@Miguel Dimayuga, El Imparcial de Oaxaca

The first month of 2020 was the most violent for women since the beginning of the administration of Governor Alejandro Murat: according to the Documentation “Rosario Castellanos” Center of the Women’s Studies Group (GES Mujer), 19 women were killed by firearm in the period.

GES Mujer also indicated that, according to the statistics of the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP) from January to November 2019, 132 murders of women were committed, of which “only 27 deaths are investigated as femicides”. It noted that it is worrisome that gender violence has reached municipalities that had not been considered at risk in the Declaration of Alert for Gender Violence in which, at present, only 42 municipalities of the state’s 500 are included.

“Femicide violence is exacerbated for girls and women in Oaxaca. January 2020 has been the most violent month so far of the administration of Alejandro Murat that goes from December 1st, 2016 to February 1st, 2020. So far we have accounted for 402 cases of murdered women, this is quite a figure High, that is why we demand immediate attention, response, and that the Gender Alert be really applied, that real public policies be applied, we cannot say that they are deaths but give them their real name, feminicides,” it concluded.

For its part, in a press release, the National Citizen Observatory of Femicide (OCNF) expressed concern about the increase and exacerbation of femicide violence in the state of Oaxaca by pointing out the prevalence of impunity, the absence of investigations with gender perspective and lack of updating of the Protocol of Ministerial, Police and Expert Investigation of the Crime of Feminicide. ”Through requests for information made by the OCNF to the State Prosecutor’s Office of Oaxaca, we can see that in the last three years the murders have increased, at the same time that femicides are not investigated. Likewise, there is an absence of sentences related to the crime of femicide, since according to the data obtained, there are only two judicial processes and three are under investigation.” It claimed that, although “the Ministry of the Interior, through the National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women (CONAVIM) issued the Gender Violence Alert Against Women in 40 municipalities of Oaxaca on August 31st, 2018 , more than a year after the declaration, the results are almost null and contrary to this, the problem of femicide, adds to the increase in the disappearances of women, girls and adolescents”

Against this background, on January 29th, the deputy of District 13 Oaxaca Sur, Hilda Graciela Perez Luis, presented a constitutional reform initiative and another to the Organic Law of the Office of the Attorney General, so that the head of the Office of the Specialized Prosecutor for Investigation Of the Crime of Femicide is appointed by the State Congress and that it falls on a person who has studies in gender and justice, extensive experience in care, investigation, accompaniment or representation in cases of gender violence against women. The MORENA deputy said that “the LXIV Legislature with a majority of women, cannot continue in the omission and allow acts as reprehensible as femicide remain in impunity”; “It is the opportunity for women to make history and leave the mark of a dignified representation,” she said.

For more information in Spanish:

Preocupa a OCNF agudización de violencia feminicida en Oaxaca (La Jornada, 29 de enero de 2019)

Preocupa agudización de violencia feminicida en Oaxaca: OCNF (SemMexico, 29 de enero de 2019)

19 mujeres perdieron la vida en Oaxaca en este primer mes del 2020 (IstmoPress, 1ero de febrero de 2020)

Al menos 19 mujeres fueron asesinadas en Oaxaca durante enero (Aristegui Noticias, 2 de febrero de 2020)

Durante enero, 19 mujeres asesinadas en Oaxaca (NVI Noticias, 3 de febrero de 2020)

En Oaxaca, imparable violencia feminicida : GESMujer (4 de febrero de 2020)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Oaxaca: 126 Femicides One Year after Declaration of Gender Violence Alert (September 2, 2019)

Oaxaca: Aprueban la ley contra la violencia digital de género (July 12, 2019)

Oaxaca: Se suman 37 feminicidios en lo que va del año (April 24, 2019)

National: Over 424,000 on Mexican #Me Too (May 7, 2019)