Guardian News and Media/Mexico City
Emergency measures to tackle violence against women are to be implemented in parts of Mexico’s most densely populated state, where thousands of women and girls have been murdered and disappeared in the past decade.
A gender alert has been issued in 11 municipalities in the state of Mexico, known in Spanish as Edomex, after authorities finally conceded that systematic violence against women and girls exists in parts of the state.
Human rights groups and families of victims have been demanding a gender alert since 2010 amid growing evidence that Edomex had become the most dangerous place to be female in the country.
A staggering 1,258 girls and women were reported disappeared and at least 448 murdered in Edomex in 2011 and 2012, according to figures obtained by the National Citizens Observatory on Femicides (Femicide Observatory). Many of their mutilated bodies were left displayed in public places - an act which criminologists and feminist scholars say is associated with gender hate crimes.
The emergency mechanism obliges authorities to launch an in-depth investigation, involving government and civil society groups, into the causes of violence against women, and take concrete steps to tackle the problem.
“This is a historic day,” said Maria de la Luz Estrada, director of the National Citizens Femicide Observatory.
The partial alert comes after officials rejected petitions by activists and victims’ families for a statewide alert for years, saying they needed more proof women in Edomex are being targeted because of their gender, rather than falling victim to the violence of Mexico’s drug wars.
In April, in response to a Guardian investigation, state governor Eruviel Avila sought to downplay the problem by arguing that the large number of female victims could be explained by the state’s large population.
Then, in a surprise move Avila made a personal request for help in the 11 most dangerous municipalities at the beginning of July. This promoted widespread accusations that the move was designed to placate critics and pave the way for a 2018 presidential bid.
Lucia Melgar, a leading gender academic, told the Guardian: “Issuing an alert in just 11 municipalities is an inadequate response to the serious problem of machismo violence which exists in the whole state.”
“There is a huge risk that superficial short-term measures will be implemented, which will not resolve the underlying statewide problems of structural violence, inequality, misogyny and impunity,” she added.
Edomex is the second state to have a gender alert issued - an emergency mechanism introduced into law in 2007 following a surge of gruesome hate crimes against women in the border town of Ciudad Juarez.
The first alert was issued last year in Guanajuato, one of the most conservative states in Mexico, where women suffer high rates of domestic violence and abortion is illegal in all circumstances.
