Mexico has been embroiled in a surging number of violence cases in recent years. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing residents shut indoors, many abuse victims turned to emergency call centers to report cases of violence against women.

In March, the government received over 26,000 reports of domestic violence, the highest the hotline has recorded since it was recorded. However, Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador dismissed the announcement and claimed the majority of the calls were fake.

At the new conference, the president compared "ninety percent of the calls" to prank calls similar to "the calls the metro gets about sabotage or bombs."

Dismissing Claims

The leftist leader won the presidential elections more than a year ago armed with promises to develop the country into an equal society. But his administration has been unable to address the growing number of femicide cases in the country.

In multiple instances, Lopez Obrador dismissed reports about the killing of women, claiming the issue was manipulated by the opposition and the media. He also claimed the conservatives were taking advantage of the problem by "dressing up as feminists" to attack him.

In March, thousands marched in the capital to protest the growing number of violence against women, including the gruesome murders of 7-year-old Fatima Cecilia Aldrighett and 25-year-old Ingrid Escamilla. When asked about the protests, the president claimed the movement was organized by political opponents who wanted to see his administration fail.

The administration previewed a campaign where abusers are asked "not to lose patience" and to "count to 10." Martha Tagle, a legislator for the opposition, claimed the campaign placed the responsibility of domestic abuse on women.

Femicide and Violence Against Women

Mexico had begun counting femicide data in 2012 when the nation ranked the 16th country with the most incidents of femicides reported.

In 2016, the figures of women killed daily rose to an average of 4.5 per 100,000 women.

In 2018, the UN Mujeres reported 10 deaths involving women each day.

In 2019, the average rose to 10.5 women per day-the same year officials recorded 3,825 killings involving women, with 1,006 classified as femicide.

When 25-year-old Ingrid Escamilla was found disemboweled, skinned, and stabbed on February 9, 2020, authorities reported another 239 cases of women or girls who had also been killed. On February 10, the numbers rose to 250.

Femicide is considered an intimate crime, with data showing more than 40 percent of victims in Mexico knew their killer. Most murdered women are also likely to be killed by strangulation, drowning, suffocation, and stabbing.

Most femicide cases are classified as homicides, where the vast majority of the reports are never investigated. Impunity also contributed to the inaccurate tally of cases of violence against women. According to data, 93 percent of crimes in Mexico in 2018 have gone unreported or uninvestigated, leading experts to believe the number of femicide cases in the country is significantly higher than it is thought to be.

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