Latin Analysis: Mexico’s Femicide Crisis
Valería Márquez, a 23-year-old Mexican social media influencer, was live-streaming while working at a beauty salon on 13 May. Innocent viewers, who believed they had logged on to watch their favourite influencer, were unwittingly walking into a live execution. They watched on as a masked man shot Valería in the head and chest.
The region of Jalisco where this crime took place, is under the control of the Jalisco New Generation Cartels, one of the most powerful in the country. Murders and torture have become commonplace in this area because of the gang’s grip over every aspect of daily life becoming increasingly strong. On the same day as Valería’s assassination, in the same area, a former congressman was murdered in a shopping mall.
Outside of this region however, the situation is not much better. Social media celebrities are increasingly becoming targets of violent crime, with several murdered in Sinaloa alone. Additionally, in January, a plane flew over a cartel stronghold in Culiacan, depositing pamphlets across the area which threatened Youtubers and artists who were accused of working with a warring faction of the Sinaloa drug cartel. According to David Saucedo, a specialist on Mexican cartels, “[i]nfluencers have become another cog in the machine of organized crime.”
However, in spite of this growing trend of influencers being targeted by violent groups in Mexico, Valería Márquez’s murder is being investigated as a potential new case of femicide, the “intentional gender-related killing of women and girls”. Over the last few decades, the problem of gender-based violence and femicide has plagued Mexico, like many other countries around the world. There is lots of speculation over what has informed this; some attribute it to Latin America’s history of European colonization, which cultivated an enduring culture of machismo. Although gender discrimination and violence are separate, “they feed on each other”, and many argue that this has led to the high levels of femicide witnessed in Mexico in the twenty-first century. Others have linked this increasing risk of violence against women to the spiraling situation concerning drug cartel crime and failed attempts to curtail it, while others believe low conviction rates for those accused of gender-based violence or femicide has contributed to this growing problem.
The statistics are heartbreaking; gender-based violence is rife, with the UN reporting “10 women or girls are murdered every day by partners of family members”, while two in three Mexican women will experience gender violence in their lifetimes. Since 2001, the total number of murdered women has reached 50,000, “while the impunity rate exceeds 95 per cent.” Ciudad Juárez is currently the most dangerous city for women in Mexico, with around 2,526 women murdered there between 1993-2023, with hundreds more disappeared.
Rates of femicide and gender-based violence seemed to have skyrocketed between 2015-2020. In November 2020, the daily femicide rate stood at around 11 murdered women. This figure includes both femicide victims and women murder victims, totalling 2,874 women during the first year of the COVID pandemic. Most of these victims where between 20-24 years-of-age and Mexican citizens. In comparison, in 2015, the daily rate of violent murders of female victims was six and reached 1,540 victims over the course of the year. The most violent month during this period was December 2018, in which 359 women were murdered. This was the same month as the general election and the change of government. In the aftermath of this political shift, the number of victims did not get lower than 300 murders a month, which was at that point in time, the highest average in 35 years. However, analysts could not determine if most of these heinous crimes were taking place in the home due to a lack of urgent support, or in public as a result of increasing rates of organized crime. The government affirmed that it was the latter, but there appeared to not be enough information to determine this due to a lack of sufficient investigation into femicides.
Femicide rate in Mexico from 2017-2024 (number of victims per 100,000 women)
Faced with alarming and seemingly uncontrollable levels of violence against women, it is crucial that the judiciary acts accordingly, to attempt to deal with and eventually eradicate femicide. However, despite Mexican prosecutors having opened 1.7 million criminal investigations for violent crimes against women “beatings, burns, strangulation, injuries with knives or firearms against women”, only 781 were dealt with as femicide cases. The remaining instances were labelled as other types of crime which come with lower sentences and weaker punishment.
The consequences of this- which many argue has been informed by gender biases and sexism held by figures in the judiciary- has allowed for the current femicide crisis in Mexico to be downplayed, as well as feeding this “culture of impunity” that has allowed so many to evade punishment. This has meant that much of the femicide that occurs has been rendered invisible, hiding the disturbing extent to gender-based violence throughout Mexico. The number of women reported as missing has also contributed to this, with nearly 2,500 women disappearing in Mexico in 2022 alone. This is just the tip of the iceberg, with many of these disappeared women likely to have been victims of femicide or other forms of violence against women, further reducing the number of officially recorded instances of this crime. That is saying nothing of those women who escape or survive gender-based violence in Mexico, who face rejection and little support to come to terms with their trauma.
The governmental response to this unfolding crisis has been mixed. Attempts have been made in the past to address deep-seated gender imbalances and violence against women; femicide was added to the penal code in 2012, and Mexico possesses one of the world’s most progressive constitutions in terms of references to gender, which mandates for gender parity among political candidates for election. This has indeed contributed to increasing the number of women in politics in Mexico (and paved the way for current President Claudia Sheinbaum to gain power) but has unfortunately done little to prevent women from being murdered because of their gender.
Sheinbaum’s predecessor, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, attributed gender violence to neoliberalism and a subsequent erosion of values. He also controversially stated that his critics could be accused of committing gender-based violence against him. According to the United Nations, AMLO’s position on this issue only served to prevent meaningful policy change to combat femicide, despite his campaign promises to do the opposite.
Although Mexico elected its first female President last year, who “[p]ledges to stand by victims of femicide and disappearances”, many argue that this is not enough to turn the tide on gender-based violence. Various constitutional and legislative measures have been implemented during Sheinbaum’s first year, but there are profound concerns about whether these will be implemented properly or if they will combat the cultural roots of gender-based violence. During the first International Women’s Day protest of Sheinbaum’s presidency, shouts of “Claudia, not all of us made it” and “Claudia is not an ally; she’s privileged” could be heard within the crowds.
More must be done to root out the deeply embedded machismo culture that is feeding and worsening rates of gender-based violence and femicide in Mexico. Additionally, Sheinbaum’s government must address the low conviction rates for perpetrators of such heinous crimes. These women are not just numbers, they are individuals with hopes, dreams and people who love them. Valería Márquez is but one name out of hundreds of thousands who have suffered, and even lost their lives, for merely existing as women. These tragic losses must be held at the centre of all efforts to eradicate femicide.
