Mexico women protest against Femicide

[pieter]

[karl]

Pieter

My self would tend to believe this young ladies do have a point with their protest. Even though Mexico City is a very large city, the murder rate is quite high even though of approximately one uniformed police officer per 100 citizens. But though, even with a very professional and well trained police, they do have a situation that is on the side of criminals with their easy access to fire arms:

www.businessinsider.com/with-rising-crime-in-mexico-city-gun-rentals-help-criminals-2019-6


Karl

[pieter]

A 25-year-old woman was brutally murdered and skinned in Mexico. Then newspapers published photos of the body

By Rob Picheta and Natalie Gallón, CNN

Updated 1628 GMT (0028 HKT) February 14, 2020

(CNN)The brutal killing and mutilation of the 25-year-old Ingrid Escamilla in Mexico has sparked outrage and prompted calls for a change in the country's law, after several media outlets published a leaked photograph of the victim's disfigured body on their front pages.

Authorities announced Sunday that police officers arrived at a home in Mexico City over the weekend to find Ingrid Escamilla lifeless, with her body skinned and missing some of its organs -- the latest incident in an ongoing string of violent crimes against women in Mexico.

A 46-year-old man covered in blood stains was also at the scene and was arrested. Leaked photos and videos have subsequently emerged showing a bloodied man apparently admitting to stabbing the woman after, what he says, was a heated argument in which she threatened to kill him, before allegedly skinning her to remove evidence.

CNN has been unable to determine whether the man has legal representation. Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico City's mayor, said prosecutors will demand the maximum sentence against the alleged perpetrator, whom police said was the woman's husband.

"Femicide is an absolutely condemnable crime. It is appalling when hatred reaches extremes like in the case of Ingrid Escamilla," Sheinbaum wrote on Twitter.


Erik Francisco Robledo, 46, (R) has been arrested in the murder of Ingrid Escamilla Vargas, 25. INSTAGRAM PHOTO / Twitter video screenshot

But the outrage over the gruesome case escalated after local tabloids and digital news websites posted extremely graphic, leaked photographs of the victim's body. One of the papers, Pasala, showed the photos on its front page alongside the headline "It was Cupid's fault." CNN has contacted Pasala for comment.

The publication prompted fury from activists in the country, who have been pouring onto the streets in recent months demanding a change in the way cases of violence against women are handled and reported. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been critical of the media's response to the killing.

The Mexico City prosecutor's office is meanwhile investigating civil servants over the leak and is considering making it a crime to distribute images of victims, it said in a statement.

López Obrador told a press conference on Thursday that the person responsible for leaking the images should be reprimanded. "This is a crime, that needs to be punished, whoever it is," he said.

Femicides -- the killing of women on account of their gender -- have risen in Mexico in recent years; 1,006 cases were reported in 2019, compared with 912 the year before.


A previous protest over the rate of proesuctions over femicide in Mexico.

According to Mexico's Attorney General Alejandro Gertz, femicides have increased 137% in the last five years. Gertz told a press conference earlier this week that if there was "no justice" for vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, children and women, "then we are not doing our job."

But women's rights groups have said that too few murders are classified as femicides, and that not enough perpetrators are brought to justice. "Mexico faces a major challenge in terms of violence against women," the country's National Institute of Women said on Wednesday, in a statement that also lambasted media outlets for publishing the images.

"The distribution of images of criminal acts, as a form of advocating crime involving sensationalism, viciousness, mockery and morbidity, causes revictimization, banalizes violence, and threatens the dignity, privacy and identity of victims and their families," the group said.

They added that the publication risked "impeding due process which is necessary to guarantee access to justice," and called on media organizations to act "ethically." Many people on social media have also posted photos of Escamilla alive in an attempt to counteract the publication of the images, while others have tagged her in posts showing scenes of natural beauty, including sunsets and starlit skies.

Marches from feminist groups and supporters are expected to take place in the city on Friday and Saturday.

CNN's Jack Guy contributed reporting.

[pieter]

Mexican women in revolt, "He stabbed me with an ice pick, up to four times"


The ex-husband of Carmen Sánchez threw acid on her because she wanted to divorce RENATO VAROLI

Mexican women are fed up. Today, on International Women's Day, and tomorrow they will take to the streets to protest against the increasing violence against women. Their already growing anger and frustration were further fueled by two brutal femicides ('murder of women').

The first murder was a month ago, on 25-year-old Ingrid Escamilla. Her horribly damaged body appeared on the front pages of some Mexican newspapers. Her boyfriend stabbed her, skinned her and removed her organs.

A day later, seven-year-old Fatima disappeared. Four days later the girl was found dead. She was tortured and raped.


Relatives post a photo of Fatima, a 7-year-old girl who was abducted from the entrance of the Enrique C. Rebsamen primary school and later murdered, at her home in Mexico City, February 17, 2020. © 2020 AP Photo/Marco Ugarte


Fátima, was last seen being picked up from school by an unidentified woman in Mexico City on February 11.

After the femicides, Mexican women took to the streets with pictures of Ingrid as she was before the murder. The sensational newspapers that used her death to boost their sales got it. But the women also protested against macho culture, impunity and politicians, who in their eyes do far too little to stop violence against women.



More than 34,500 people were killed in Mexico last year, a record. Most of the victims were men, but the number of femicides also increased alarmingly. An average of ten women were murdered in the country every day, often in their own homes.

The simmering frustration and anger among Mexican women about the violence seems to have reached a boiling point recently. In November, demonstrating feminists wreaked havoc.

Even today, feminist graffiti, purple and pink painted statues and other traces of discontent can be seen everywhere in the center of the Mexican capital. Fences surround hotels and monuments, fearing that today's major women's protest will get out of hand.

Own murder investigation

Noemi Salinas Sandoval understands the anger of Mexican women. She speaks from experience. In August last year, her sister Sara Abigail was murdered. "My mom found her. She was lying on the bed with a plastic bag over her head. That bag wasn't even all the way around her neck, you could just pull it off."


In August 2019 Sara Abigail was murdered in Mexico


Cut down: Forensic teams in Acapulco, Mexico, cover up the body of a woman who was shot dead while selling coffee on a street corner

Carmen Sánchez herself became a victim of Mexican macho violence. The first time she dared to tell her husband that she wanted a divorce, he stabbed her with an ice pick, up to four times. When she continued the divorce five years later, he threw acid on her face and body. "You'll never be with another man again," he said.

Carmen barely survived the attack and spent months in the hospital. When she first saw herself in the mirror, she had to cry. "It was a trauma. My face just melted. I didn't want to live like that," she says.

Another case is the story of María Santos Gorrostieta Salazar (1976 – c. 15 November 2012), who wa was a Mexican physician and politician of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). From 2008 to 2011, she served as mayor of Tiquicheo, a small town in the Mexican state of Michoacán. In spite of three failed assassination attempts during her tenure as mayor, Gorrostieta Salazar continued to be outspoken in the fight against organized crime. In a fourth attack, Gorrostieta Salazar was kidnapped and assassinated by suspected drug traffickers on 15 November 2012. Michoacán is home to several violent drug trafficking organizations such as La Familia Michoacana and the Knights Templar Cartel.


Fearless: Former mayor Maria Santos Gorrostieta, who was murdered in 2012, shows the gunshot wound from an assassination attempt

Hiding

Only a year later did she go outside again. Because it had to: she had no income and received no help from the government. "In the beginning I hid my face under cloths and put on big sunglasses."

Carmen has now undergone 57 surgeries and numerous dermatological treatments. She appears militant. "It is not fair for me to go into hiding with my two daughters because my ex-husband is still free," she says. She blames the police and the Public Prosecution Service and does everything she can to get her ex to jail. "But Justice in Mexico is not functioning well, and that is why I am now seeking justice at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights."

Stories like this are the norm in Mexico. That explains the outburst of anger among Mexican women. Today they are protesting, tomorrow they are on strike. "We no longer want to be raped, beaten, murdered," says Carmen. "We just demand justice."


Gruesome: The body of Gorrostieta was found stabbed, burned, battered and bound by a roadside in San Juan Tararameo, Cuitzeo Township

[karl]

Pieter


A very horrible murder of the women by her husband, then mutilated in a most horrible manner. With this for the news media to use the story as sensationalism for the purpose of increasing sales is to remove from the dead women her dignity was unforgivable.

Even though these cases as presented are very horrible, for professional investigators, emotion must be removed to only discover facts and information as tools for prosicution. Then build each case in the manner to insure successful prosicution. It is this last that apparently is missing. For there is a reason for most every situation, the work is discovery of that reason to lead to arrest of such suspect{s} as the facts given are followed up on.

Other wise as these issues have lead to this situation giving cause for such a public womens protests as indicated.

Karl