One year after the femicide of Victoria Salazar, the Salvadoran woman killed by police officers in Tulum

Several civil society organizations called on Monday for “justice and reparation of harm” for the case of the Salvadoran migrant who was killed in March 2021 by four police officers in Tulum, in the state of Quintana Roo.

“One year after the femicide of Victoria Salazar, a Salvadoran woman recognized as a refugee in Mexico since 2018, the authorities (...) continue to delay the hearing of the case, suspending it without prior notice to those who legally represent the family, while the investigation lacks a gender perspective and completeness, leading to impunity and lack of access to justice for Victoria's family,” they said in a statement.

On March 27, 2021, Salvadoran migrant Victoria Esperanza Salazar, 36 years old and resident in Mexico on a humanitarian visa since 2018, was killed by four police officers in Tulum.

Salazar's videotaped death caused outrage in Mexico and El Salvador and prompted protests from international organizations and groups that accused Mexican security forces of racism and misogyny, as well as claims from El Salvador.

In early April, Mexican authorities linked four police officers, three men and one woman, to criminal proceedings for the crime of femicide against Victoria.

In August 2021, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) issued a recommendation requesting, among other things, a public apology, medical and psychological care for the family and recognition as victims. This, they said, “has been ignored by the authorities.”

For the legal representatives, “although the Recommendation does not address the opinion of indirect victims, it does not have a gender or transnationality perspective, it does not establish the mechanisms for compliance with it, it does not consider the timing of the legal process in the public apology, and does not emphasize the need for an investigation exhaustive, after seven months of issuance, the slightest effort of the authorities to comply with it is not observed”.

They added that the search for justice they lead is not limited to the Victoria case, but seeks to be the voice of thousands of migrant women, applicants for international protection and refugees, for whom Mexico “does not guarantee protection and access to justice, on the contrary, it repeatedly violates them by making them invisible, discriminate against them and perpetuate institutional violence”.

The statement is signed by the Foundation for Justice (FJEDD), Legal Assistance for Human Rights AC (Asilegal), the Institute for Women in Migration (Imumi) and Asylum Access Mexico, organizations that accompany the family and documented inconsistencies in the criminal process.