Grisly killings of Ingrid Escamilla and Fatima, 7, inflame fury over spiraling violence against women in Mexico
THE murders of a seven-year-old girl and a 25-year-old woman in Mexico have sparked anger, outrage and protests as people call for stricter laws to protect females. Fatima Cecelia Aldrighett was taken from school on February 11 and was discovered dead days later, cops said. Her body was found inside a plastic bag and left […]
THE murders of a seven-year-old girl and a 25-year-old woman in Mexico have sparked anger, outrage and protests as people call for stricter laws to protect females.
Fatima Cecelia Aldrighett was taken from school on February 11 and was discovered dead days later, cops said.
Her body was found inside a plastic bag and left in a rural area, according to Mexico City prosecutors, who said the child was also sexually abused and beaten before she died.
Authorities announced a man and a woman were arrested in her death.
Fatima’s abduction came days after Ingrid Escamilla, of Mexico City, was skinned and mutilated by her husband, who police say confessed to killing her.
Cops said the husband claimed Ingrid attacked him with a knife, so he killed her and flushed some of her body parts down the sewer.
Ingrid had reportedly told police months earlier that her husband, Erik Francesco Robledom, was abusive.
Photos of Ingrid’s body were leaked by police officers to local media, which published them on their front pages.
It sparked outrage from protesters, who said it “enrages” them how Ingrid was killed — and “how the media put her body on display.”
In an attempt to drown out the awful photos, social media was filled with ‘beautiful’ tributes to the woman.
Twitter and Instagram were flooded with pictures of butterflies, sunsets and flowers accompanied by Ingrid’s name.
Protesters said in a statement: “It enrages us that the public judges us, saying ‘this isn’t the right way to express your rage.”
“We are not mad, we are furious.”
PROTESTS IN THE CAPITAL
Mexico City has seen angry protests over femicides — or murders of women — over the past few months.
Those demonstrations have included protesters vandalizing major monuments and buildings.
Last Friday, hundreds of women took to the capital and spray-painted slogans like “we won’t be silenced” on the doorway of the National Palace, where President Andrés Manuel López Obrador lives.
Others wrote “femicide state” in blood-red paint.
Some spray-painted riot officers’ shields as others chanted “Not one more murdered!” and “Justice!” as police used pepper spray.
INCREASING MURDERS
Roughly 10 women are killed each day in Mexico just for being women, according to the government and activists.
In 2019, there were 35,558 recorded murders — 3,825 of which were women, up seven percent from 2018.
Of the nearly 4,000, 1,006 were classified as femicides, but activists say that’s too small of a number.
“Femicides” are determined based on whether the victim’s body shows evidence of sexual violence, or if there was a close or intimate relationship between victim and suspect.
That total number, however, is incomplete as some states still don’t use that designation, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The 1,006 deaths that were considered femicides marks a 145 percent increase since 2015.
The number, as noted by the Times, “significantly exceeds the rapid rise in the country’s overall homicide rate.”
According to Human Rights Watch, “Mexican laws do not adequately protect women and girls against domestic and sexual violence.”
Data from the United Nations’ global database on violence against women shows that 38.8 percent of women experience sexual violence from non-partners in their lifetimes.
Another 24.6 percent experience physical or sexual abuse from a partner during their lives.
Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico City’s mayor, said that prosecutors will be pushing for heavy sentences for femicide.
She tweeted: “Femicide is an absolutely condemnable crime. It is appalling when hatred reaches extremes like in the case of Ingrid Escamilla.”
Attacks on women have not only grown, they’ve also become more gruesome — like the skinning of Ingrid.
A young musician was burned with acid in the Mexican state of Oaxaca in September.
The two men who police say did it testified they were hired by a former politician and businessman who allegedly had an affair with the woman.
On Friday, López Obrador has condemned the murders of women as hate crimes and “an act of brutal machismo.”
However, this week, he hit back at people who questioned how committed the Mexican government is to help fight violence against women.
“This issue has been manipulated a lot in the media,” he said on Monday. “I don’t want the issue just to be women’s killings.”
BLAMING THE GOVERNMENT
The family of seven-year-old Fatima has said the Mexican government didn’t do enough to protect the child.
Her aunt said she would’ve been found alive if cops had just listened to their family.
“Fatima is not with us because the protocols were not followed, because the institutions did not give the attention they should have,” aunt Sonia Lopez said on Monday, according to Reuters.
“We will not forget her.”
Lopez said cops wasted time after they reported Fatima missing — and accused social services of not helping the girl’s mom, who has health problems, support Fatima.
Two people — a man and a woman — have been arrested in Fatima’s kidnapping and murder.
Mexico City Mayor Sheinbaum said the two are apparently a couple and found Fatima’s belongings in their abandoned rented home.
Fatima’s family is said to have known the female suspect.
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López Obrador regular blames problems — like corruption, poverty and violence — on old policies from the economic liberalization in the 1980s.
He said he was positive cops would catch whoever killed Fatima.
The president added, however, the bigger problem would be to fix Mexican society, which he said had “fallen into decline, a progressive degradation that has to do with the neo-liberal model.”
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