'Femicide nation': murder of young woman casts spotlight on Mexico's gender violence crisis

[Judi Lynn]

Tom Phillips and Lillian Perlmutter in Mexico City
Tue 26 Apr 2022 12.00 EDT
Last modified on Tue 26 Apr 2022 17.11 EDT

Discovery of teen’s body has sparked a nationwide outcry and protests, following the murders of 1,000 women last year

“Don’t take risks – stay with us,” says one of the slogans at the Nueva Castilla motel, a $37.85 (£30) per night roadside inn in the Mexican city of Monterrey.

But the horrifying discovery of a dead teenager in the lodge’s water tank has sparked a nationwide outcry and protests in a country facing a spiraling femicide crisis that saw 1,000 women murdered last year because of their gender.

Demonstrators gathered outside the motel on Monday night for the latest in a series of rallies demanding justice for Debanhi Susana Escobar Bazaldúa, whose disappearance and apparent murder have rekindled devastating memories of a wave of killings in the border city of Ciudad Juárez two decades ago.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/26/murder-young-woman-mexico-femicide