Helena Monzón has been immersed in a nightmare for five days.
She has just had her older sister, Cecilia Monzón, a prominent lawyer known in Puebla for her work for women's rights, killed.
Just five days ago, the little sister watched the final of the Women's Champions League in Turin (Italy) between Barcelona and Lyon.
The fact that she was there, in the stadium, in a match played by women, filled her with pride and reminded her of her sister.
She, four years older than her even though she had just turned 38, she always defended her when she was little they called her a "tomboy" for wanting to play soccer.
“It has always been like that, she defended equality,” says Monzón, 33.
He hit the call button on the family chat, but Cecilia didn't answer.
Helena thinks that this was the same moment in which two gunmen on a motorcycle murdered her sister in Cholula, Puebla, in broad daylight.
It didn't matter that there were witnesses and cameras.
Monzón was shot to death in her car while the murderers fled.
There are still no arrests.
When the little sister found out what had happened to the older sister, she says she clenched her teeth, threw herself to the ground and silence invaded her, like a blow that leaves you stunned.
After a trip on the run with his parents and more relatives, he arrived in Puebla for his sister's funeral and to take care of his nephew, a four-year-old boy who has just been orphaned and whom he affectionately calls "el peque" .
“Yesterday I had to tell him that his mother had died.
He is also a victim of this, ”she assures.
That is another of the struggles that she has now.
Monzón wants to take care of his nephew and take him to Spain, the country where he lives.
"If I'm still standing, it's because I have the hope of being able to leave this half channeled [the femicide investigation], get out of here with that little boy and give him the life he deserves."
As these bleak and cold days pass, Helena Monzón has witnessed how the case of her sister evolves, who has climbed to the highest spheres not only of the State Government, but also of the Federal Government headed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The woman, who is also a lawyer, has remained firm in demanding an early clarification of the femicide and in respecting the actions of the local Prosecutor's Office.
She keeps quiet about any details that might affect the case.
“We have had a meeting with the Femicide Investigation Unit and we spoke with the Attorney General,” she says.
The visible face of the family at the moment says that trust does not admit degrees "it happens or it doesn't happen", she repeats on several occasions.
“If I see that something is not working in that Prosecutor's Office, I will denounce it just as my sister denounced it.
In the meantime, I'm giving a pretty generous opportunity for them to do their job."
The prosecution is currently analyzing the activist's mobile phone in case she could shed any valuable information.
Despite living far away, the two women had a great relationship.
They had just spent a few weeks together between London and Barcelona.
"She was my engine," says Helena with deep pain and makes a painful pause on the other end of the phone.
Her sister complained daily about the machismo and the inaction that permeates the authorities and the administration of justice in Mexico.
She “she explained to me how her work worked, how the practice of law worked in the country.
So, fortunately, that gives me an instinct to understand what this is about, ”she says convinced.
Cecilia Monzón had received death threats on several occasions and had requested protection from the authorities.
These were never granted.
Her denunciations of sexist violence and gender-based political violence placed her in the crosshairs of power, machismo and patriarchy in Puebla.
That is why there are still many open fronts in the case and the authorities do not rule out any line of investigation.
Neither did Helena Monzón.
The older sister had denounced the father of her son, the PRI politician Javier López Zavala, Secretary of the Interior during the government of Mario Marín, between 2005 and 2011, for abandonment and non-payment of alimony;
PRI leader Jorge Estefan Chidiac, for falsifying his signature in the electoral process;
the businessman and politician from Puebla Manlio López Contreras for gender-based political violence;
This Thursday the Undersecretary of Federal Security, Ricardo Mejía, declared that the authorities have "very solid elements" for the prosecution of those responsible for the femicide.
In a country with 95% impunity and with more than ten women murdered every day, it is difficult to catch the perpetrators of a crime and it is even more difficult to find those who paid for that bullet to be fired.
The masterminds.
Five days after the attack, Cecilia Monzón's sister has no doubt that the murder was commissioned.
“It was not an assault, they shot him in the back.
My sister saw that she was being shot and made a turn, that is, everything was very fast, but she noticed that something was happening, ”she explains.
Both women have dual citizenship.
Mexican, on the mother's side and Spanish, on the father's side.
The Government of Spain has condemned the murder and has recognized Monzón's courage and commitment as a defender of women, while the Spanish embassy provides support and accompaniment to her family.
“They have made me feel like a protected citizen, even though I know that I am exposed every time I speak, and I know that they have had contact with the authorities to find out how the investigation is going,” says the lawyer.
The representation of the European Union in the country and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the UN have also spoken about it: "The death of Mrs. Monzón demonstrates once again the worrying degree of violence and intimidation to which faced by many human rights defenders in Mexico”,
Added to the international support are the signs of affection from the legal profession, feminist groups and people who knew Cecilia Monzón for her career as a politician and as a defender of women.
Puebla is the sixth state in the country with the most calls for help due to sexist violence, according to official figures, and ranks 11th in the number of femicides, with a total of seven cases registered so far this year.
Between January and March of this year, 1,094 calls to 911 were recorded in the State for sexist and domestic violence.
A week before Monzón died, he wrote a message from his Twitter account.
“[The disappeared men and women] are not in the media, [their mothers] are not famous, their children were not, so they go to the archive.
He feels horrible when you see those marches go by or when you accompany them, I wish the State could be more empathetic ”.
Now those words hover over the case of Cecilia Monzón, as if they were a premonition.
“Silence killed my sister and kills Mexican women.
We don't need a minute of silence, we need to make noise, the noise that Cecilia used to make”, says her sister.
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