Death of Mexican Teenager Sparks Massive Protests in Monterrey; Gender Violence Crisis in Mexico Intensifies

The death of Mexican teenager Debanhi Escobar in Mexico continues to spark outrage among the families of femicide victims across the country.

On Monday night, protesters gathered outside the Nueva Castilla motel in Monterrey to demand justice for the teen's death. Escobar's body was found in the motel's water tank on Thursday or nearly two weeks after she had gone missing.

The Guardian reported that Escobar's disappearance and apparent killing rekindled devastating memories of a wave of killings that happened in the border city of Ciudad Juarez two decades ago.

Dozens of handmade placards were left outside at a shrine remembering Escobar. One of the placards read: "Femicide nation." Monterrey is not the only city in Mexico that has seen protests following Escobar's death.

On Sunday, hundreds of women also flooded Mexico City, where demonstrators taped small missing posters on the Angel, a tall stone monumental shaft commemorating the country's independence. Each poster described the disappearance of a woman.

Demonstrations also occurred in the suburb of Nezahualcoyotl, where protesters carried signs that read "No to Harassment" and "Mexico is a Mass Grave."

The protesters outside the Attorney General's Office also placed flowers and photographs of women who had gone missing or murdered. They said the police and prosecutors have been slow in investigating the cases.

Those criticisms came out after Escobar's father said authorities had searched the motel several times. But her daughter's body was only found after workers reported a foul odor coming from an underground water tank.

Femicide Crisis and Gender Violence in Mexico

Several rights groups have commented on the death of Debanhi Escobar, connecting the demise of the Mexican teenager to the other femicide victims in Mexico.

"What happened to Debhani [Debanhi] happens in thousands of other cases across the country on a daily basis," Amnesty International Mexico executive director Edith Olivares Ferreto noted.

The New York Times reported that security analysts and human rights groups claimed that state authorities failed to carry out proper investigations of missing women or prosecute femicide cases.

"The state has simply completely turned its back on its responsibility to investigate cases of disappearances," said University of Massachusetts Political Science Associate Professor Angelica Duran-Martinez, adding that the environment made by the state's apathy makes it easier for femicide to continue.

According to New York Times, at least nine other women and girls from the greater metropolitan area of Monterrey have gone missing since last month. And The Guardian reported that 52 women were reported missing in the state of Nuevo Leon alone this year.

Across Mexico, more than 24,000 women have gone missing, and 2,800 women went missing only last year, according to government figures.

The said nationwide record of missing women drastically increased by nearly 40 percent compared to the reported missing women in 2017.

Death of Missing Mexican Teenager, Debanhi Escobar, in Mexico

Debanhi Escobar vanished after leaving a party in the early hours of April 9 and whose decomposing body was only found 13 days later.

The body was identified as Escobar after the woman's body in the water tank matched the clothing and the crucifix necklace reported to be worn by the Mexican teenager the night she disappeared.

After hotel workers said that "fetid odors" were coming from the water tank's area, authorities returned. The Mexican teenager reportedly died from a blow to the head. Investigators initially believed that the victim might have accidentally fallen to her death.

However, Escobar's father, Mario Escobar, said prosecutors told him about surveillance footage that revealed that a taxi driver was seen inappropriately touching her daughter.

According to reports, a taxi was called to take Escobar back to her home in Monterrey after she argued with friends at the party. But for unknown reasons, the Mexican teenager was left on an empty motorway a few meters away from the motel.

The driver, who has been accused of making unwanted advances on Escobar, even took a final photograph of the 18-year-old law student standing alone on the roadside in a long brown skirt and high-top trainers.

Footage reportedly showed that soon after being dropped off at around 4:30 a.m., Debanhi Escobar entered the Nueva Castilla motel, and it's still a mystery what happened to her next.

Escobar's father believed that her daughter would not get out of the taxi if she was not harassed. He also believed that her daughter was beaten and strangled.

"This was murder. They killed her... and I will not stop until this is cleared up," said Mario, who commissioned a second independent autopsy. Debanhi Escobar was laid to rest at a hilltop cemetery in northern Mexico on Saturday.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Joshua Summers

WATCH: The Most Dangerous Place For Women In Mexico - From AJ+