The femicide of a young Afro-Mexican woman in Oaxaca exposes neglect and violence against women in Mexico

The young Frida Alondra, murdered in Oaxaca.

Frida Alondra had just turned 14 years old.

On Friday, April 8, he left his home in Cuajinicuilapa, a municipality in the state of Guerrero, heading for the community of Juan Bautista Lo de Soto, in the neighboring state of Oaxaca (about 14 kilometers away), to attend the festivities of Dolores Friday in that locality.

Frida no longer returned to her home.

It took three days for her body to be found, after her family reported her missing.

Local media reported that she was found dead on Tuesday, April 12, in a state of decomposition and allegedly shot in the body.

The Attorney General of the State of Oaxaca reported in a statement that an investigation folder has been opened for the crime of femicide.

Violations of women's rights in these two states in southeastern Mexico are ongoing.

Alerts for Gender Violence against Women (AVGM) are in force in both entities, a protection mechanism established in the Law on Women's Access to a Life Free of Violence, created by the Mexican State, but inefficient and overwhelmed in most of the cases where they have been applied.

According to data from the federal government, of the 25 AVGM declarations issued since 2015, 552 measures recommended to local governments and autonomous bodies have been accumulated, so that they implement them and work to end femicide violence.

However, the reality is different.

The Afro-Mexican Women in Movement group, Muafro, has called on the state and federal governments so that the case of Frida Alondra, who belonged to an Afro-descendant community, be treated with an intercultural and gender perspective.

“This act of extreme violence against a young Afro-Mexican woman is not an isolated event, it occurs in a context of impunity and generalized violence in our territories and in the country.

And where the violence experienced by Afro-Mexican girls, adolescents and women is systematically made invisible and there are no culturally differentiated programs, strategies or public policies that combat gender-based violence head-on,” they said in a statement.

The governor of Guerrero, Evelyn Salgado, also spoke about it, and requested that the State Prosecutor's Office collaborate with Oaxacan authorities to clarify the femicide.

"I have respectfully requested the Attorney General of the State of Guerrero to assist with its counterpart in the State of Oaxaca, for the investigation in an expeditious manner, with an intercultural and gender perspective, of this case that hurts and mourns the people of Guerrero", posted on your Facebook account.

More than two and a half million Mexican men and women self-identify as Afro-Mexican.

Most of them live in highly marginalized areas, such as the Costa Chica of Guerrero and Oaxaca.

These communities have been relegated from being participants in inclusive public policies.

That is why the Muafro collective also demands that these considerations be used to investigate the femicide of Frida Alondra.

“We demand from the Mexican State disaggregated data that allows us to name and make visible the multiple violence, conditions of violation of rights and marginalization in which structural, institutional and systemic racism has historically placed Afro-Mexican girls, adolescents and women in the silence of an accomplice society. ”, they conclude in their statement.

Collectives from the municipality of Cuajinicuilapa, Guerrero, where Frida Alondra was originally from, have announced that next Monday, April 18, they will be organizing a peaceful and inclusive march to ask for justice and that Frida's case is not replicated.

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