Increase in feminicides in Mexico
The month of August 2021, Mexico reached a record of 107 feminicides in 30 days, making it the most violent month against Mexican women. The Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP) confirmed that this is the highest figure since 2015 and highlighted that femicides have experienced a 43% increase compared to the same period in 2020.
"Femicide is usually an extreme case of family violence, so its increase is not surprising, as family violence has risen across the country significantly. For this reason, timely attention to violence in the home and the protection of the family in cases of extreme risk is fundamental," said Santiago Roel, director of the Semáforo Delictivo organisation.
The data reveal that during the year 2021, 692 cases of femicides have been registered in Mexico. "This crime increased 8% from January to August 2021 compared to the same period of the previous year," said Rosa Icela Rodríguez, secretary of Public Security and Citizen Protection. Among the states most affected by these crimes are Jalisco, Veracruz, Mexico City, Chiapas and Nuevo León.
According to Mexican government figures, eleven women are murdered every day and at least nine girls under the age of 12 are reported missing by their families.
On Sunday 3 August, a group of women gathered around the old Colón roundabout, known by feminist groups as the "roundabout of the women who fight", in Mexico City, to paint the names of their murdered or disappeared daughters on it.
Araceli Osorio, mother of Lesvy Berlín Rivera Osorio, a young woman murdered at the age of 22 by her boyfriend, stated that the roundabout "is going to be the place where from now on we are going to gather to accompany each other and make our demands heard".
This happened a week after the collectives placed a wooden figure of almost two metres in purple, symbolising the image of a woman with her fist raised, in the roundabout, where the statue of Christopher Columbus used to be.
"A space for the struggle and resistance of all women who fight against the invisibilisation of their battles against the state that does not protect them, but rather violates, revictimises and criminalises them," said the spokesperson for the organisation Antimonumenta Vivas.
The executive director of Amnesty International Mexico, Edith Olivares, demanded that the authorities preserve the monument installed by the activists, and pointed out that the families and the women "deserve to have a place where they are named".
Lidia Florencio, mother of Diana Velázquez, murdered at the age of 24, singled out the government for its impunity in the face of feminicides, "If we are in this place it is because the state is not guaranteeing our rights and we have to fight for them".
Latin America Coordinator: José Antonio Sierra
