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‘It fills us with rage’: Mexican activists protest femicide at presidential palace

Demonstration stemmed from outrage over killing of Ingrid Escamilla and publication of photos of her mutilated corpse

Staff and agencies in Mexico City

Fri 14 Feb 2020

A masked female protester stands with a sign at the entrance to the national palace in Mexico City on 14 February. An average of 10 women are killed a day in Mexico. Photograph: Ginnette Riquelme/AP

Dozens of activists gathered outside Mexico’s presidential palace on Friday to protest against violence against women, chanting “Not one murder more” and splashing one of its large, ornate doors with blood-red paint and the words “femicide state”.


'Why did she have to die?' Mexico's war on women claims young artist Read more

The heated Valentine’s Day demonstration, led by women, stemmed from outrage in recent days over the killing of 25-year-old Ingrid Escamilla in Mexico City and the publication of graphic photos of her mutilated corpse in newspapers.

One protester spray-painted “Ingrid” in tall pink letters on another palace door in tribute. Many participants noted that her death was only the latest example in a wave of brutal murders of women, or femicides.

An average of 10 women are killed a day in Mexico, and last year marked a new overall homicide record, official data shows   

 A woman holds a sign for Ingrid Escamilla as women demonstrate outside the national palace in Mexico City on Friday. Photograph: Rodrigo Arangua/AFP via Getty Images

“It’s not just Ingrid. There are thousands of femicides,” said Lilia Florencio Guerrero, whose daughter was violently killed in 2017. “It fills us with anger and rage.”


She called on Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was inside the palace as t

he protests continued, to do more to stop the violence.

Others graffitied slogans including “They are killing us” on the building’s walls and ejected bright flames from cans of flammable spray-paint.

Inside the stately palace, López Obrador said such killings were hate crimes and an act of brutal machismo.

“I’m not burying my head in the sand … The government I represent will always take care of ensuring the safety of women,” he said, without detailing new plans.

But early this week, he showed little patience for those who questioned him about the government’s commitment to fighting violence against women.

“This issue has been manipulated a lot in the media,” López Obrador said Monday, adding: “I don’t want the issue just to be women’s killings.”
A masked female protester sprays fire at the entrance to the national palace in Mexico City on Friday. Photograph: Ginnette Riquelme/AP

On Friday, the protesters also admonished the newspapers that published photos of Escamilla’s corpse, chanting: “The press is complicit.”

Mexico's 'glitter revolution' targets violence against women Read more

La Prensa, a newspaper that ran the gruesome image on its cover, defended its record of reporting on crime and murder, subjects it said the government prefers to keep quiet. The paper also said it was open to discussion on adjusting its standards beyond legal requirements.

“We understand today that it hasn’t been sufficient, and we’ve entered a process of deeper review,” the paper said in a front-page statement on Friday.

Newspaper Pásala had filled nearly its entire tabloid cover with the photo, under the Valentine’s Day-themed headline: “It was cupid’s fault.” The cover sparked anger not only at the gory display, but also the jocular tone over a crime for which Escamilla’s domestic partner has been arrested.

Woman’s Grisly Murder in Mexico Puts AMLO on the Defensive

Lorena Rios

Bloomberg•February 14, 2020

(Bloomberg) -- Demonstrators in Mexico City, outraged by the horrific murder of a 25-year-old woman, on Friday sprayed graffiti on the presidential palace and disrupted President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s daily press conference.

Even in a nation accustomed to rampant homicides and frequent violence against women, the case of Ingrid Escamilla was particularly shocking. Pictures of her dismembered body were leaked on social media, causing widespread revulsion, anger and despair.

The shouts from protesters outside the palace could be heard as reporters questioned the president about measures to reduce killings. A crowd of about 100, most of them women, spray painted slogans on the ornate building that dates to the 16th century. Some splashed red paint on its doors.

One chant: “We are not dying. They are killing us.”

Lopez Obrador has enjoyed widespread popularity as he implements a leftist agenda to take on Mexico’s traditional power brokers. But many see stemming the nation’s epidemic violence as his biggest test. Drug gangs kill with impunity, leaving their enemies’ defiled corpses displayed as warnings. Murders of female workers have been a plague in border regions, with many disappearances uninvestigated.

In 2019, Lopez Obrador’s first year in office, killings overall reached a record. The pace of women being killed more than doubled in the past five years, while the overall homicide rate is up 35% in the period, Attorney General Alejandro Gertz said this week.

Gertz and the president known as AMLO have been fielding criticism by feminist groups that say they are trying to downplay violence against women as a special phenomenon.

Irene Tello Arista, director of an organization called Zero Impunity, which ranks the jobs prosecutors perform around the country, said Friday that AMLO also has failed to make the crucial distinction.

“He needs to know that when it comes to public policy, he can’t do that,” she said. “They are different phenomena.”

Marches against gender violence have grown frequent in the nation’s capital amid reports of rape and sexual harassment on campuses, including the main public university of Mexico, and as cases of brutal killings of women have emerged.

The death of Escamilla has galvanized opponents. The victim was murdered in an apartment complex in Mexico City this past weekend, according to news reports. Her 46-year-old partner confessed to the killing in a video taken after his arrest, according to national media. News outlets reported that he admitting stabbing her after an argument. She made a violence complaint against him in 2019 that she later dropped, according to El Universal newspaper.

Pictures of Escamilla’s mutilated body were leaked and widely circulated, causing outrage on social media. Hashtags such as #JusticeForIngrid began circulating and led to Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum calling for “maximum punishment.”

On Friday morning, questions in the press briefing quickly turned to what the president known as AMLO plans to do to reverse the trend.

Lopez Obrador has tried to respond to rising concern about gender violence, but has also grown defensive at being questioned over the matter. “We’re doing things every day to guarantee peace and tranquility. I’m not sticking my head in the sand, I’m not evading my responsibility,” he said.

After several questions from reporters Lopez Obrador reeled off 10 declarations, including “it’s cowardice to hurt a woman,” and, “women need to be respected,” and, “the government I represent will always be working to guarantee, always, the security of women.”

He didn’t commit to specific actions to protect women, such as creating a special prosecutor to investigate the killings.

(Adds comment from an activist in eighth paragraph. Earlier version was corrected to remove references to victim’s profession and day of death.)


Mexican demonstrators splash presidential palace red in protest over murder of women

29 PHOTOS
By Daina Beth Solomon and Josue Gonzalez,
Reuters•February 14, 2020




Mexican demonstrators splash presidential palace red in protest over murder of women
People take part in a protest against gender-based violence in downtown of Mexico City

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Demonstrators daubed the words "femicide state" in blood-red on Mexico's presidential palace on Friday, before marching in heavy rain to the offices of newspaper La Prensa to protest against the recent publication of a gruesome image of a murder victim.

The Valentine's Day demonstration, led by women, was sparked by the killing of 25-year-old Ingrid Escamilla in Mexico City and the publication of graphic photos of her mutilated corpse in newspapers.

The protesters, numbering at least 200 and comprised mostly of women, burned vehicles belonging to La Prensa and briefly clashed with security forces who prevented them from entering the newspaper's offices.

Chanting "not one more murder" and carrying signs saying "we demand responsible journalism," "Ingrid we are all you" and "sexism kills," the demonstrators demanded justice.

An average of 10 women a day are killed in Mexico. Last year marked a new overall homicide record, official data shows.

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, said on Twitter that it condemned the killing of Escamilla.

"We demand comprehensive actions to eliminate violence against women and girls. We demand full access to justice and non-revictimization for all. Ingrid is not an isolated case," UN Women said.

Lilia Florencio Guerrero, whose daughter was violently killed in 2017, called on President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was inside the palace during the protests, to do more to stop violence

"It's not just Ingrid. There are thousands of femicides," said Guerrero. "It fills us with anger and rage."

One protester spray-painted "INGRID" in big pink letters on a door of the presidential palace. Many participants noted that Escamilla's was only the latest in a wave of brutal murders of women.

Others protesters painted slogans including "they are killing us" on the building's walls and fired bright flames from cans of flammable spray-paint.

Inside the stately palace, where Lopez Obrador lives with his family, the president attempted to reassure the activists during his morning news conference.

"I'm not burying my head in the sand ... The government I represent will always take care of ensuring the safety of women," he said, without giving details of new plans.

Protesters also admonished the newspapers that published photos of Escamilla's corpse, chanting, "The press is complicit."

La Prensa, which ran the image on its cover, defended its record of reporting on crime and murder, subjects that it said the government prefers to keep quiet. The paper said it was open to discussion on adjusting its standards beyond legal requirements.

"We understand today that it hasn't been sufficient, and we've entered a process of deeper review," the paper said in a front-page statement on Friday.

A 22-year-old student dressed in black, with a mask covering her face and carrying a can of spray paint, said the protests after Escamilla's death seemed to have had an affect.

La Prensa, she said, had caved to "pressure from feminists."

Another newspaper, Pasala, had filled nearly its entire tabloid cover with the photo of Escamilla's corpse, under the Valentine's Day-themed headline: "It was cupid's fault." The cover sparked anger not only at the gory display, but also the jocular tone over a crime for which Escamilla's domestic partner has been arrested.

Pasala editors did not respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Josue Gonzalez; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by David Gregorio and Leslie Adler)



Angry protests in Mexico after woman's gruesome killing

MARÍA VERZA,
Associated Press•February 14, 2020


Mexican Activists Protest After Gruesome Killing of Woman, Publication of 'Horrific' Crime Scene Photos

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Angry demonstrations broke out in Mexico City on Friday as hundreds of women protested the gruesome slaying and mutilation of a young woman, a case that has come to personify outrage over the rising incidence of gender-related killings, or femicides.

In the morning, dozens of protesters spray-painted slogans such as “We won't be silenced” on the facade and doorway of the capital's National Palace as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was holding his daily news conference inside.

Hours later hundreds marched to the offices of a media outlet that published grisly images of the crime scene, and a newspaper truck outside was partially set ablaze. Some spray-painted the plastic shields of riot officers as the crowd chanted “Not one more murdered!” and “Justice!” Police unleashed pepper spray.

As a cool rain fell in the evening, those remaining left and walked down the central Reforma boulevard, where some bus stop windows were shattered and signs vandalized.

About 10 women are slain each day across Mexico just because they are women, the government and activists say. Last year there were 3,825 in all, which was up 7% from 2018, according to federal figures.

Not only have attacks on women become more frequent, they have become more grisly. In September, a young female musician in the southern state of Oaxaca was burned with acid by two men who testified they had been hired by a former politician and businessman who allegedly had an affair with her.

But the killing last weekend of Ingrid Escamilla, a young Mexico City resident who was allegedly murdered by a boyfriend, has horrified Mexicans for its brutality.

The man, who has been arrested and purportedly confessed to killing Escamilla with a knife, mutilated her body and flushed part of her corpse into the sewer.

Indignation grew after some local media published horrific photos of the skinned corpse, apparently leaked by city police officers.

The protesters read a statement Friday saying “it enrages us how Ingrid was killed, and how the media put her body on display.”

“It enrages us that the public judges us, saying 'this isn't the right way to express your rage,'" the statement continued. “We are not mad, we are furious.”

In the past, women's protests in Mexico City had been criticized for spray-painting historical monuments and trashing city infrastructure, but the damage Friday was minor, and criticism almost non-existent.

Instead, officials condemned media outlets for publishing the photos and said they were investigating police who may have taken the photos with their cellphones at the crime scene.

The Interior Department said in a statement it “condemns the publication and distribution of such material, given that it re-victimizes people and promotes sensationalism and morbid curiosity. It is an attack on the dignity, privacy and identity of the victims and their families.”

The president said Friday morning in the colonial-era palace as the protesters were outside that such killings were hate crimes and “an act of brutal machismo.”

But early this week, López Obrador showed little patience for those who questioned him about the government's commitment to fighting violence against women.

“This issue has been manipulated a lot in the media,” the president said Monday, adding that “I don't want the issue just to be women's killings.


SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=FEMICIDE