Femicides triple in Jalisco

By Alejandro Melgoza

Betsabé worked with a sewing machine six days a week making wedding dresses in one of the poorest municipalities of Jalisco: Tlajomulco de Zúñiga.

When she got married to Alberto Servín, her father, Mario García, gave her a piece of land in San Sebastián el Grande. Over time, her husband started attacking her. Violence escalated but she did not tell her family, she only reported him to the Attorney General's office and the local office of the Integral Family Development System (DIF). On September 9, 2015 her husband stabbed her in front of her five children.

She is one of the 150 women murdered last year, the Attorney General of Jalisco told EL UNIVERSAL.

Jalisco is one the top five states with more femicides, according to the National Femicide Observatory (OCNF), and ranks first in women killed by their partners, according to the study Femicide in Jalisco, headed by Dr. Guadalupe Ramos Ponce.

In the past six years femicides tripled in the state from 58 in 2009 to 150 in 2015.

Governor Aristóteles Sandoval issued an alert on gender violence in eight cities: Guadalajara, Zapopan, Puerto Vallarta, Ameca, Tlaquepaque, Tonalá and El Salto.

"Jalisco is somewhat similar to Ciudad Juárez, they are not only killed but also their bodies are treated with extreme violence. The system promotes and enables misogynist violence," because impunity sends the message that violence against women is tolerated, said Dr. Guadalupe Ramos Ponce, expert in gender studies.

So far in 2016 28 women have been murdered in Jalisco.

"We are concerned about violence against women. In the last three years there have been between 130 and 150 cases," said Erika Loyo Beristain, head of the Jalisco Institute for Women (IJM).