The woman who died after being subdued by at least four municipal police officers from Tulum, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, has already been identified by the authorities.
This is
Victoria Esperanza Salazar Arriaza
, 36, a
Salvadoran immigrant
who lived regularly in Mexico, according to the Government of her country.
An officer placed her knee on his neck until he was unconscious.
She was pronounced dead shortly after.
Authorities and activists from feminist and migrant associations identified her this Sunday.
Shortly afterwards, the Government of El Salvador, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, condemned the death and specified that the woman was originally from the department of Sonsonate and lived regularly in Mexico.
According to various Mexican media, Salazar had a permanent humanitarian visa.
"We only ask for justice. That the full weight of the law falls on those who did this," El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, tweeted.
"Let us not forget that it was not the Mexican people who committed this crime, but some criminals in the Tulum police," he added later.
He also promised that his government will take care of the maintenance and studies
of Salazar's
two daughters
"and everything they need."
After the identification of the victim, activists viralized the
hashtag #JusticiaParaVictoria
, and politicians joined the virtual protest.
"I join the demand for justice and zero impunity for the murder of Victoria, a woman who lost her life at the hands of the municipal police of Tulum, Quintana Roo. I condemn this act of excessive use of force. May it be punished," he wrote Malú Micher, president of the Gender Equity Commission of the Mexican Senate.
"The Tulum police in Mexico, in a visible excessive use of force (4 against 1), has left the Salvadoran Victoria Salazar dead. Let us ask that the authorities of our country demand #JusticiaParaVictoria", denounced Claudia Ortiz, elected deputy for San Salvador.
["They raped me, they beat me and I felt like I was disappearing": in Mexico women suffer human rights abuses when they go out to protest]
"I condemn and demand justice for the unfortunate events that occurred in Quintana Roo this weekend. Acts like these should not go unpunished," declared the Secretary of the Interior of Mexico, Olga Sánchez Cordero.
The case is being investigated as an
aggravated homicide.
The state prosecutor's office reported via Twitter that it has already opened a folder for this reason and that the experts are working to determine the cause of death.
The prosecution is investigating
three male police officers and one woman,
the mayor of Tulum, Víctor Mas Tah, announced that he will separate them from office.
But they did not clarify if they are detained, or why they subjected the victim.
Images of the arrest
In the videos that witnesses shared on social networks of the moment on Saturday afternoon, it is heard that the woman cried out for help and complained several times while the agent kept her knee tight on her neck.
None of the police officers seem to be doing anything to help her, according to the images.
The woman's body lay inert when officers lifted her off the street and placed her on the pan of an official vehicle.
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The authorities have not said exactly where the woman's body was taken after her arrest,
or why she was transferred in the patrol without waiting for first aid teams
.
The maneuver the Tulum policewoman used to subdue the victim is reminiscent of the one used by the Minneapolis police officer accused of the murder of George Floyd, a black man who died of suffocation when the officer pressed his knee on his neck.
Experts say that this type of maneuvering to immobilize detainees is extremely dangerous and as a result of protests over Floyd's murder, many have called for it to be completely banned in the United States.
Mas Tah assured that the victim's family will have the support of the municipality.
Violence against women
A recent report by the human rights defender organization Amnesty International
denounced the Quintana Roo police for physically and sexually abusing women protesting against sexist violence
and femicides in the state.
In November, police used live ammunition to scare off a crowd of about 100 protesters in Cancun.
The head of the National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women (Convavim), Fabiola Alanís, assured the newspaper Milenio that it is a femicide.
"What we can see in the scenes is the absence of the protocol but also not only the protocol, but the way it was treated by the municipal police [...] In accordance with the Latin American protocol for the review of deaths of women Obviously it is a femicide, "he said.
The number of investigation folders for femicide in Quintana Roo has increased from 411 in 2015 to 860 in 2020, although it is estimated that the real figure could be much higher since only 25% of murders of women are registered under the criminal type of femicide.
Members of the civil society of Quintana Roo called for a march to the municipal palace headquarters on Monday at 5:30 pm, local time.
With information from Efe and Milenio.