Femicide in Latin America

Femicide is the murder of a woman motivated by gender.[1] Femicide is perpetrated by a figure that the victim knows in a vast majority of cases. Between 2016 and 2017, 64% of femicide cases in Ecuador were committed by a former member of the household and 25% were committed by a current member of the household.[2] Between 2007 and 2012, the 25 countries with the most femicides make up more than half of femicide victims, and of these 25 countries, 14 are either in Latin America or in the Caribbean.[3] Throughout the 2010s, femicide began to be legally recognized by different Latin American governments; Mexico recognized it in 2012,[4] Chile in 2010,[5] Ecuador in 2015,[2] and more. As a result, governments have been able to better keep track of femicide statistics and begin to take the steps to address the causes of the issue and policy solutions. In 2019, Brazil and Mexico saw the most femicides per 100,000 women,[6] an increase from previous years for both countries.[4][7]

A monument made in March 2019 located in Ciudad de Mexico. Inscribed are the words "EN MEXICO 9 MUJERES SON ASESINADAS AL DIA. NI UNA MAS!", which translates to "In Mexico, 9 women are assassinated every day. Not one more!"

Awareness for this issue in Latin America has increased with films like the "Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo", which tells the story of Marisela Escobedo Ortiz and her fight to hold the perpetrator accountable for the femicide of her daughter, and "Feminicido en Latino America", which explores the effects that this issue has in the countries they look at.[8] There have also been protests throughout Latin America calling to address this issue, the most recently prominent being the March 2020 protests in Mexico.[9] Pink crosses are used to commemorate victims of femicide throughout Latin America.[10]

Mexico
See also: Violence against women in Mexico

Marcela Lagarde, an author and anthropologist, makes the distinction between "femicidio" and "feminicidio", two culminations of the term femicide as described by Diana Russell.[11] The former is described as a translation of femicide as defined by Russell and the latter described the social and legal systems that perpetuate femicides (e.g., misogynist judges, poor application of the law, and anti-feminist politicians).[12] Dr. Julia Monarrez Fragoso describes on aspect of how systems impact femicide in her analysis of femicides in Ciudad Juarez between 1993 and 2005. The data that her analysis is constructed on lacks preciseness in the exact number of women killed and the motivations behind their murders.[13] The first reliably documented case of femicide in Mexico goes back to January 1993, with the murder of Alma Chavira Farel.[14]

Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua
See also: Femicides in Ciudad Juárez

Femicide in Ciudad Juarez has promulgated femicide into Mexican political discussion since 1993. Of the 442 homicides against women that occurred between 1993 and 2005, a majority of the victims were between the age of 10 and 29 (54.1%). Additionally, 26.5% of these victims were below the age of 18. 1995 saw the most homicides throughout this time with 49 women killed. Of the 442 women killed, 301 have been femicides, where 126 were committed by an intimate partner, 150 were committed by men who clearly used misogyny or sexism and sexually or physically abused the victim, and 25 were killed doing a "stigmatized" occupation like sex work.[13]

Of the women that died to an intimate partner, 22 of the perpetrators committed the femicide out of jealousy and 17 committed femicide during an argument. However, 24 of the intimate partner cases have no conclusive evidence for cause. In the cases where a minor was murdered, 8 of the victims showed signs of abuse, 5 were killed for crying, and 5 victims had no conclusive motivation behind the murder. Of the 25 women who were killed doing a stigmatized occupation, 5 victims were killed because of relationship problems, 4 were killed so the perpetrator could avoid paying, and 11 were killed with no conclusive motivation. Out of 38 systemic femicides, 5 victims were killed out of jealousy, 5 were killed while intoxicated, and 20 show no conclusive motivation.[13]

Femicide after being legally distinguished in Mexico

Femicide was distinguished as its own crime under federal Mexican law on June 14, 2012. It would not be until 2015, three years after femicide was distinguished under Mexican Penal Code, that the Mexican Supreme Court would establish that each violent murder of a woman would be investigated as a femicide, until there is evidence to show otherwise.[15] Between 2012 and 2017, there were 12,796 homicide victims that were female. However, only 22% of the investigations around these crimes began with the suspicion of femicide. 70% of the victims were murdered in a public sphere. Around 40% of these cases had victims between the ages of 21 and 30.[16] According to ONU Mujeres, case numbers decreased from 2012 to 2015 and increased from 2015 to 2017.[17] In fact, according to the "Secretariado Ejecutivo del Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pública" (SESNSP, translates to "Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System"), both femicides and the homicide against women has been increasing since 2015.[18] Since the start of 2021 to May 2021, femicide cases rose by 7.1%, which makes up for 423 women.

Brazil
See also: Domestic violence in Brazil

Femicide in Brazil was recognized in 2015 after legislation was passed to increase women's protections and provide harsher punishments for perpetrators. At that time, femicide rates were the fifth highest in the world and 15 women were being murdered daily.[19] Between 2018 and 2020, femicide numbers rose from 1,229 to 1,330 to 1,350, maintaining a proportion of 1.2 women out of 100,000 murdered on average.[20][21] In Brazil, women of color are disproportionately affected by gendered crimes; Balanço Ligue 180 statistics show that 60% of women that are victims of violence are black.[22] The percentage increases to 68.8% when looking at the rates of homicides against women.[23] Further, the Mapa de Violencia showed that femicide rates among white women fell from 2003 to 2013 and increased for black women in this same period.[24]

Other countries

References
  1. "Femicide and International Women's Rights". Global Americans. 2017-07-05. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  2. Martinez, Lily Marcela Larrea (2018). "El femicidio el último escalón de la violencia". Revista San Gregorio (22): 70–77. ISSN 1390-7247.
  3. Geneva Declaration Secretariat (2015). Global Burden of Armed Violence 2015. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 87–120. doi:10.1017/cbo9781107707108. ISBN 978-1-107-70710-8.
  4. "Women protest for their lives: Fighting femicide in Latin America". Atlantic Council. 2020-02-24. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  5. "Domestic Violence in Chile: Calling Out Femicide". Nieman Reports. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  6. admin (2016-02-11). "Femicide or feminicide". Gender Equality Observatory. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  7. "Number of femicides in Brazil 2020". Statista. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  8. Borunda, Daniel. "Netflix's 'The Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo' tells story of slain Juárez activist mom". El Paso Times. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  9. Villegas, Paulina; McDonald, Brent; Tovar, Miguel (2020-03-10). "Las mujeres de México toman las calles para protestar contra la violencia". The New York Times (in Spanish). ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  10. "Violence against women: 'Day of the dead women' protest in Mexico City". BBC News. 2019-11-04. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  11. "The history of the term 'femicide' | Femicide in Canada". www.femicideincanada.ca. Retrieved 2021-12-17.
  12. Lagarde y de los Ríos, Marcela (2017-01-01), "Feminicidio, delito contra la humanidad (en Feminicidio, justicia y derecho, 2005)", Mujeres intelectuales, Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales. CLACSO, pp. 357–370, doi:10.2307/j.ctv253f4j3.22, S2CID 245049070, retrieved 2021-12-18
  13. Rodolfo., Monárrez Fragoso, Julia Estela. Cervera Gómez, Luis Ernesto. Fuentes Flores, César M. Rubio Salas. Violencia contra las mujeres e inseguridad ciudadana en Ciudad Juárez. ISBN 978-1-4135-5420-5. OCLC 899005087.
  14. "Names of the Women Found Dead in Ciudad Juarez". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-12-18.
  15. "Las cifras oficiales de feminicidios en México no reflejan la realidad de este delito". Animal Político (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-12-18.
  16. "El país de las cruces rosas: Las cifras de feminicidios que deja el sexenio de EPN". news.culturacolectiva.com (in Spanish). 2018-11-30. Retrieved 2021-12-18.
  17. "Violencia Feminicida en México". ONU Mujeres | México (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-12-18.
  18. "Información sobre violencia contra las mujeres (Incidencia delictiva y llamadas de emergencia 9-1-1), octubre 2021". Gobierno de Mexico. November 25, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. Waiselfisz, Julio Jacobo (2015). "MAPA DA VIOLÊNCIA 2015 - HOMICÍDIO DE MULHERES NO BRASIL" (PDF). FLACSO Brazil.
  20. "Femicide rate in Brazil 2020". Statista. Retrieved 2021-12-18.
  21. "Number of femicides in Brazil 2020". Statista. Retrieved 2021-12-18.
  22. "BALANÇO 2015" (PDF). Secretaria de Políticas para as Mulheres.
  23. "DADOS SOBRE FEMINICÍDIO NO BRASIL" (PDF). Artigo 19. 2018.
  24. Monteiro, Mario Francisco Giani; Romio, Jackeline Aparecida Ferreira; Drezett, Jefferson (August 2021). "Is there race/color differential on femicide in Brazil?: The inequality of mortality rates for violent causes among white and black women". Journal of Human Growth and Development. 31 (2): 358–366. doi:10.36311/jhgd.v31.12257. ISSN 0104-1282. S2CID 238848403.
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