AWARDED THE 2023 TATA VASCO AWARD
March 7, 2024
1911-2024
To all the women who have become aware of their rights and fight for them.
To the mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters of the 43 Ayotzinapa students.
To the mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters of the more than 111,000 missing persons in Mexico.
The José Ma. Morelos y Pavón Regional Center for the Defense of Human Rights expresses its solidarity with the mothers of the 43 Ayotzinapa students who disappeared more than 9 years ago and with their legal representatives, as well as with all the families fighting to search for and locate their missing persons throughout the country.
On the eve of the 113th anniversary of International Women’s Day, we have witnessed the lack of empathy and responsibility shown by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador toward the mothers of the Ayotzinapa students who held a sit-in outside the National Palace for nearly 10 days, requesting a direct audience with the president to hand over the 800 files held by the army, to inform them of the status of the extradition request for Tomás Cerón de Lucio, and the results of the search for their children. What is most worrying is that this same attitude is being applied to the hundreds of thousands of women who are relatives of the more than 111,000 missing persons in the country.
With only a few months left until the end of this administration, everything indicates that this six-year term will end up like the previous one: a six-year term of impunity and the transfer of all power to the army to guarantee their impunity.
It took forceful action for the president to make a statement to the media about a possible meeting in 15 or 20 days, although this has not yet been formalized.
We cannot fail to mention the extremely vulnerable situation faced by women in the countryside or the city, whether Indigenous or mestizo. Indigenous women undoubtedly experience this violence more deeply rooted and in almost total invisibility.
According to data gathered from various sources, both official and from collective and civil organizations, for 2023, the following figures are available:
In 2023, 126 femicides were recorded in the state, representing an approximate 33 percent increase compared to the 108 recorded in 2022.
In total, from January 2015 to October 2023, 730 femicides of women between the ages of 0 and 17 were recorded in Mexico.
Similarly, if we add the 1,615 intentional homicides of women aged 0 to 17 that occurred from January 2015 to October 2023 to the 730 femicides that occurred during the same period, we find that a total of 2,345 murders of adolescent girls and women have been recorded nationwide from January 2015 to October 2023.
The Guerrero Association of Violence Against Women (AGCVIM) recorded 28 intentional homicides presumed to be femicides in the state of Guerrero in the first two months of the year.
The number of displaced people in Guerrero increased to 26,700 in 2023, and no authority is paying attention to the issue, denounced the José María Morelos y Pavón Human Rights Center. It is important to note that more than half are women and girls.
The number of women who have been murdered while searching for their relatives and whose cases remain unpunished is large. Among them are: Teresa Magueyal, María Carmela Rosario Zavala Aguilar, Esmeralda Gallardo, Rosario Lilian, Brenda Jazmín Aranza, María del Rosario, Zenaida, and others.
We, the members of the Morelos Center, continue to demand:
- The return of the 800 files in the military’s possession regarding the disappearance of our 43 comrades from Ayotzinapa.
- The search for and location of the disappeared.
- The approval of the Law on the Disappearance of Persons, autonomous and with its own financial, human, and material resources.
- The creation of a Human Identification Center in Chilpancingo with its own financial, human, and material resources.
5.- Budget, human and material resources, and autonomy for the State Search Commission.
Sincerely,
Teodomira Rosales Sierra