Opinion

Murdered women

photo_camera Mexico

Another woman has been murdered in Mexico. She was 18 years old and her name was Debanhi Escobar. It happened a few days ago. First her disappearance, then the discovery of her body. It was in the cistern of a motel in Monterrey.  Chilling, yes... like so many stories: riddled with bullets, hanging from a bridge, lying in a ditch with her head missing...

The case of the young Escobar girl is the latest to make the news and the pages of the newspapers, but surely, despite the short time that has passed, some other woman will no longer have the opportunity to design her future. It is not always reported, the victim does not always have someone who misses her, who notices her absence. They do not even have the right to be on a list.

Violence against women is growing and spreading like a badly cured virus, like a plague. In that country alone, last year, not counting December, a total of 3 462 women were murdered. For years, we have been hearing about the feminicides in Ciudad Juárez, a town in the state of Chihuahua close to the US border. Its name went around the world. How sad it is to be known as the place where the most women are killed. But it is not a problem of one area or another. The horror is repeated throughout the different Mexican states. In many corners of this chaotic and crazed world.

Women found dead who no one claims; women who do not have a name and a surname, because they lack documentation; women who are not identified, because there is no funding or desire to do so; women forgotten because that is what matters, perhaps the knowledge of the perpetrators of these crimes would make our hair stand on end, if that is even possible. Women for whom no one cries at the foot of a grave. And men who are also killed when they investigate too much. Mafias and corruption are not left out.

Young girls and children suffer excessive violence in this beautiful and beloved Mexico that overflows with so much beauty. In this first quarter of 2022 alone, 229 will never again see a sunset in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Mexico, in the port of Veracruz or in the marvellous ruins of Oaxaca. This figure is very similar to the one recorded in Colombia with 225.

The terrible thing is that this violence is not only not decreasing but is increasing in Latin America and other continents. Data from official bodies in different countries and from NGOs show us a bitter and cruel reality. In Brazil, 1,319 women were murdered in 2021; in Colombia, the figure is close to this amount. And we could also talk about Honduras, Venezuela or Guatemala...

Machismo, evil, poverty, revenge, jealousy, corruption, sex... So many causes. Let's look for solutions: education and prevention; and let's denounce the impunity that exists. The cases that are never solved are as alarming as those of the murdered women.