Feminicidal Mexico: the demonstrations that triggered the femicide of Debanhi Escobar and the 10 women who die daily in the country

Feminist collectives will march this Sunday in Mexico City to demand justice for the cases of femicide that have caused great indignation among citizens. Through social networks, women convened mobilizations in different parts of the Mexican capital to make visible the serious problem of gender-based violence that the country is facing and which has placed it in an emergency situation.

The contingent that will lead the Truth and Justice march was summoned at noon this Sunday, April 24 in the Stela de Luz on Paseo de la Reforma, in the same way, another contingent will meet at the Monument to the Revolution at 14:00 hours, which will go to the vicinity of the Attorney General's Office of Justice of the Mexico City (FGJ CMDX) better known as El Bunker.

It is worth mentioning that, hours before the mobilizations, elements of the Ministry of Citizen Security (SSC) and the Investigative Police (PDI) are already placing metal fences around the perimeter of the Attorney General's Office of Mexico City (FGJ CDMX) as a measure of protection against any damage that protesters could cause the premises.

The demonstrations have been called after last Thursday, April 21, Debanhi Escobar's body was located inside a cistern in the Nueva Castilla Motel in Nuevo Leon. Since the day of her disappearance, the case of the 18-year-old law student caused great shock not only in the northern state but throughout the country because of the inconsistencies presented.

Although the case of Debanhi Escobar became highly media, it is the tip of the iceberg of the enormous security problem that Mexican women face in their daily lives, because only in 2021, in the period from January to November 3,462 women were killed, of whom 922 were victims of femicide. This figure reveals the alarming fact that at least 10 women are killed daily in the Aztec country.

Despite the fact that on several occasions the serious problem has been tried to make visible, violence and impunity in Mexico do not cease and so far in 2022 there have been an average of at least seven missing women per day. Similarly, the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons reported that, between the period from January 1 to April 14, 748 women disappeared.

The feminist movement in Mexico has gained strength in recent years as a result of the wave of violence and impunity seen in cases of disappearance and homicide of women. In this context, in different mobilizations thousands of women have expressed the anger, sadness and frustration that living in a femicidal Mexico generates for them.

According to the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), the states with the highest number of femicides accumulated in 2021 were the State of Mexico (Edomex) with 132, followed by Jalisco and Veracruz with 66 cases, both entities; Mexico City (CDMX) recorded 64 murders of women for reasons of gender and Nuevo León 57.

It is pertinent to point out that many cases of femicide initially begin with a disappearance, which occurs under contexts daily activities for women, from boarding public transport, going to the stationery store, to a party or looking for work, no matter what the circumstance, the risk has become constant. In addition, it emphasizes that the disappearances of girls and women have very different components from those of the male gender, unfortunately behind many there is sexual abuse.

Fed up with the situation has unleashed the fury of thousands of Mexican women who are tired of seeing women disappear in the country, so they have denounced the authorities' inability to deal with cases of femicide and gender-based violence.

In addition to denouncing that officials are not trained to address cases with a gender perspective, women have emphasized the culture of re-victimization that exists in the country. This practice consists of blaming the victim for having been in the wrong place or in a vulnerable circumstance, a situation that misrepresents the real problem that permeates Mexican society.

Today the name of Debanhi Escobar will resonate alongside that of Ingrid Escamilla, Sofía Morales, Evelin Afiune, Nayeli Alfaro, Frida Alondra, Maria Fernanda Contreras, Victoria Guadalupe, Laura Yanet, Joceline Quintana, Clara Noemí and that of all those women whose lives were taken and for whom today protesters speak out for demand justice.

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