Femicide in Mexico: An Ongoing Crisis

Gender-based violence affects all women around the world, regardless of their age, ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, or ability. Violence against women is rooted in patriarchy, misogyny, and harmful gender norms. Gender-based violence takes many different forms, including intimate partner violence, sexual violence, child marriage, genital mutilation, and so-called “honor” crimes. Femicide is the most extreme form of gender-based violence, and it happens in countries all over the world.

Femicide is defined as the intentional killing of a woman or girl because of her gender. South African feminist scholar  Diana Russell  popularized the term in 1976. In 2012, the UN issued the  Vienna Declaration  on Femicide, in which they define femicide and its forms and call on member states to take action against these crimes and the conditions which enable them. Addressing and preventing femicide involves confronting gender inequality and the normalization of violence against women at individual and structural levels.

The forms of femicide included in the UN’s declaration are:

1. The murder of women as a result of intimate partner violence.

2. The torture and misogynist slaying of women.

3. Killing of women and girls in the name of “honor.”

4. Targeted killing of women and girls in the context of armed conflict.

5. Dowry-related killings of women.

6. Killing of women and girls because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

7. Killing of Indigenous women and girls because of their gender.

8. Female infanticide and gender-based sex feticide.

9. Genital mutilation related femicide.

10. Accusations of witchcraft.

11.  Other femicides connected with gangs, organized crime, drug dealers, human trafficking, and the proliferation of small arms.

Intimate femicide is the most common form of femicide. Intimate femicide is often the tragic consequence of domestic violence, a form of gender-based violence perpetuated by patriarchal gender norms and misogynist attitudes toward women. The WHO has reported that  over 35%  of all murders of women globally are reported to be committed by an intimate partner. Intimate femicide most often occurs when the perpetrator has a history of gender-based violence or intimate partner violence. Perpetrators of this form of femicide can be either intimate partners or ex-partners, and can also be family members such as fathers, brothers, uncles, or cousins.

Non-intimate femicide can include a wide range of the forms listed above. These forms of femicide can be committed randomly, but there are many cases of the systematic murder of women and girls.

Indigenous women and girls are being killed and disappearing at alarming rates in Canada, the United States, and Latin America. A Canadian national inquiry in 2019 classified the killings and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls as  genocide . In 2014, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) reported that  1,017  Indigenous women and girls were murdered or disappeared between 1980 and 2012, though the actual number is likely much higher. Indigenous women are at much higher risk of becoming victims of femicide in Canada, the United States, and in Mexico.

Another case of the systematic murder of women and girls is in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Between 1993 and 2005, nearly  400 women  were killed in the city. The victims of these femicides were mostly poor, working women. Some have speculated that some of these femicides were the work of one or more serial killers, others have placed suspicion on members of organized crime groups. But the reality of this tragedy is that impunity pervades all levels of government and law enforcement in Mexico, and the majority of the perpetrators of these femicides have never been brought to justice. Because of this impunity, it is difficult to say with certainty who committed these femicides. Femicide continues to occur at alarming rates throughout Mexico, including in Ciudad Juárez, making Mexico one of the countries with the highest yearly rates of femicide.

Article II of the  UN Genocide Convention  states that:

“Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such:

a)     Killing members of the group;

b)    Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

c)     Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

d)    Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

e)     Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

Gender should be included in the Convention as a protected group. Genocide has gendered implications and consequences, which can affect men and boys in certain circumstances, but also affects women and girls. Femicide is  inherently genocidal  as it constitutes the intentional destruction of part of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Femicide in all its forms fits each definition of the genocidal acts listed in the Genocide Convention.

Mexico is consistently one of the countries with the highest rates of femicide in the world. At least  10 women  are killed every day in Mexico. In  2021 , Mexico recorded 1,060 femicides and more than 1,000 in  2022 . The  rate of femicide  in the United States is recorded at 2.6 killings per 100,000 people, while in Mexico it is 6.0 per 100,000.

Femicides are not isolated incidents, they are the result of socially and structurally embedded patriarchy that facilitates the normalization of violence against women. In Latin America, the culture of machismo – similar to toxic masculinity – contributes significantly to rates of violence against women and femicide. It is important to note, however, that toxic masculinity, violence against women, and femicide are international phenomena, and are not unique to one particular place or culture.

 Machismo  is defined as a sense of strong or aggressive male pride. While  similar  to toxic masculinity, machismo is more based on "the sense of upholding a system or hierarchy (mainly a man's home) whereas toxic masculinity is based on a set of traits socialized into men throughout their lives."

Men raised in machismo culture view themselves as superior to women and take pride in their dominant role in society. Any challenge to that dominant role is seen as a threat to men’s masculinity; women are expected to be submissive, docile, and in need of protection from men. This mentality shapes the way men treat women in their lives, and women bear the brunt of this aggressive masculinity.

This kind of aggressive male dominance can facilitate violence against women and femicides. A poll by the newspaper  Reforma  demonstrates that 69% of the Mexican population believes that “feminism has gone too far,” 38% agree with the statement that “sometimes women put themselves in risky situations and that is why they get hurt,” and 34% agree with the statement that “women who get drunk are looking for trouble.”

Women are blamed for the violence they are subjected to. Media reporting of femicides have romanticized the crimes as “crimes of passion.” For example, after  Ingrid Escamilla’s  partner brutally murdered and mutilated her in 2020, a newspaper titled the article “It Was Cupid’s Fault.” Instead of naming the problem, the newspaper romanticized the crime and took the blame away from the man who committed it and placed it on Escamilla and so-called "cupid."

As anthropologist  Marcela Lagarde  states: “the explanation of femicide lies in gender dominance: characterized by both the male supremacy and the oppression, discrimination, exploitation and, above all, social exclusion of girls and women.”  More than 70%  of 50.5 million Mexican women and girls over the age of 15 have experienced some form of gender-based violence. Mexico has seen violence against women increase steadily for years as the country’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, openly opposes feminist activism and tears down social infrastructure designed to assist women experiencing gender-based violence. The COVID-19 pandemic has also resulted in increased violence against women.

Machismo is not simply a societal issue in Mexico, it is institutionalized. The Mexican government has  cut the budgets  of organizations dedicated to helping survivors of gender-based violence and eradicating violence against women, which rely on federal funding. All this despite the rapidly increasing violence against women amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2020,  President López Obrador  stated, without evidence, that most phone calls from women to emergency call centers were fake. He has also suggested that the feminist movement was created recently to undermine his own political platform. The Mexican president openly shows his contempt for feminist activism, and this attitude works to bolster the increasing rates of violence against women. Institutional machismo perpetuates the crisis of violence against women and femicides in Mexico.

In addition to social and institutional machismo, Mexico struggles with an impunity crisis in its judicial system, which results in an estimated nine out of ten homicides going unpunished. This impunity also leads to underreporting of crimes, as victims and their families have little faith in law enforcement upholding the rule of law.

A report by the  InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights  has stated that “threats, harassment, killings, and disappearances of those who seek truth and justice have intimidated the Mexican public…creating a big problem with under-reporting.” Thus, it is not simply a lack of capacity that leads to high levels of impunity; but an entrenched system of intimidation and violence. This creates a cycle when it comes to the act of femicide and, indeed, like most crimes committed in Mexico; perpetrators of femicides clearly understand that they will not get punished or even caught for their crimes.

According to  Open Global Rights , active impunity in Mexico results from a chain of actions taken with the intention of undermining investigations of crimes. These actions include “alteration of the crime scene and addition of false evidence; ii) official refusal to accept victim’s reports or to initiate investigations; iii) intimidation and threats to victims; iv) threats to family members of witnesses, including through the presentation of false charges against them or the victims themselves; and v) refusal to investigate in cases involving armed forces or narco political figures.” Because of these mechanisms of active impunity, crimes like femicide go underreported and many of the cases that are reported are not investigated fully, if at all.

One of the main reasons for the high levels of impunity in Mexico is corruption among law enforcement and government officials. Corruption exists at all levels in Mexico, and according to  Human Rights Watch , approximately one-third of Mexico City police and ten percent of police throughout the country have reported that their superiors force them to pay “quotas,” with those refusing to pay to receive harsh retribution as a result. This corruption ensures that active impunity remains the norm in Mexican law enforcement, and the changes that must be made to end femicide cannot happen until both problems are dealt with.

President López Obrador, after his election in 2018, replaced traditional law enforcement with the national guard in an attempt to remove corrupt police forces in favor of a federally controlled military force. However, this militarization has done little to reduce violence or corruption. Organized crime groups continue to terrorize the country and have taken over entire towns. Organized crime groups threaten, collude with, and kill government officials as a means for controlling local and state governments, undermining democracy in the country.

According to the  National Map of Femicides in Mexico , as many as 63 percent of femicides as of 2020 had links to organized crime. Many of the victims of these femicides were women whose partner was involved with or targeted by a criminal group. Some of these women were themselves involved in organized crime and targeted by rival groups.

 Organized crime groups  have also used the bodies of victims of femicides to send messages to other criminal groups or to authorities. In one case, a criminal group killed a woman who was allegedly a “halcona,” or lookout and left a message with her body for the local police chief. The Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG) has used this method of sending messages. In 2020, they placed 17 messages in different municipalities they entered, each one of them found on the body of a woman.

The Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel (CSRL) has used femicide as a way of sending messages as well. In a video directed at the CJNG in response to a massacre, Los Viagras directly threatened the wives and children of their rivals: “boys, girls, and women, we will leave them messed up in the square of Cotija.” Organized crime groups in Mexico are using femicide, and threats of femicide, as a weapon of war.

Femicides in Mexico also show a strong association with intimate partner violence. There is often a pattern of violence that precedes intimate partner femicide or attempted intimate partner femicide. Surveys show that two-thirds of women in Mexico have experienced some form of violence, and almost  44% have suffered abuse  from a partner.

Emergency calls related to violence against women rose by  30% in 2020  due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as women were forced to remain at home with their abusers. Many other countries saw violence against women increase during the pandemic, however, Mexico continues to be a country with significantly high rates of femicide. The perpetrators of intimate partner femicide rely on Mexico’s culture of institutional machismo and impunity to evade the justice system.

In many cases, perpetrators of this form of femicide frame women’s deaths as  suicides , an explanation readily accepted by law enforcement. In some areas in Mexico, including Mexico City, femicide units have formed and reopened hundreds of cases. Many of these femicide units’ investigations are crimes of intimate partner violence. While some cases are opportunistic crimes, carried out by strangers, all cases result from gender inequality.

Gender inequality is a " wicked problem ". That is, it is a problem that is interconnected with other problems like power and corruption, hate and conflict, and so on. These problems are not easily solved and create symptoms such as gender-based violence and femicide. Addressing and eradicating violence against women and femicide requires a concerted effort from all levels of society, law enforcement, and government. There is no simple solution to the problems of gender-based violence and femicide. Mexico’s government and law enforcement must work to rid themselves of the pervasive culture of impunity. The culture of machismo and toxic masculinity must be consistently challenged, not only in Mexico but throughout the world. The Mexican government must devote more of its resources to the funding of women’s shelters and the support of women at risk of gender-based violence. The problem of femicide cannot be solved quickly or easily, but even small steps like admitting there is a problem are important because denying the problem ensures its continuation.

Mexico (nationwide):

·      018-00-911 Life Without Violence Hotline

. Red Nacional De Refugios: https://rednacionalderefugios.org.mx/

. Website with a list of activists and organizations dedicated to fighting against gender inequality and violence:  https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/mexico/articles/meet-the-mexican-activists-fighting-for-womens-rights/ 

Central America:

·       http://www.naasca.org/Groups-Services/CENTRALAMERICA.pdf 

·   This is a document with resources and numbers to call listed by country

United States:

·      800-799-7233 National Domestic Violence Hotline

·       https://www.womenshealth.gov/relationships-and-safety/get-help/state-resources#:~:text=You%20can%20call%20the%20hotline,799%2DSAFE%20(7233) .

Canada:

·       https://women-gender-equality.canada.ca/en/gender-based-violence-knowledge-centre/crisis-lines.html 

·   This website provides phone numbers and emails for crisis lines in each province and territory

 https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/11/compilation-take-action-to-help-end-violence-against-women 

List of NGOs working to promote gender equality and eradicate violence against women in Mexico:  https://borgenproject.org/gender-equality-in-mexico/ 

 https://www.womenatthecentre.com/