Femicide increases in the State of Mexico and other states; Amnesty calls for gender alert but the PRI resists

By Sin Embargo 
Published July 17, 2013
Original Americas Program Translation 

Mexico City, July 17 (Sin Embargo). - Just earlier this month, deputies and senators of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) prevented the First Permanent Commission from issuing  an appeal to the Government of the State of Mexico to stop resisting and implement a "gender alert" in the state.

Yesterday, Amnesty International drew attention to this request and asked to include other states like Oaxaca, Guanajuato, and Nuevo Leon. According to the organization, the Federal Government has ignored multiple requests that have been made to make the warning statement, due to the "alarming levels of violence against women."

Daniel Zapico, AI representative in Mexico, said that the refusal of the authorities seemed like an "attempt to minimize a situation that has claimed epidemic dimension."

According to the results of the National Study on Sources, Origins and Factors that produce and reproduce the Violence Against Women, the nine states that show an increasing trend of female homicides are Chiapas, Chihuahua, Mexico City, Durango, Guerrero, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Sinaloa and Sonora.


According to the document, the most affected areas are the Northeast (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Durango and Zacatecas), where the risk of death in this genre "increased by more than 400% in recent years" and that of northwest (Sonora, Baja California, Baja California Sur and Sinaloa), where there was a 200 percent increase.

The study, however, does not include within the first nine states the states of Mexico or Guanajuato, which Amnesty asks to include.

From 2005 to 2010 the rate of homicides per 100,000 women went from 1.4 to 1.8 deaths in Guanajuato. Civil organizations in mid-2012 highlighted that in six years the murder rate of women has tripled. In 2006, homicides occurred on average of 1.6 women each month, while in 2012, 5.1 were recorded monthly. In sum, according to a statistical report by the State Attorney, a total of 254 women were murdered in those six years.

According to the Citizen Observatory of Femicide, the state of Mexico has the highest number of cases of domestic violence in the country. However, since 2011, the National System to Prevent, Treat, Punish and Eradicate Violence against Women (SNPASEVM) decided not to declare a gender alert in the state of Mexico, although the rates of assaults against women have increased in the state from 2005 to date.

A few weeks ago, the senator of the Party of National Action (PAN), Laura Rojas Hernández, presented an according point to enable the government of the State of Mexico to intensify the sensitization and training of public servants dedicated to the care of women victims of violence, gender equality, access to justice, and respect for human rights.

The request was rejected by PRI legislators who considered the application to perform actions against the violence against women is part of a "knock" policy against the administration of Governor Eruviel Ávila Villegas, successor to the current President of the Republic, Enrique Peña Nieto.

MEXICO STATE

The National Citizen Femicide Observatory (OCNF) and the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH) warned of an increase in murders of women in the State of Mexico.

In a special report, the OCNF-comprised of 43 organizations in 17 states - said that the State of Mexico is the state with the most femicide, followed by Sinaloa and Jalisco.

Maria de la Luz Estrada, OCNF coordinator, said that from March 2011 to December 2012 there were 563 femicide in the state, of which only 115 were classified as such.

She said that these crimes are in addition to those recorded during the first five years of the government of Enrique Peña Nieto in the state, where there were 992 deaths and 99 unidentified bodies.

The activist explained that these deaths were mainly recorded in 10 municipalities in the state of Mexico, which account for 51% of murders, sexual violence and disappearances. Among these are Ecatepec, Nezahualcoyotl, Tlalnepantla, Toluca and Naucalpan.

PAN Senator Laura Rojas said that in the birthplace of the president there are experiencing a high degree of impunity, particularly in the investigation and punishment of offenses relating to domestic violence.  She also said that the national average in 2012 of efficiency was 21 sentences per 100 charges or murder, while the State of Mexico meets only 8 out of 100.

Last month, the representative of the United Nations (UN) in Mexico, Ana Guezmes Garcia said that in the country  6.4 women are murdered per day, indicating that only in 2010, 2335 deaths were registered. She also explained that in the past 25 years, the number of women who have been killed reaches 36 thousand.

Original Spanish Article 
Translated by Yadira Diaz-Ramirez 
Edited by Nidia Bautista