Femicide Machine/ Backyard

So reads the sobering introductory paragraph of Sergio González Ro-dríguez’s provocative The Femicide Machine, a recent installment in Semiotext(e)’s Intervention series. The compact primer distills the his-torical trajectory of entanglement among Mexico, the United States, global economy, and organized crime, delineating the femicide ma-chine’s genesis and current stranglehold. The author’s journalistic credentials prove invaluable as the text slips in and out of straight reportage. In 2009 there were 164 female homicides in Ciudad Juárez -- 306 the following year -- many by strangulation, stabbing, and gun-shots, often involving sexual violence. More than 30,000 have died since the beginning of the war on drug trafficking in 2006, almost a quarter of those deaths occurring in Ciudad Juárez. Often repeti-tive, urgent, and devastating, The Femicide Machine tells a story of extreme capitalism reshaping territory and a processual state-form fostering utterly inhumane machines