Mexican mother faces loss, corruption and impunity in a “femicide nation”

At 8:35 pm on Saturday, June 18, Patricia García received a call informing her that her daughter, Frida Santamaría García, was injured in a hospital.

Frida had been working hours earlier in a reception hall for a christening party, her mother said in a telephone interview from Sahuayo, a city in the western Mexican state of Michoacán.

“I immediately called her cousin, who worked with her, to ask if he knew anything. She called my daughter’s phone, but it was her boyfriend, Juan Paulo N., who answered, ”García said.

When he arrived at the Santa María Sahuayo Hospital, García learned that his daughter had been shot. Frida had been left for dead after her cell phone was stolen, they told her. The shots had pierced the young woman’s lungs and liver.

“It was the most terrible moment of my life,” Garcia said. “A few minutes later, the doctor told me that my daughter was dead.”

Frida, 24, still had her whole life ahead of her, but she was brutally obstructed with a firearm.

“He was a very humble person with a big heart. He cared about the welfare of his family and friends. He was unconditional, loyal. She was unique,” ​​her grieving mother said.

Frida’s boyfriend denied being involved in her death. But on December 15, Juan Paulo suddenly retracted his denial and admitted that he shot his girlfriend, saying it was unintentional.

His retraction and late confession led the Jiquilpan regional prosecutor’s office to reduce the charges against him to manslaughter.

This gave the defendant the right to an abbreviated judicial process and a prison sentence of three years with the possibility of parole. The punishment for manslaughter in Mexico is much more lenient than for those accused of femicide.

In this country of almost 127 million inhabitants where, according to the authorities, more than 10 women are murdered every day, the case of Frida Santamaría García is yet another example of the challenges faced by the families of the victims in their search for justice.

The suspect flees

Frida’s relationship with Juan Paulo began three or four months before his murder, according to her cousin, Samantha Morrett García. “I found out about her relationship just a week before he shot her,” Samantha revealed in a telephone interview from Jiquilpan.

While the García family mourned the sudden loss of Frida the night of the tragedy, Juan Paulo had already left the city and fled to Guadalajara, capital of the neighboring state of Jalisco.

It was the beginning of a harrowing legal obstacle course for the victim’s family. A file carried out in the days after his murder at the Jiquilpan Attorney General’s Office made no progress in the case. “He didn’t even inform me that I had the right to see a victim counselor,” Garcia said, recalling the traumatic days when the family, shocked and grieved by their sudden loss, first encountered the limitations of Mexico’s justice system. .

Frida’s family sought the services of a private lawyer five weeks later, which finally allowed the investigation to move forward. “We realized that the investigation was not done correctly, neither in substance nor in form,” said the mother of the victim.

The family eventually sought the help of NGOs, including the feminist collective MAPAS, which advised the family to speak to the press and organized demonstrations demanding justice for Frida. The group denounced the lack of adequate police reports and witness testimony. However, the prosecution insisted on treating her case as a possible suicide.

When the suspect is the son of a former mayor

In the case of Frida, there is another crucial fact that cannot be ignored: the defendant, Juan Paulo, is the son of the former mayor of the city of Sahuayo, Alejandro Amezcua Chávez. Chávez is the brother-in-law of Alfredo Inaya, a former secretary of economic development in the cabinet of the governor of the state of Michoacán.

Mapas was quick to denounce the “cynicism” with which the judiciary is handling the case against such a well-connected suspect.

“Until January 1, the Santamaría García family and the feminist collective MAPAS believed that the Michoacán state prosecutor’s office was working to bring justice to Frida’s case,” said Sofía Blanco, spokeswoman for the collective.

“Now we know that, since December 20, work was underway to change the criminal classification of this crime from femicide to ‘manslaughter’. This change was made without informing the family or their lawyer, so as not to give them time to challenge the decision before the hearing scheduled for January 4. ,” spokeswoman Sofia Blanco said.

The feminist collective also denounced the silence surrounding the case. “Neither the attorney general nor the governor of the state of Michoacán have ruled on the ruling in favor of [calificar este delito como] femicide,” Blanco said.

He also denounced the Supreme Court of Justice of the state of Michoacán for not “guaranteeing due process for the victim” and for not doing anything to prevent the prosecution from reducing the charges.

In a press release that reviewed the legal twists of the case, the García family stated that: “Currently, in Mexico, a person who is guilty of femicide can receive a sentence of up to 50 years in prison; while for culpable homicide, they face a three-year sentence with the possibility of parole.”

“So we understand why Juan Paulo’s father and his brother-in-law acted with impunity and corruption to redefine and reduce the charges for this crime.”

A week after the reduced charges for her daughter’s killer were announced, Garcia said she appealed the decision, despite threats the family and several witnesses have received, and despite attempts to torpedo the case by people associated with the suspect.

‘Total injustice’

The worsening of the gender violence crisis in Mexico and the lack of response from the State have led protesters and activists to describe the country as a “femicide nation”.

According to official figures, around 3,750 women were murdered and almost 100,000 disappeared in Mexico in 2021. Of these murders, only 1,004 were investigated as “femicides.” This breach by the authorities has been denounced by NGOs as International Amnestywhich affirms that the lack of prosecutions translates into “violations of the human rights to life and physical integrity of women and to the judicial protection of their families.”

The National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women (CONAVIM) of Mexico has estimated that 94% of these cases brought to court are dismissed.

“Investigations are not carried out according to the gender of the victim, they are not followed up, and corruption prevents the murderers from being brought to justice,” Blanco explained.

On January 4, protesters gathered in front of the courthouse in Morelia, the capital of the state of Michoacán, declaring that every murder of a woman that goes unpunished is yet another sign that Mexico is “a nation of femicide.” The protesters demanded the maximum sentence for the alleged murderer of Frida, and for all the other victims of femicide.

“The Jiquilpan prosecutor’s office and the Public Ministry preferred to protect the integrity of Juan Paulo,” said Frida’s mother at a press conference that day. “And now he could be out on parole. This is a total injustice.”

Case ‘Campo Algodonero’ forces the government to act

Despite the deficiencies of the Public Ministry or the judicial system, in Mexico there are convictions for femicide. “But when it comes to femicides committed by people whose families have political power, everything becomes complex,” said Blanco, referring to the case of Jessica González Villaseñor, murdered in 2020, whose alleged murderer, Diego Urik, also came from a wealthy family. with political connections.

The young man, who was 18 years old at the time of the crime, lived in the wealthy sector of Altozano de Morelia. Nevertheless, a Mexican news portal that specializes in investigating the links between power and organized crime, describes him as a “mirrey”, a colloquial term used to describe a young man from a wealthy family who lives a life of luxury, parties and excesses. While the victim was a teacher from a working class family.

On January 11, Urik pleaded not guilty. A verdict is expected on January 27. If he is found guilty, he could face a sentence of up to 50 years in prison; if not, he will be released.

“He has already taken everything from us and no punishment will return my sister to us,” he told the newspaper. The Herald of Mexico, Cristo Villaseñor, brother of the victim. However, if the maximum sentence is handed down, it could set a precedent, he said.

“It should be an example for society, and especially for those misogynistic men who believe they can take women’s lives without paying the consequences,” he said.

Corruption and impunity are the main reasons why femicide rates, as well as the number of disappearances, are so high for women in Mexico. In 2009, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a landmark ruling condemning the country’s negligence in investigating the death of eight girls who were tortured, raped, murdered and found in a vacant lot in Ciudad Juárez, a city in northern Mexico that It has been popularly named as the world capital of femicide.

The judgment of what became known as the “Campo Algodonero” case included a strong scolding of the Mexican government, forcing it to act. Since then several commissions have been created to eradicate violence against women and a special prosecutor has been appointed.

“Can a law put an end to femicide in Mexico?“, a January 2020 report noted that despite “praise for a new law designed with a gender perspective, which guarantees a life without violence for all women… femicides continue to be committed with almost impunity throughout the country Government and police institutions continue to look the other way, or in some cases they themselves participate in this new type of crime”.

Mexico is the most dangerous country for women in Latin America and holds the unfortunate record for the highest number of femicides in the region, according to the UN. However, in 2007, Mexico was a pioneer in including femicide in its penal code, stating: “The crime of femicide is committed by any person who deprives a woman of her life for reasons of gender.”

The Latin American Protocol Model for the investigation of homicides of women for gender reasons recommends that all violent deaths of women for criminal reasons, suicides and accidents be analyzed from a gender perspective to determine whether or not there were gender reasons for the cause of death.

After Frida’s death in Sahuayo, Juan Paulo’s family and friends asked, among other things, that the gender perspective not be applied in the investigation.

“What the hell is ‘gender neutral’ justice? Justice for everyone except women?” asked Blanco, from the feminist collective MAPAS, in an interview with a local media outlet.

“We represent half the population!”

This article has been translated from the original in French.