An Interpretation of Femicide in Mexico: Violence and Human Rights

Mariamne Crippa Méndez,Adriana Rodríguez Barraza

doi:10.4236/aasoci.2022.122002

Abstract

This paper studies the problem of femicide in Mexico, through three axes: violence, femicide and human rights. We interpret this phenomenon using Johan Galtung’s theory of violence as a framework, paired with concepts from Bourdieu, Segato, Lagarde and Russell, with whom he agrees in regards of the multiplicity of elements, levels and scopes of violence, but that also complement the voids in his original theory. We seek to unveil the divers dimensions in which femicidal violence operates, as well as its negative consequences, direct and collateral damages, and its multiple victims. Our theoretical approach intends to provide certain guidelines to reflect and humanize the victims, and also a deeper understanding of the contexts where it happens, emphasizing that these crimes eliminate women’s subjectivity and desensitize society, as such they are violations of women’s Human Rights.

Highlights

It is pretty evident that in the last few decades, in Mexico as in the Central American region, gender-based crimes against women have reached alarming proportions (Godoy-Paiz, 2012)
This paper studies the problem of femicide in Mexico, through three axes: violence, femicide and human rights
Sadly to the great majority of Mexicans, the 30 articles that make up said Declaration may seem utopian, because we are witnesses of their systematic violation. This is evidence of a failed state, that does not guarantee security and liberty, especially for women; on the contrary, it seems that it reproduces and hinders the patriarchal and “machista” discourse, through the added element of impunity (López & Aguirre, 2017). This Declaration is essential to us because, as Farmer (2004) stated, if we study people’s experiences of structural and cultural violence they are characterized by several violations of Human Rights, that prepare the ground for worst manifestations of violence, like femicide, which is, obviously a very direct form of dehumanizing women in the public and private spheres (Godoy-Paiz, 2012)

Summary

Introduction

It is pretty evident that in the last few decades, in Mexico as in the Central American region, gender-based crimes against women have reached alarming proportions (Godoy-Paiz, 2012). After detecting the absence of reliable data, she created a map in Google Maps and a blog titled “Yo te nombro” (I name you), where she has kept a thorough record of every femicide reported in the press in Mexico since 2016 She has gone even further, and includes certain data about the murders, with the intention of making the problem visible from a different perspective and vindicating the victims subjectivity: they were human beings, women with a name and a history. According to the information available in Salguero’s (2020) sources, there were 2240 femicides in Mexico from January to August 2020, contrary to the official numbers reported by the Secretariado Ejecutivo del Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pública (2020) which indicated that only 620 alleged femicides, in addition to 1906 intentional and 1088 accidental homicides of women, were registered during that same period It is worth asking why, despite their notoriousness, these brutalities remain invisible? Our objective is to make a critical examination of the paradoxical invisibility of the issue that broadens levels of analysis (Rylko-Bauer & Farmer, 2016), and to interpret the some of the various dimensions and extent of the violence inscribed in femicide, as well as to humanize the problem

A Multidimensional Understanding of Violence

Femicide

A Violation of Women’s Human Rights

Conclusion