• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Sunday, May 22, 2022
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home World

Student’s Death Stokes Anger Over Mexican Femicide Crisis

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
04/29/22
in World
Debanhi Escobar

Demonstrators protesting after the murder of 18-year-old student Debanhi Escobar in northern Mexico. Photo: Julio Cesar Aguilar AFP/File

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The death of an 18-year-old Mexican student has unleashed anger against authorities accused of negligence over the murders and disappearances of thousands of women each year, few of which receive as much attention.

The case of Debanhi Escobar has generated unusually intense media interest in a country where nearly 100,000 people are missing and most homicides fail to make national headlines.

Escobar’s body was found on April 21 in a motel water tank, nearly two weeks after she disappeared on the outskirts of Monterrey, capital of the northern state of Nuevo Leon.

Prosecutors said they were not ruling anything out in her case, which has generated international attention from South America to the United States and Europe.

An eerie photo taken on the night she disappeared showing Escobar standing in the dark went viral, and she quickly became a symbol for an angry women’s rights movement.

Wearing a white top, long skirt and high-top sneakers, a handbag over her shoulder and her hair let down, she looked almost like any other young woman on a night out.

Except that she was alone and vulnerable, waiting by the side of a road in a country where around 10 women are murdered every day.

“Debanhi, I lend you my voice” and “We want justice,” women shouted at a protest in Mexico City, following similar demonstrations in Monterrey.

“Young people are disappearing because of deeds, omission or indolence,” political scientist Denise Dresser wrote in an editorial about the case entitled “mass grave.”

“They are disappearing because society still discusses whether it was their fault, for going out alone and at dawn,” she added.

‘Many irregularities’

Even before his daughter’s body was found, Escobar’s father had accused authorities of mistakes in the initial search and investigation, fueling media interest.

“This case has greater visibility because the media decided so,” psychosocial support specialist Valeria Moscoso told AFP, lamenting that other victims had not received the same attention despite also speaking out.

On Wednesday, the Nuevo Leon Attorney General Gustavo Guerrero publicly dismissed two public prosecutors for “errors” and “omissions” in the case.

In one example, search teams visited the motel four times before finding the body.

“This is one of several irregularities that caused this emotion,” activist Maria de la Luz Estrada told AFP.

Also on Wednesday, prosecutors released a video to try to construct a chronology of the events.

According to security camera footage, in the early hours of April 9, Escobar was wandering alone by the side of the road, before entering the motel compound and looking out of the window of an abandoned restaurant.

Earlier, the young woman had left a party after an argument with other people there, according to witnesses and images broadcast by the media.

She then took a taxi, whose driver worked for a ride-hailing app, but later got out for unknown reasons, according to several testimonies.

The driver has denied accusations of inappropriate behavior towards Escobar, and said that he took her photo by the side of the road to warn her friends after she left the vehicle.

“There are many hypotheses. We can’t rule anything out,” including the possibility of an accident, Guerrero told reporters.

Escobar’s father also said the family was keeping an open mind about the investigation, having initially alleged an abduction and murder.

This year alone, 322 women have disappeared in Nuevo Leon, though prosecutors point out that 90 percent were found within 72 hours.

Last year, Mexico recorded 33,308 homicides nationwide, and around 10 percent of the victims were women, according to official figures.

Around 1,000 of them were categorized as femicides — killings of women because of their gender — though some activists consider the real number to be much higher.

Many cases share a similar pattern to Escobar’s: “the authorities’ indolence, the complicity, the limited investigation capacity, the victim-blaming, the criminalization of families and the impunity for attackers,” Moscoso said.

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Mexico missing people
World

Over 100,000 People Reported Missing in Mexico, Data Reveals

by Staff Writer
May 17, 2022
A man holding a gun
Featured

Safely Back in USA, Land of Guns and Burgers

by Stephen J. Lyons
May 2, 2022
Afghan refugees
Opinion

The Insult of Borders

by Stephen J. Lyons
December 9, 2021
Cardosa murder
Media Freedom

Mexican Journalist Dies Two Days After Being Shot

by Staff Writer
November 1, 2021
Mexican journalist Miroslava Breach was killed in 2017.
Media Freedom

Former Mayor Arrested for ‘Complicity’ in Mexican Journalist’s Murder

by Staff Writer
December 18, 2020
A police crackdown on a protest against the murder of a woman in the Mexican resort city of Cancun.
World

Police Crackdown Rocks Top Mexican Tourist Resort Cancun

by Staff Writer
November 12, 2020
Next Post
A man holding a gun

Safely Back in USA, Land of Guns and Burgers

Bashar Assad

Syria Frees 60 Prisoners in Presidential Amnesty: Monitor

Recommended

Volkswagen logo

German Farmer Sues Volkswagen Over CO2 Emissions

May 20, 2022
Vladimir Putin

Russia Says Economy Grew 3.5 Percent in First Quarter

May 18, 2022
Mexico missing people

Over 100,000 People Reported Missing in Mexico, Data Reveals

May 17, 2022
Shireen Abu Akleh

Jerusalem Archbishop Condemns Israeli Police Raid at Journalist’s Funeral

May 16, 2022
A Lebanese election official stands at a polling station

New Group Threatens Lebanese Elections… and Potentially Middle East Peace

May 18, 2022
Israel

15 European Nations Urge Israel to Reverse Plans for More Settler Homes

May 13, 2022

Opinion

A Lebanese election official stands at a polling station

New Group Threatens Lebanese Elections… and Potentially Middle East Peace

May 18, 2022
A man holding a gun

Safely Back in USA, Land of Guns and Burgers

May 2, 2022
China Muslim Uyghurs

Unfair Politicization, Corruption, and the Death of Modern Olympism

April 23, 2022
Ukraine war

The Ukrainian Refugee Crisis and the Hierarchies of Western Compassion

April 20, 2022
Chinese leader Xi Jinping

How Wrong ‘How China Can End the War in Ukraine’ Is

April 1, 2022
Ukraine children

The War for Ukraine’s Lives and Minds

March 30, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post