A woman cries as she protests against gender violence and femicides at Angel de la Independencia monument in Mexico City
(Photo : Reuters)

Maria Salguero, a geophysicist and founder of the National Map of Femicides in Mexico studied the number of victims of femicide in the country and stated that the number of femicides has increased from five or six death to ten to eleven deaths a day.

She began recording deaths of femicide in Mexico in 2016 and her job is to make the issue on the violence in gender especially with women transparent to everyone.

Most of the registered victims in the year 2016 were around thirty to thirty-six years old but in her recent records, most of the women being targetted are 18 to 25 years of age. The femicide rate has alarmingly increased by over six percent.

In the data recorded by the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security, they have gathered over 602 confirmed cases of femicides in the year 2016 alone. In 2019, about 976 cases were recorded.

The total cases since 2016 up to today, it has accumulated up to 8,640. As the World Health Organization has reported, 10 cases of murders of women are considered an epidemic in violence. 

Salguero in the first two years used the news as her tool in mapping and addressing these femicides. She believes that Ciudad Juarez is the center for the organized crime since the largest market for drugs in the world is located in that state.

There is also an ongoing conflict between the state and the Sinaloa cartel. It is believed that their dispute is the root of the increase of violence. 

Salguero suspected that most of the deaths are done through organized crimes. These crimes are commonly known in Baja California, Colima, Jalisco, the State of Mexico, Guanajuato and Chihuahua. 

She believes that the victims of femicide are being killed because the criminals from organized crimes consider the women of their rivals as an enemy and through that, they can bring harm to their enemies.

She added that the women are not the only victims of the dispute. T

he factors that led to all these violence are linked to the expansion of illegally acquiring weapons, drugs, and more.

Most men in Juarez are involved in drugs like meth. These drugs cause them to act violently and harshly. Some of their wives are involved in drugs too. 

She believes that the cases on femicides continue to increase since the government is giving these perpetrators and criminals immunity from prosecution since most of the cases are not supported with enough evidence.

Even the people from the government are being accused of these violent crimes, but aren't punished since they have fabricated or lost the original evidence. 

Salguero made her move and told the authorities what to do to prevent more cases of femicide after a 7-year-old girl from Tlahuac was sexually assaulted and killed. 

The Committee for the Eradication of all the Ways of Discrimination Against Women advises the government to follow the process. She requested the government to do their part since the issue is considered to be federal.

They must give their financial and moral support and follow a process to prevent and punish the convicts and perpetrators so that violence against women will be stopped.