Murder of women in Mexico reaches record rates, but according to AMLO most emergency calls are "false"

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
• Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)

They denounce an increase in gender violence in Mexico 3:00

(CNN) - Women are being killed in Mexico at an alarming rate, but President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has played down the increase in calls to hotlines, declaring that most of them are false.

Since confinement orders were established on March 23 to delay the spread of the coronavirus, there has been an increase in homicides in which women are the victims, according to government data released last week. April was the deadliest month in the past five years with a record 267 murders of women.

However, President López Obrador has dismissed the magnitude of the problem, blaming the “neoliberal” model of government on his predecessors. "I am going to give you another fact, which does not mean that violence against women does not exist, because I do not want everyone to misunderstand me," said the leftist leader in mid-May during his morning press conference.

"90% of those calls they take as a basis are false, it is proven," he told a journalist when asked about data from his own government about emergency calls for violence against women.

A record 26,171 emergency calls for violence against women were recorded in March, according to government data. The following month, when the "stay home" regulation was in full effect, there were 21,722 calls, according to the same government report.

MIRA: 5 years of “Not one less”, the movement that erupted due to violent sexist crimes that overwhelmed Argentine women

López Obrador's explanation for the calls has been questioned by a prominent women's advocate. "It is not that the calls are false, it is rather that the calls are not followed to the end, so they are considered incomplete," María Salguero, a Mexican feminicide researcher and creator of a national map of feminicides, told CNN.

In a phone conversation, Salguero added that the calls often come from neighbors and do not always result in authorities going to the neighbors' home for a follow-up statement, which can lead to emergency calls being deemed incomplete.

Victims themselves may be afraid to ask for help if they live with the aggressor, or even to file complaints. "If authorities come, the woman may no longer want to press charges," he said. "At least the call stops the aggression," he added.

In total, 987 women and girls were killed in the first four months of 2020, according to government data.

Of those incidents, 308 are categorized as femicides, according to the Mexican Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection. Government information shows a lower number of femicides, since the interpretation is based on specific evidence that a woman was murdered because of her gender.

For López Obrador, it is the disappearance of family cohesion and isolation that is fueling domestic violence. The President has often invoked "neoliberal models," referring to decades of political leadership prior to his inauguration as the cause of many of the country's ills.

"When isolation occurs, this culture may cause grievances, confrontations and violence," said the president, who prides himself on defending human rights and protecting the vulnerable. "I am not saying that this confrontation does not exist in Mexico. Of course there are differences in all families, "he added.

READ: Coronavirus is killing more men. But confinement is disastrous for women and their rights

Several gruesome murders have already shocked the country this year, including the death of Ingrid Escamilla, 25, who was found brutally murdered, with her skinned body and some of her organs missing; and the murder of Fátima, 7, whose beaten body was found inside a plastic bag, with signs of sexual abuse.

In early March, tens of thousands of women took to the streets demanding justice for the many victims during a mass protest marking International Women's Day.

March in Mexico in commemoration of International Women's Day.

More recently, the government released a series of public service videos - highly derided - on how to prevent domestic violence during confinement. One of the videos featured a selection of stressful moments in a typical home. As the tension increased, he advised everyone to count to ten to calm down and "pull out the white flag of peace," then showed family members smiling and waving small flags.

The campaign went viral and activists condemned the government's approach. On social media, some associated counting up to ten with the number of murders of women that can occur in a single day, while others published ten names of women who have been brutally murdered this year.

The ads were "heinous" and "disconnected from reality," Perla Acosta Galindo, director of Más Sueños AC, a community women's center, told CNN. Counting to ten "will not help especially when you are attacked," she said, adding that the campaign is simply an "adhesive bandage for something much more serious."

"We need mechanisms, budgets, adequate help for battered women instead of an advertisement that suggests that the victim count to ten and wave a white flag," he said.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador Feminicide Mexico