Almost 1,000 women were murdered in Mexico in the first quarter of the year, an increase of 1.6 percent compared to the same period last year, according to a recent report.

Based on the data from the government, 720 women were killed, and 244 women were victims of femicide, the highest figures in five years. Meanwhile, 890 women were killed in the same period last year.

Experts attribute the increase to the government's confinement orders, which enables domestic violence.

"The deadliest pandemic for women in our country, more than the coronavirus, is femicide. Today, violence is the greatest threat to all the rights for women that we have had recognized with great effort," Thomson Reuters Foundation Congresswoman Martha Tagle said in an interview.

From January to March 2020, the state of Mexico has recorded the highest number of murdered women due to gender reasons, with 34 victims. It is followed by Veracruz with 27 cases, Puebla with 22, Nuevo Leon with 20, and Mexico City with 14 cases. Meanwhile, Guanajuato leads the ranking on intentional homicide against women, with 121 murders in the first quarter of the year.


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Enabling Factors

Various studies have already proven that the disposition of people during pandemics provides a standard setting that aggravates cases of domestic abuse at home, according to an article by Latin Post.

A study published in the Center for Global Development reveals the factors that facilitate domestic abuse, such as economic stress, social isolation, unrest from instability, exposure to exploitation, reduced access to health services, among others.

Not only in Mexico but across Latin America, various women's groups have been receiving complaints of domestic violence during the pandemic, and the figures are dismal. In Colombia, for instance, there are at least two reported cases of women being killed each day.


Women for Women

On March 8, as the world commemorates International Women's Day, more than 80,000 women in Mexico City took to the streets their opposition against violence towards women. They conducted the National Women's Strike the following day to project what a day without women would be like in the country.

In an article, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has attributed femicides to the "neoliberal policies" of previous governments, repeatedly suggesting that the women's protests are part of a rightwing plot against him.

The rising figures of gender-related crime against women have sparked movements not only in Mexico but worldwide.

"Every day we have more evidence that they are killing us specifically for being women," said Maria de la Luz Estrada, the executive coordinator of the National Citizen Observatory on Femicide.

"If this government wants a transformation of this county, they have to face the problem."

At present, organizations that advocate for women's rights in Mexico, like the Brujas del Mar, are utilizing social media as a platform for victims to ask for aid and assistance.