Femicide in Mexico
Updated: Feb 26, 2020
Ingrid Escamilla was a 25-year-old woman who was stabbed and skinned by her husband in Mexico City, on February 9, 2020. As if that wasn’t enough, her husband, Erik Francesco Robledo, started dismembering her body and discarded the pieces down a sewer to hide the evidence. To make matters worse, gruesome images of the crime scene and her mutilated body were leaked on social media. Unfortunately, I came across the images on Facebook and saw how horrendous they truly are. No human being deserves to have their body mutilated and disrespected in the way Ingrid Escamilla had hers. More importantly, no one deserves to be remembered in such a grim and terrible way.
PC: Central European News
Crimes like these should not go unpunished, which is why hundreds of women all over Mexico have gone out to the streets to protest the on-going violence against women in the country. According to Rob Picheta and Natalie Gallón from CNN, “Femicides -- the killing of women on account of their gender -- have risen in Mexico in recent years; 1,006 cases were reported in 2019, compared with 912 the year before”.** The government isn’t doing much to protect the victims or prevent violence. In some cases, they aren’t even punishing such acts which make them sensationalized and therefore more likely to be committed. As a result, corruption and the lack of law enforcement allows people to get away with murder. Furthermore, “according to Mexico's Attorney General Alejandro Gertz, femicides have increased 137% in the last five years”.** Again, why isn’t the government doing a better job at protecting women?
As a woman myself, I want something to be done now. Enough is enough. I want to be able to visit my relatives in Mexico without the constant fear of something happening to me just because I’m a girl. I want to be able to walk down La Plaza with a paleta in my hands without having to look over my shoulder every step I take. Femicide is real and it’s happening now, it has been happening. The question is, are we going to do something about it or are we just going to let our daughters deal with it too?
PC: AFP Contributor/ Getty Images
*Martinez, Gabriela, and Mary Beth Sheridan. “A Woman Was Killed and Skinned. Now Mexico Is up in Arms.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 14 Feb. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/a-woman-was-killed-and-skinned-now-mexico-is-up-in-arms/2020/02/14/5a1f81f0-4f38-11ea-967b-e074d302c7d4_story.html.
**Picheta, Rob, and Natalie Gallón. “A 25-Year-Old Woman Was Brutally Murdered and Skinned in Mexico. Then Newspapers Published Photos of the Body.” CNN, Cable News Network, 14 Feb. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/02/13/americas/ingrid-escamilla-mexico-murder-case-scli-intl/index.html.
***Steed, Les. “'Murdered' Ingrid Escamilla, 25, Complained to Mexico Cops about Violent Husband Months before She Was 'Skinned'.” The US Sun, The Sun, 17 Feb. 2020, www.the-sun.com/news/415355/murdered-ingrid-escamilla-complained-mexico-cops-violent-husband-months-before-skinned/.