The one known as
Ingrid law
has been approved this week in the Congress of Mexico City to penalize with two to six years in prison or fine those who disseminate images of the fatal victims by any means, especially femicides, or market with those documents, a widespread practice in Mexico among public officials.
The modification of the penal code is popularly known as Ingrid Escamilla.
The murder of this woman, in February 2020, shocked the country when the remains of her dismembered corpse appeared on social networks and in some newspapers.
There were fiery feminist protests in front of the doors of those newspapers and the Prosecutor's Office presented this initiative for its legislation.
A year later, Mexico has another rule, but the Escamilla case, in which six agents were investigated after the images were leaked, continues today with no known resolution.
The prosecution is silent.
Ingrid Escamilla was 25 years old and her partner, Erick Francisco, murdered her in their home.
It was not the first case.
In Mexico City, in 2017, the body of Lesvy Berlín Rivera appeared, strangled.
From the Attorney General's Office, comments came out that angered feminists because they focused on whether the woman was drinking or taking drugs.
Ana Yeli Pérez Garrido, from the National Citizen Observatory of Femicide (OCNF), also recalls the
Abigail case
in which photos that had been taken at the Attorney General's Office were leaked.
"They could only have left those offices," says Pérez Garrido.
“The photos are sold to the journalists of the red note.
I think this legislation is necessary, but it is shameful that Ingrid's name is brought forward when her case is still unpunished ”.
This newspaper has asked the Prosecutor's Office on several occasions throughout these months and the answer, when there is one, resorts to summary secrecy.
Nothing is yet known about the investigation of those policemen.
In any case, Pérez acknowledges, "what happened to Ingrid deserves that the rule be named after her."
Mexico has very advanced legislation in the recognition of the rights of women and in the protection of the violence that hits them hard.
Every day, on average, there are 10 victims of femicide.
But impunity is rampant.
Less than 10% of crimes end in a conviction.
"In Mexico there is permission to kill," says feminist lawyer Mara Muñoz.
“Mexican legislation is from the first world.
Numerous international treaties have been signed, the Constitution has been amended to address human rights, and avant-garde laws have been passed.
The legal scaffolding is of a modern state.
The problem arises when implementing the legislation ”.
Muñoz cites the lack of training and scientific experience of the police, judicial experts, and prosecutors.
"Officials continue to have an idiosyncrasy contrary to Human Rights," he adds.
For this lawyer, who directed the Women's Justice Center in Zacatecas, “the last straw is that it was the Prosecutor's Office who took the legal initiative to Congress from the
Ingrid case
.
It was supported by all the deputies, the government of the city ruled, even the archbishopric.
Then the forgetfulness came ”.
Muñoz believes that, a year after what happened with that woman, “there should already be a clear link to the process, perhaps not a sentence, but a response from the Public Prosecutor's Office to society, indicating that the process is progressing.
And to be clear about what happened with the investigated agents ”.
"In Mexico institutions are failing," he says.
Impunity stems from investigations of crimes.
Numerous errors in the tests or the lack of them due to police malpractice.
“There are omissions and irregularities in the entire chain of justice, from the police to the experts, doctors and psychologists, which are finished off with the leaking of images.
Some expert opinions are so imperfect that they can only be understood from corruption, ”says Pérez Garrido.
Muñoz also cites the lack of resources and the inequality of criteria and protocols in the different states.
"There are crimes, for example some of rape, that are obvious in their commission, but that do not have the investigations that they should".
Muñoz concludes that cases such as Ingrid Escamilla's, an unsolved case and a law that bears her name, “show the cynicism that citizens of Mexico have to face: enormous impunity and a gap between what the law says and what is finally carried out ”.
From now on, the
Ingrid law will
penalize the public servant who “disseminates, delivers, reveals, publishes, transmits, exposes, forwards, distributes, videotapes, audio records, photographs, films, reproduces, markets, offers, exchanges or shares images, audios , videos, reserved information, documents of the place of the events or of the discovery, indications, evidences, objects, instruments related to the criminal procedure or products, with one or more facts indicated by the law as crimes ”.
If, in addition, the documents that are disseminated aim to undermine the dignity of the victims, in the case of corpses of women or girls, the penalties will be higher.
"Legislative advances are of no use if these practices of public servants are not eradicated," says Pérez Garrido.
And he adds: "It is not enough to create a law so that this is not repeated but to facilitate access due to justice and the protection of the victims as well as the dignity of the victims."
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