A 23-year-old Mexican influencer, Valeria Marquez, was fatally shot whereas livestreaming on Tuesday.
Marquez, who had greater than 113,000 followers on the platform, was broadcasting to her viewers when the assault occurred.
In line with a press release from the Jalisco state prosecutor’s workplace, the case is being investigated beneath femicide protocols, utilized in situations the place a girl is killed resulting from her gender.
What’s femicide?
Femicide refers to gender-related killings towards girls and ladies. In line with the newest report from the United Nations Workplace on Medicine and Crime (UNODC) and UN Ladies, femicide is rising across the globe.
In 2023, a girl was deliberately killed each 10 minutes by a companion or member of the family.
Of the 85,000 girls and ladies killed internationally in 2023, 60 p.c (51,000) have been murdered by an intimate companion or a member of the family.
How frequent is femicide in Latin America and the Caribbean?
Honduras has the very best femicide price with 7.2 girls killed per 100,000 in 2023, adopted by the Dominican Republic (2.4 per 100,000) and Brazil (1.4 per 100,000).
Mexico has the fourth-highest femicide price in Latin America and the Caribbean, alongside Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia – all with 1.3 killings per 100,000 girls in 2023.
When it comes to absolute killings, Brazil noticed the very best variety of femicide instances with 1,463 girls murdered. It was adopted by Mexico, the place 852 girls have been killed on account of femicide in 2023. Honduras had the third-highest quantity, with 380 femicide instances.
Femicide is on the rise in Mexico
The speed of femicide is rising on the entire within the nation, regardless of some fluctuations over time.
It has grow to be a serious concern in Mexico with recorded instances rising considerably over the previous decade. In 2015, femicides represented 19.8 p.c of feminine homicides. This proportion had elevated to 24.2 p.c by 2024.
In line with the UN Financial Fee for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNCLAC), in 2015, the speed of femicide in Mexico was 0.7 girls per 100,000. In 2023, that quantity now stands at 1.3 per 100,000 girls – although that’s down marginally from a peak of 1.6 per 100,000 in 2021. Gender-based violence towards girls grew globally in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Mexico was no exception.
Whereas statistics from UNCLAC present the speed of femicide in Mexico has declined over the previous three years, it stays a pronounced and sometimes silent problem resulting from underreporting, say specialists.
In Mexico, some 85 p.c of girls aged 15 and over who’ve skilled bodily or sexual violence didn’t file a criticism, based on Mexico’s Nationwide Survey on the Dynamics of Family Relationships.
The place in Mexico has the worst charges of femicide?
The killing of Marquez occurred simply days earlier than one other girl, a mayoral candidate within the state of Veracruz, was additionally shot lifeless throughout a livestream alongside three different individuals.
In line with Mexico’s Nationwide Public Safety System (SNSP), the nationwide price of femicide was 1.18 per 100,000 in 2024.
The state of Morelos, in south-central Mexico, had the very best price of femicide with 4.7 girls per 100,000 murdered, adopted by Chihuahua (2.35 per 100,000) and Tabasco (2.22 per 100,000).
In Jalisco state the place Marquez was killed, the femicide price was 0.63 per 100,000 in 2024.
Jalisco is ranked sixth out of Mexico’s 32 states, together with Mexico Metropolis, for homicides, with 906 recorded there for the reason that starting of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s time period in October 2024, based on the information consultancy TResearch.
