Violence against women in Mexico
Violence against women in Mexico includes different forms of "gender-based violence" and may consist of emotional, physical, sexual, and/or mental abuse. The United Nations (UN) has rated Mexico as one of the most violent countries for women in the world. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography in Mexico (INEGI), 66.1 percent of all women age 15 and older have experienced some kind of violence in their lives. Forty-nine percent have suffered from emotional violence; 29 percent have suffered from emotional-patrimonial violence or discrimination; 34 percent from physical violence; and  41.3 percent of women have suffered from sexual violence. Of the women who were assaulted in some form, 78.6 percent of them have not sought help or reported their attacks to authorities. There are different explanations for the causes of these high numbers of violence; scholars have looked at the cultural roots as well as economic policies and changes that have led to a recent growth in the amount of gender-based violence. There was a rise of international attention looking at the state of violence against women in Mexico in the early 1990s, as the number of missing and  murdered women in the northern border city of Ciudad Juárez began to rise dramatically. Women in the Mexican Drug War (2006–present) have been raped, tortured, and murdered in the conflict. Women have also been victims of sex trafficking in Mexico. While legislation and different policies have been put in place to decrease violence against women in Mexico, different organizations have shown that these policies have had little effect on the state of violence due to a lack of proper implementation. Cultural and economic roots. Susan Pick, Carmen Contreras, and Alicia Barker-Aguilar, researchers from the Mexican Institute for Family  and Population Research (IMIFAP), examine the cultural roots that play a role in the current state of violence against women in Mexico. They look into the culture of "machismo" that has created a feeling of superiority or entitlement for men in Mexico. Women, on the other hand, have been traditionally put into roles of subservience and have had less access to knowledge and power to discuss and change the current norms. They call violence against women "an expression of male power," and they include institutional forms of violence, such as lack of access to resources or types of freedom. Along  the same lines, Mercedes Olivera looks at the way that these gender dynamics have changed recently, especially with the introduction of neoliberal economic policies in Mexico. Mercedes Olivera is a researcher at the Center for Higher Studies of Mexico and Central America in the Universidad de Ciencias y Artes of Chiapas, and she is involved in the Independent Women's Movement and the Center for Women's Rights. Olivera argues that as poverty, unemployment, and insecurity have increased in Mexico, more women have started joining the workplace in order to attempt to escape their situations. This progression of increasing numbers  of women in the workplace has threatened the concept of a division of labor between men and women, where men's place was the workplace and that the duties of the women are in the home. According to Olivera, this change has affected the men's self-image and harmed their personal sense of "machismo" or superiority. Types of violence. Femicide. Femicide, also known as feminicide, is defined in a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "intentional murder of women because they are women." Similarly, it is defined by UN Women, UNiTe to End Violence Against Women, and  the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as "the violent death of women for reasons of gender." Femicide is categorized as a specific type of violence against women or gender violence, which the UN described in 1979 as "a mechanism of domination, control, oppression, and power over women." Amnesty International estimates that there have been around 34,000 female homicides in Mexico between 1986 and 2009. According to the National Citizen Observatory on Femicide, only 49 percent of the 800 cases of women killed in Mexico between June and July 2017 were investigated as femicide. One activist , Natalia Reyes, reported that only 8 percent of femicides in Mexico are punished. Additionally, in 2012, Mexico was ranked as the 16th country in the world with the highest rates of femicides. In the years 2011 to 2016, there were an average of 7.6 female homicides per day. In 2016, Mexico had a rate of female homicides of 4.6 femicides per 100,000, and there were a total of 2,746 female deaths with presumption of homicide. In this year, the top three states with the highest rates of female deaths with presumption of homicide were Colima (with 16.3 deaths per 100,000  women), Guerrero (13.1 per 100,000), and Zacatecas (9.7 per 100,000). The top three municipalities in 2016 were Acapulco de Juárez (24.22 per 100,000), Tijuana (10.84 per 100,000), and Juárez (10.36 per 100,000). During the years 2002–2010, the state of Chihuahua had the highest rate of female homicides in the world: 58.4 per 100,000. The rates of femicide in the municipality of Juárez have decreased significantly in just 5 years; in 2011, the rate of female deaths with presumption of homicides was 31.49 per 100,000, and by 2016 it had decreased to 10.36 per 100,000. Killings of women are shown to  be much more brutal than those of men in Mexico. It is 1.3 times as likely for women to be murdered using sharp objects than men. Also, women are 3 times as likely to be murdered by means of hanging, being strangled, being suffocated, and drowning. Finally, women are 2 times as likely to be killed in means involving substances and fire. With more attention being given to the number of women killed and missing in Mexico, there has been a growth in the amount of activism responding. For example, a popular hashtag in Mexico has been "Ni Una Menos ." A group in the city of Nezahualcoyotl called Nos Queremos Vivas has gathered for marches, and has also created self-defense workshops to help young girls protect themselves. There is an alliance of 47 different organizations in Mexico called the National Citizen Observatory on Femicide, which has called for more effective and complete investigations following missing or killed women, increasing accountability on part of the authorities in Mexico. This group is funded by the UN Trust to End Violence Against Women. A collaboration among UN Women, the National Citizen Observatory on Femicide, and Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir opened  the first permanent exhibition on femicides in Mexico in 2017; the exhibition is called "¡Ya basta!", which is located in the Museum of Memory and Tolerance in Mexico City. Femicide in Ciudad Juárez. Ciudad Juárez is a city in northern Mexico in the state of Chihuahua located on the border between Mexico and the United States; it is located within the municipality of Juárez, Chihuahua. The first major cases of female homicides in Ciudad Juárez were in the early 1990s, during which the city and events gained international attention. Over the course of just a decade, hundreds of women were  reported missing. According to a report by Amnesty International, in 2010 there were 320 women killed in the city of Ciudad Juárez. The rise in femicides in Ciudad Juárez is related to a rise in crime rates in the city, especially as the city has become a major territory in the drug trafficking industry. Amnesty International has reported the lack of a sufficient response from the authorities in Ciudad Juárez and Mexico, and the irregularities in the investigations following cases of missing or killed women. 2019 to 2021. In 2019, the Mexican government recorded 1,006 incidents of Femicide — a 10  percent increase from 2018. The overall number of women who died violently in Mexico also increased, rising to 10 killings per day in 2019 from seven per day in 2017. The designation "feminicidio" (femicide), which involves criteria such as signs of sexual violence and a close relationship with the suspect, may be an understatement because several states do not use the designation at all. Abril Pérez Sagaón, ex-wife of Amazon México CEO Juan Carlos García, was murdered on November 25, 2019, the same day as a march against violence against women. García is the prime suspect in the case ; the divorce came after he had fractured his wife's head with a baseball bat 11 months earlier. A judge ruled that it was not attempted murder because Abril was sleeping at the time of the incident and a baseball bat cannot be considered a weapon. The murder occurred three weeks after García's release, but a judge threw the murder charges out. His daughter said the judge, who had earlier released a doctor from charges of sexually abusing a mentally-ill woman, was bribed. The sharp rise in such murders sparked a series of protests in February 2020  throughout Mexico and present a major challenge for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and his administration, which he calls the Fourth Transformation. One case that drew particular fury was the murder of Ingrid Escamilla, 25, who was skinned and disemboweled followed by graphic photographs of her corpse splashed on the front pages of tabloids and across social media. "La Prensa" defended its policies of reporting on crime but has indicated it will review its policy about publishing photos. Protesters marched to the offices of "La Prensa" and burned a newspaper delivery truck. "Pasala" could not be reached for comment . Another tragic case was that of Fátima Cecilia Aldrighett, 7, who was kidnapped after school on February 11; her raped and tortured body was discovered on February 15. When the child's mother was late in picking her up from school, she was turned over to an unrelated woman between 42 and 45 without identification. When questioned, a representative of the "Autoridad Federal Educativa de la Ciudad de México" (Federal Educational Authority of Mexico City) explained that if a child is not picked up by a parent or guardian within twenty minutes of school closing time, the child should be  taken to the local police. Nonetheless, educational authorities insist that children were turned over to their parents according to established protocol. A MXN $2 million (US $107,000) reward was offered for the woman's capture. The woman was identified by her landlord, and when police searched her house they found clothing and other belongings of Fatima; a drone was used to find the woman and a man suspected of the actual murder. Gladys Giovana Cruz Hernandez, who confessed to strangling the girl, and Mario Alberto Reyes Najara, who was looking for a young girlfriend, were arrested on February  19. Some of the protests have turned violent, which has not been helped by AMLO's seeming indifference, calling violence against women the result of "neoliberal policies" of his predecessor and complaining because protesters have painted graffiti on the National Palace. Members of all political parties have called for legislative reforms; the Chamber of Deputies approved a change in the law to make femicide punishable by 65 instead of 45 years in prison. Legislators also held a moment of silence for Fatima. On February 1, 2021, Olga Sánchez Cordero, Secretary of the Interior (SEGOB), said that the death of Mariana  Sánchez Dávalos, a 24-year-old recently graduated doctor in Nueva Palestina, Ocosingo, Chiapas, would be investigated as a femicide. Two months earlier she had denounced a sexual attack that had not been followed up by the state prosecutor (FGE). Her death had been classified a suicide, despite evidence of violence and the fact that she had been choked. Sexual harassment and assault. The National Institute of Statistics and Geography in Mexico reported that almost 3 million sexual attacks, ranging from rape to groping or other forms of sexual harassment, occurred between the years 2010 and 2015. In the year  2009, there were 2,795 convictions of rape, but there were 3,462 prosecutions and 14,829 complaints of rape in Mexico. It has been shown through numerous surveys that the majority of women in Mexico do not report rape to authorities; these studies have shown that as few as 15 percent of rapes are reported. An INEGI report in 2017 found that of the women attending school in the prior 12 months, 10.7 percent of them were sexually assaulted. It is reported that the main location of sexual harassment in Mexico is the workplace, in which the victim rarely files any complaints  since there are no rules in place to address the problem and punish the aggressor. Another common location where sexual harassment occurs is on public transportation. A survey conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography found that 96 percent of women in Mexico City have experienced some form of sexual harassment in a public space, and 58 percent have been groped. UN Women's Safe Cities program coordinator in Mexico, Yeliz Ozman, believes that while this is due to the problem of male entitlement in Mexico, it is made worse by the overcrowded public transportation and when women  have to work odd hours. In 2016, the government of Mexico City started offering free rape whistles to women at public transportation hubs. They also provide women-only subway cars and pink buses to help protect women. A national women's strike against violence is scheduled for March 9, 2020. This follows a strike at nineteen schools of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) that were taken over to protest sexual harassment and violence. On February 26, 2020, twenty professors were fired from the four colleges of the Autonomous University of Mexico State for sexual harassment. Domestic violence. A  2003 survey conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) in Mexico found that 47 percent of women over 15 in a relationship have experienced some form of domestic violence, and that 96 out of every 100 victims of domestic violence in Mexico are women. More recently, in 2016, INEGI found that 43.9 percent of women in a relationship have been attacked by their partner at some point. There are many different types of domestic violence that can occur, including emotional abuse, intimidation, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. A survey conducted by the National Institute for Women in  Mexico (INMUJERES) found that 98.4 percent of all cases involving maltreatment of women include emotional abuse, 16 percent include intimidation, 15 percent include physical abuse, and 14 percent include sexual abuse. According to a 2006 survey in Mexico, 38.4 percent of married women suffer from emotional, physical, financial, or sexual abuse from their husbands. As of 2011, this rate had decreased slightly to 28.9 percent. Nadine Gasman, head of the "Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres (Inmujeres)" reports in October 2019 that 267 women and girls are victims of violence every day in Mexico. Immigration and violence against women. There are  tens of thousands of migrants going through Mexico from Central America and other countries on the journey to the United States. Most of these migrants are from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Migrants are at great risk for different kinds of violence as they make their journey, including kidnapping, threatening, and assaults. According to human rights groups situated in Mexico, there are increasing numbers of women and girls attempting to migrate as well. Women and girls are at special risk as they make their journey north, particularly to sexual violence and to sex trafficking. A report by Amnesty International  estimates that 6 out of every 10 women migrating through Mexico may be a victim of sexual assault. Migrant women are at the risk of sexual violence by gangs, human traffickers, other migrants, and corrupt officers. The risk of sexual assault and rape is so high for migrant women that smugglers, or coyotes, require women to have contraceptive injections before leaving. It is hard for researchers to get statistics on violence against migrant women because these women are unable to report the assaults for fear of being deported, in addition to the existing stigmas behind sexual violence that cause many  sexual assaults to go unreported. Activism and Protest. In recent years, feminist groups have become more vocal with their critique towards police organizations and government figures. These activists are fighting against the inaction and ineffectiveness of the institutions that have not brought justice to the women and girls who have been murdered and assaulted. As a result, feminist groups have established campaigns that aim to bring awareness to the violence against women and femicides that occur daily in Mexico, along with the authorities' indifference and lack of acknowledgment of the problem. The slogan "Ni Una Mas", Not Another One, has  become widely used to signal that no other woman should be a victim of gender violence. "Ni Una Mas" has appeared in the form of a hashtag on various social media platforms, as well as out in the streets in campaigns and protests. The hashtag, #NiUnaMas has served as a place to diffuse information, encourage dialogue, and bring awareness to the assault that women and girls experience in Latin America. Women decided to organize these hashtags, slogans, and protests as a way to bring awareness to the harm and the issues that have been happening to women and children throughout  Mexico. With an average of 10 women being murdered and 4 children going missing on a daily that are oftentimes either not addressed or go unsolved. This increase of violence on women was brought into the media and given the attention that was needed within the past three decades or so. With awareness being brought up and being discussed through Latin American writers as well as American scholars that publish work that has discussed the violence against women. Violence and Femicide is often ignored and dismissed in Mexico as well as other countries in Latin America with this dismissal women  in Mexico decided to participate in protest in National women’s strikes in 2020. In 2020, two monumental protests took place around International Women’s Day. On March 8, 2020, on International Women’s Day, women took to the streets and demanded that the government be held accountable for their inability to acknowledge that gender violence was a problem, demanded that murderers be held accountable for their crimes, and brought awareness to the sexual and physical harassment that women experience daily. On the day of the protest, an estimated 80 000 people took part in the protest in Mexico City . The following day, "Brujas del Mar", a group of women from Veracruz led the charge of another protest. On March 9, the protest was dubbed, “Un Dia Sin Mujeres”, A Day Without Women. The aim of this subsequent protest was to simulate a world in which women did not exist, highlighting that women are killed at disproportionate rates. The protest encouraged women to stay home and withdraw from activities that they would normally be involved in. Women stayed home from work, school, social media and refrained from making online purchases. "It was a day for people of all social classes  to realize the value of women and young girls in society and their economic impact; " These monumental protests that took place where Mexican women wanted to participate in such as the “Un Día Sin Mujeres” or “Un Día Sin Nosotras” (One Day Without Us) that took place on March 9, women received mixed support from those in government via social media. Female members in government such as Interior Minister Olga Sánchez Cordero, Claudia Sheinbaum Mexico City’s mayor, and more have shown their support for this protest using the hashtag #UnDiaSinMujeres or #UnDiaSinNosotras on social media. Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller the  wife of Mexico’s President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, gave mixed responses on her stance for these protests, at first joining the protests and the fight but then later taking it back via social media posts and going against the National Strike. Having gone and posted on social media using the hashtag #NoAlParoNacional (No To The National Strike) going against the women’s protest. These protests were to show top government officials that women marchers and protesters across Mexico, as well as Mexican women that were abroad, wanted to show how frustrated they were with government officials and how they  felt the government was handling the cases of violence against women. The government, more specifically President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, had made promises and has yet to do anything in response to the increasing violence and deaths of women and girls. The lack of the government doing anything led to activism which Mexico is already known for its student and labor activism and know the importance of women organizations and women to stand up and fight for women’s rights and for the state and legislation to do something. Bringing in the seriousness of their voices being heard and taken  seriously not allowing for the government to only make promises and do nothing. Mexican women have stated that they play a huge role in society with being in several places of leadership, working in several stores, and more while trying to care for their family is a reason why Mexican women want to be taken seriously. These protests and the activism that happened around International Women's Day by Mexican women across the world have shown the frustration each of these women feel. Women protesting by not showing up for a day as a way that the government will take  the women seriously is if they make a dent in the economy. Violence against women in Mexico has been happening since the late 20th century and only became present in the media in the 1990s that then triggered women to fight and be advocates since their needs were being unmet. Where women organizations across from Mexico started standing up and participating in protests and different forms of activism in order to get their voices heard instead of letting the government continuing to do nothing in terms letting the violence against women go unreported. Violence against women has been an ongoing  issue within Mexico since the 1990s. Law professors, bank directors, metro workers, and more have expressed how the government has yet to do what they originally promised before stepping into office. Expressing how women account for many positions in cities and towns throughout Mexico and that it comes down to the government and leaders to do more. Where it stems from Gender discrimination and cultural standards and that it needs to be addressed from there. Leading to these protests in hopes for the government to understand that it is a serious issue and must be addressed and taken seriously with  Mexican women and women organizations continuing their activism and continuing their protesting such as the ones around International Women's Day in 2020. Another form of activism and protest that has sprouted is the act of graffiti. Activists have painted on historically significant monuments, buildings, and even paintings slogans that advocate for justice for women. This has done in an effort to demonstrate that the government places a greater emphasis on inanimate objects, such as buildings and statues, rather than on the lives of women and girls. These acts have sparked a conversation about the value that society places on  humans and the value for monuments that have historical and patriotic ties. Politics of gender-based violence in Mexico. International agreements and legislation. The Mexican government is party to a range of international efforts and agreements that aim to enhance the living standards of women and lower gender inequality within the country: First and foremost, they signed in favour of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 which guarantees the fundamental rights of men and women equally. The Mexican State was also part of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of  Discrimination against Women in 1979. In 1993 Mexico signed the first international document recognising ‘gender violence’ as a type of violence, by the United Nations ‘The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women’. Followed by the Bélem do Pará Convention agreements signed in 1994 promoted by the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM), which criminalises violence against women with an emphasis on sexual violence. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women 2012. The 2012 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women showed its concern with the raising levels of insecurity and  gender-based violence in the country:“It is deeply concerned that the public security strategy to combat organised crime, combined with persistent impunity and corruption, have contributed to the intensification of already existing patterns of widespread discrimination and violence against women in the State party, rooted in patriarchal attitudes, and to the minimisation and invisibility of this phenomenon. The Committee is concerned that women and girls have been subjected to increasing levels and different types of gender-based violence, such as domestic violence, forced disappearances, torture and murders, especially femicide, by state actors, including law enforcement officials and the security forces , as well as by non-state actors, such as organised crime groups.”The Committee encouraged the Mexican State to prosecute and punish perpetrators of violence towards women. To increase the efforts and resources to improve public security, by providing a systematic training on gender-based violence to law enforcing actors and all other public security forces. They emphasise that the existence of legislative inconsistencies at the state and municipal level should be tackled, including impunity and every other discriminatory penal and legal driven action or non-action. Appropriate monitoring and sanctions should be carried out to all law enforcing actors  and judiciary who acts against the interest of women protection. Being strictly necessary to collect consistent and veridical information on violence against women and make gender-based violence a state primary issue. General Law on Women's Access to a Life Free of Violence (2007). The General Law on Women’s Access to a life Free of Violence (GLWALFV) introduced the 1st of February 2007 with the aim of prevent and eradicate gender-based violence, by combining the efforts among the Federation, Federal entities and municipalities. It establishes the regulations to guarantee Mexican women a life without violence, according to  the constitutional principles of equality and justice. As well as to enforce democracy to strengthen sovereignty of the state and its laws. This law recognises all the international treaties on Human Rights and gender-baser violence that the Mexican state ratified. The GLWALFV in point IV, Article 5 in Chapter I defines 'Violence against women' as: Any act or omission, based on their gender, that causes them psychological, physical, patrimonial, economic, sexual damage, suffering or death, in the private and the public matter. It recognises 6 types of violence: psychological violence, physical violence, patrimonial violence, economic violence, sexual violence and  any other analogous forms that harm the integrity or freedom of women. Furthermore Article 21 of Chapter V recognises 'Femicide violence' as: the extreme form of gender violence against women, produced by the violation of their human rights in the public and private spheres, produced by misogynistic behaviours that can lead to social and state impunity which can culminate in homicide and other forms of violent death of women. Reports by Amnesty International have shown that this law has not been very effective due to poor implementation and a minimal change in police investigations following reports of different kinds of  violence. Gender Violence Alert Mechanism. One policy that has been put in place to increase response by local officials is the Gender Violence Alert Mechanism (Alerta de Violencia de Género contra las Mujeres). In this program, citizens may opt to receive a gender alert when violence against women is increasing in their municipality. This alert is the set of governmental and security forces actions, to eradicate femicide violence in a specific area enhanced by individuals or the community. It looks to guarantee women's security, lowering violence levels and eliminating inequalities by: In the state of Mexico, the state with  the highest population, the federal government found the state of femicides severe enough to issue an alert on gender violence on July 31 in 2015. This is the first time the federal government had to Since then, there have also been alerts released in Morelos, Michoacán, Chiapas, Nuevo León, Veracruz, Sinaloa, Colima, San Luis Potosí, Guerrero, Quintana Roo, and Nayarit. This regulation has also been shown not to be very effective, since authorities often see it as a punishment or a political attack, and choose to hide from facing any repercussions rather than address the problem and make changes in  how they investigate violence against women. Invisibility, Normalisation and Impunity. While there has been legislation over the last few decades attempting to decrease violence against women, they have proven to have little effect due to a lack of enforcement. Many female homicides have gone unrecognized by authorities, so there is no action taken to investigate the women's deaths. In fact, femicide has been criminalised in the Criminal Codes of only 13 states of Mexico. Alejandro Gertz Manero, Attorney General of Mexico, recommended in August 2020 that all murders involving women be investigated as femicides. An average of 11 women  are killed every day.