So far this year, six states have accounted for 40% of femicides in Mexico , with a total of 188 deaths and 469 overall cases at a national level, according to the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Health System (SESNSP) .
Veracruz, Nuevo León, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Guerrero, and Jalisco (without including the State of Mexico and Mexico City)
are the federal entities that have shown the most crimes against women, four of which have issued alerts of Gender Violence against Women (AVGM) , with the exception of Chihuahua and Jalisco .
The Secretariat’s numbers show that, during the month of July only, 78 femicides were reported in Mexico , making it the most violent month of the year in terms of violence against women, followed by April and June , when 73 and 71 cases were reported. In July, the entities that reported the most femicides were Sinaloa , with 8 murders against women; Monterrey , with 7; Zacatecas , 5; Chihuahua , 4, and Guerrero , where there were another four women murdered.
From January to July 2018 , Veracruz topped the list of reported femicides with 39 victims , which represented an 8.3% of the total in the country (469). In the same period of 2017, the SESNSP counted 46 cases , meaning that femicide in Veracruz has decreased by 15.2% in the past year.
In Nuevo León , there were 37 femicide reports , representing a 7.8% of the total. During the same period in 2017 , the entity registered 15 deaths , representing a 40.5% increase in 2018 . In Chihuahua , 32 cases have been reported so far.
Gender Alert
The Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB) has issued an Alert of Gender Violence Against Women in 13 states , through the National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women (CONAVIM) . However, out of all six entities topping the femicide list, only four have issued the Alert of Gender Violence: Sinaloa, Nuevo León, Veracruz, and Guerrero .
According to CONAVIM, there are currently 8 pending requests for gender alerts in the states of Campeche, Coahuila, State of Mexico, and Jalisco , as well as the territories of Mexico City, Durango, Oaxaca, and Puebla .
One of the main problems regarding femicide in Mexico is that the classification of this crime is not homologated in the country, which creates legal vacuums that make it harder for law enforcement institutions to act, according to professor Pablo Navarrete Gutiérrez, coordinator of Legal Affairs at the National Women’s Institute (INMUJERES) .
In an interview with EL UNIVERSAL , the statesman claimed that a femicide homologation process was needed in Mexico to avoid discrepancies in the elements of the crime and statutory penalties.
“The data we have collected from these discrepancies have allowed us to keep insisting before the procurator’s offices and prosecutors so that all cases of violence are processed as femicides,” he stated.
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