
| "We're terrified," said bus driver Rodrigo as he started his engine, complaining of a constant headache from the strain of checking over each passenger when they get on, and keeping an eye out for suspicious behaviour. "We're frightened of our own shadow." | "We're terrified," said bus driver Rodrigo as he started his engine, complaining of a constant headache from the strain of checking over each passenger when they get on, and keeping an eye out for suspicious behaviour. "We're frightened of our own shadow." |
| The murders, at the end of August, are not the first time bus drivers have been targeted in a city infamous for extreme drug-cartel violence. But these killings stand out not only because the gender and age of the assassin, but because the police's main line of investigation suggests she was taking revenge for sexual violence by bus drivers, partly a result of an email claiming as much sent to a local news website signed "Diana Huntress of Bus Drivers". | The murders, at the end of August, are not the first time bus drivers have been targeted in a city infamous for extreme drug-cartel violence. But these killings stand out not only because the gender and age of the assassin, but because the police's main line of investigation suggests she was taking revenge for sexual violence by bus drivers, partly a result of an email claiming as much sent to a local news website signed "Diana Huntress of Bus Drivers". |
| For women sitting in Rodrigo's bus, which like all Juárez buses is an old American school bus, brighly repainted, the nervousness that the killer might strike again with a less precise aim, is qualified by sympathy for her imagined pain. "They must have done something terrible to her," a young mother called Sandra said. "With the police doing nothing and a society that doesn't care, it is understandable that she took justice into her own hands." | |
| There is admiration, too. "I'm not sure what she did is justified," Margarita mused, "but you've got to admit that that woman has guts." | There is admiration, too. "I'm not sure what she did is justified," Margarita mused, "but you've got to admit that that woman has guts." |
| Such empathy brushes over the possibility the email could be a hoax, or the victims innocent. It also ignores more mundane possibilities, such as an extortion threat in a city where female assassins are well documented. | Such empathy brushes over the possibility the email could be a hoax, or the victims innocent. It also ignores more mundane possibilities, such as an extortion threat in a city where female assassins are well documented. |
| The readiness to accept the vengeance version also has deep roots in the daily experience of bus travel – being thrown about inside as drivers hurtle off at breakneck speed, stereos blaring, amid clouds of dust; the constant harassment of the young and pretty; and the fact drivers often double up as drug dealers. | |
| Behind all this also lies the legacy of the time when the raped and mutilated bodies of young women were regularly found dumped in the desert, their murders almost never properly investigated despite the global attention they grabbed and the Hollywood movies they inspired. This phenomenon was deeply associated with city bus drivers, in some cases with credible evidence, and in others because they were turned into easy scapegoats by the pressured authorities. The history hangs particularly heavily over the No 10 bus route that heads east out of the centre along the border, the shiny American city of El Paso twinkling in the distance, before heading up into the barren hills and the infamous barrio of Anapra. Here the bus bumps and creaks along dirt tracks that fade into the desert, at one point passing the eerie flat-topped hill where many bodies were found. | Behind all this also lies the legacy of the time when the raped and mutilated bodies of young women were regularly found dumped in the desert, their murders almost never properly investigated despite the global attention they grabbed and the Hollywood movies they inspired. This phenomenon was deeply associated with city bus drivers, in some cases with credible evidence, and in others because they were turned into easy scapegoats by the pressured authorities. The history hangs particularly heavily over the No 10 bus route that heads east out of the centre along the border, the shiny American city of El Paso twinkling in the distance, before heading up into the barren hills and the infamous barrio of Anapra. Here the bus bumps and creaks along dirt tracks that fade into the desert, at one point passing the eerie flat-topped hill where many bodies were found. |
| "We have seen so much in Juárez and it has been so terrible, that almost nothing about killing shocks us any more." Erika's voice at the back of a No 10 was scarcely audible above the mariachis on the radio. But when asked about the drivers she smiled discretely. "Perhaps they will realise that it is not so easy to abuse women now." | "We have seen so much in Juárez and it has been so terrible, that almost nothing about killing shocks us any more." Erika's voice at the back of a No 10 was scarcely audible above the mariachis on the radio. But when asked about the drivers she smiled discretely. "Perhaps they will realise that it is not so easy to abuse women now." |
| Erika, like most women in Juárez, is far from confident to, for example, travel on a commercial bus at night. Many, however, roam the city after dark inside the white buses that ferry workers too and from the assembly-for-export factories on which the city's economy depends – if the now famous email is to be believed then "Diana, the Huntress of Bus Drivers" was a factory worker. | Erika, like most women in Juárez, is far from confident to, for example, travel on a commercial bus at night. Many, however, roam the city after dark inside the white buses that ferry workers too and from the assembly-for-export factories on which the city's economy depends – if the now famous email is to be believed then "Diana, the Huntress of Bus Drivers" was a factory worker. |
| At about 2pm, the main road through Anapra is dotted with women standing at street corners, their uniforms hung over their arms, waiting to be picked up by the buses for the afternoon shift that ends at 12.30am. The drivers of these buses are vetted more carefully. But they too can set nerves jangling on the way home. | |
| "Sometimes I am the last one to get off and it feels like there is nothing you can do when the drivers get creepy," 19-year-old Maria said as she waited to be taken to a windscreen wiper assembly line. "If the killer really was a victim I hope she doesn't get caught." | |
| Such stories haunt Rodrigo, the bus driver of the No 4, who admits some drivers "on other routes" have been known to rape and kill. In the meantime he takes scant comfort from the plainclothes policemen now riding the buses, armed with an artists impression of the killer. | Such stories haunt Rodrigo, the bus driver of the No 4, who admits some drivers "on other routes" have been known to rape and kill. In the meantime he takes scant comfort from the plainclothes policemen now riding the buses, armed with an artists impression of the killer. |
| "If she gets on my bus they might be able to catch her afterwards, but what good will that do me?" | "If she gets on my bus they might be able to catch her afterwards, but what good will that do me?" |
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