Violence Against Women Is at the Center of Mexico’s Security Crisis

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In late March, an 8-year-old girl went missing in the city of Taxco in the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero. Camila Gómez Ortega had left her home to play at a neighbor’s house but never came back. When her mother reported Camila missing, she encountered, as many family members of the disappeared do in Mexico, indifference and even contempt. When she received messages asking for a ransom, Camila’s mother knew her daughter was in danger. The day after, March 28, authorities found Camila’s lifeless body on the side of a road. Camila’s murder, which is now being investigated as a femicide (the intentional killing of a woman because of her gender), would have been enough to mark a tragic week in the country. But the story did not end there. After family members saw a video that implicated a neighbor, Ana Rosa Díaz Aguilar, in the disappearance and potential killing of Camila, people surrounded Ana Rosa’s home, and, despite the presence of the municipal police, they attacked her and h

Reading Time: 4 minutes In late March, an 8-year-old girl went missing in the city of Taxco in the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero. Camila Gómez Ortega had left her home to play at a neighbor’s house but never came back. When her mother reported Camila missing, she encountered, as many family members of the disappeared do in Mexico, indifference and even contempt. When she received messages asking for a ransom, Camila’s mother knew her daughter was in danger. The day after, March 28, authorities found Camila’s lifeless body on the side of a road. Camila’s murder, which is now being inve

Violence Against Women Is at the Center of Mexico’s Security Crisis

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