Femicide in Mexico

By: Samantha Rothman

Violence against women has been a prevalent issue in Mexico for years. According to the United Nation statistics, it is believed, on average, nine women are murdered every day in Mexico.[1] The statistics generated in Mexico also prove there is an ongoing issue of violence.[2] According to the Mexican Institute of Statistics and Geography, 44 percent of women have suffered violence in a partnership or domestic dispute situation.[3] The Mexican Institute of Statistics and Geography also calculated 66% of women have experienced some form of violence during their lifetime.[4]

Mexico’s criminal code is unique in that it specifically references violent crimes targeted at women and categorizes those crimes as such.[5] Crimes against women are referred to as “femicides.”[6] This term refers to a crime “that deprives a woman of her life for gendered reasons.”[7] In other words, this is a crime of sexual violence, which results in degrading and horrific injury and can occur in the home, workplace, or out in society.[8]

Outside of Mexico, “femicide” is globally referred to as a crime against women in which women and girls are deliberately killed because of their gender.[9] The United Nations describes most of these crimes as the after effect and escalation of domestic violence situations.[10]

Most recently in Mexico, light has been shed on the ongoing and rampant issue of femicide with the alleged rape of teenage girls by Mexican police officers.[11] Two recent rape cases that have been pivotal in bringing this issue forward and invoking a new public concern.[12] The first case involves a 17-year-old girl who claims four police officers raped her in their patrol car.[13] The second case involves a 16-year-old girl who said a policeman raped her in a museum.[14] In response to the two crimes, around 300 protestors, mostly female, held a rally outside the Mexican capital prosecutor office.[15] The protestors were fully equipped with pink flitter and spray paint.[16] The protestors smashed through the prosecutor’s building door and left a pig’s head outside.[17]

Although violent crimes against women have continued to occur in Mexico, legal remedies and conversations are starting to emerge.[18] For instance, the Women’s Justice Center is Ecatepec, constant efforts are being made to help victims petition for their own justice.[19] For instance, the government has failed to respond to reporting crimes with proper and thorough investigations.[20] The Women’s Justice Center is working to change this.[21]

Currently, Mexico has state and federal laws on the books that are intended to mitigate and ultimately stop violence against women.[22] Despite the existence of these laws, Mexico has major issues with the actual enforcement and utilization of the laws.[23] The issue of femicide is also incredibly underrepresented and underreported.[24] Between 2010 and 2011, it is believed only four percent of femicide cases resulted in sentences throughout the entire country.[25] The Interamerican Court for Human Rights has gotten involved when it comes to monitoring the Mexican government.[26] In specific cases, the Court has pressed the Mexican government for answers and updates when it comes to stages of an investigation, and ultimately the case management.[27]

In 2007, Mexico passed a law dealing with gender-related crimes.[28] The law was written to create a national commission and subsequent policies to address gender violence on both local and national levels.[29] The law, La Ley General de Acceso de las Mujeres a una Vida Libre de Violencia, made femicide an officially recognized crime in the Mexican criminal code.[30] Pursuant to the law, the crime of femicide has a mandatory sentence of twenty to sixty years in prison.

The law prescribes specific procedural and administrative management for crimes committed against women.[31] For instance, every murder of a woman must be investigated as femicide.[32] The law also includes provisions that aim to provide reparations of different sorts.[33] These programs include health care, psychological support, and financial compensation for victims and their families.[34]

Despite legal attempts are solving the problem, there are logistical obstacles which ultimately are creating roadblocks in the process.[35] For instance, even though femicide is labeled as a crime, the prosecution procedure varies.[36] Additionally, femicide has not been incorporated into all thirty-three states’ criminal codes.[37] As of now, only fifteen out of the thirty-three states even mention femicide in their localized code.[38] This discrepancy has provided a loophole in many states for the crime of femicide not to be prosecuted, and in some cases even provides a defense if there is a pending charge.[39] Also, because state codes do not explicitly recognize the crime, state governments are not required to investigate this crime in the first place.[40]

The violence in Mexico has attracted ample international attention, including groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and most notably the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.[41] It is the hope that with International attention, Mexico will ultimately patch the legal system in order to stop such egregious crimes from continuing

#BlogPost #Mexico #SamanthaRothman #Feminism

[1] Maya Oppenheim, Mexicans protest over alleged rape of teenage girls by police officers, The Independent (Aug. 13, 2019. 13:25 PM), https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/mexico-city-protest-police-rape-teenage-girls-demonstration-a9055641.html.

[2] Id.

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] Id.

[7] Id.

[8] Id.

[9] Id.

[10] Id.

[11] Mexicans march to vent anger at police over rape cases, BBC (Aug. 13, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49327568.

[12] Id.

[13] Id.

[14] Id.

[15] Id.

[16] Id.

[17] Id.

[18] Nidia Bautista, Surviving One of Mexico’s Deadliest Place for Women, NACLA (Feb. 4, 2019), https://nacla.org/news/2019/02/04/surviving-one-mexico’s-deadliest-places-women.

[19] Id.

[20] Id.

[21] Id.

[22] Id.

[23] Id.

[24] Id.

[25] Id.

[26] Id.

[27] Id.

[28] Id.

[29] Id.

[30] Id.

[31] Id.

[32] Id.

[33] Id.

[34] Id.

[35] Isabel Cholbi, Femicide in Mexico: What Happens when the State Looks the Other Way, Berkeley Poltical Review (Apr. 17, 2019), https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2019/04/17/femicide-in-mexico-what-happens-when-the-state-looks-the-other-way/.

[36] Id.

[37] Id.

[38] Id.

[39] Id.

[40] Id.

[41] Id.