A demonstrator holds up a stencil of the Spanish message: “Mexico Femicide” in Mexico City, Friday, February 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Dozens of women spray-painted slogans such as “We won’t be silenced” on the facade and doorway of Mexico City’s National Palace on Friday, following the gruesome slaying of a young woman last weekend.
Not only have attacks on women become more frequent in Mexico, they have become more gruesome. 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 weekend killing of Ingrid Escamilla, a young Mexico City resident who was allegedly killed by a boyfriend, has horrified Mexicans for its brutality.
The man, who has been arrested and purportedly confessed to killing Escamilla with a knife, then mutilated her body and flushed part of her corpse into the sewer.
Masked, female protesters hold drawings resembling Ingrid Escamilla, who was killed by her husband last week, during a protest against gender violence outside the National Palace, the presidential office and residence, in Mexico City, Friday, February 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)
Indignation grew after some local media published horrific photos of the skinned corpse, apparently leaked by city police officers.
The protesters read a statement on 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, feminists in Mexico City had been criticized for spray-painting historical monuments and trashing city infrastructure, but the damages on Friday were 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 cell phones 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.”
A masked, female protester sprays fire at the entrance to the National Palace, the presidential office and residence, after demonstrators covered it in fake blood and the Spanish message: “Femicide State,” in Mexico City, Friday, February 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)
The Friday morning protest occurred as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador gave his daily news conference inside the colonial-era palace.
López Obrador said such killings were hate crimes and “an act of brutal machismo.”
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,” the president said Monday, arguing that “I don’t want the issue just to be women’s killings.”
It’s good that they protest. They have that right. But all that glitters is not gold. The right-wing also has it’s version of “feminism” used to disinform and attack in their own class interests, the same neoliberal interests that have been bleeding the Mexican people and the nation’s wealth for decades.
The new Government of México is progressive and has zero tolerence for corruption (the same corruption that has generated mass killings throughout Mexico). In the last year, the Constitution has once again made it a felony to steal from the public coffers, a law that had been suspended since Salinas – Zedillo – Fox – Calderón – Peña Nieto.
After having the Presidency stolen from him TWICE, the Government of México under AMLO is NOT SILENCING WOMEN. To the contrary. The issue of violence and corruption (inextricably connected) are addressed daily, nationwide, from the daily 7AM Presidential press conference (La Mañanera), to the Attorney General’s Office, to the Military to Civil Society. Even the corrupt ass judiciary is getting a whipping as their corruption is extirpated.
So yes, of course, alto a los feminicidios, pero también alto al teatro neoliberal de las disque “feministas” enmascaradas que se han llenado la boca y los bolsillos por décadas.
No mentir. No robar. No traicionar.
Viva la 4T, cabronas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVgkMk1MoPs
[…] CITY — In a country where femicide is, unfortunately, the norm, the brutal murder of Ingrid Escamilla, 25, at the hands of her partner who not only killed her, but skinned her body and […]