Given the armed violence that has become widespread in the country, girls and boys are not exempt from suffering violent deaths, coupled with the entire context of violence that year after year worsens against them, experts in the field said.
Juan Martin Pérez, defender of children’s rights through Tejiendo Redes Infancia in Latin America and the Caribbean, argued that crime data in Mexico indicates a greater participation of lovers in the deaths of minors; Adolescents, due to their age range, are the most exposed to these expressions of violence that not only end in homicides.
According to data compiled by Redim, based on the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System, for the first quarter of 2022, 265 murders of minors with firearms were recorded, an increase of 136.6% when compared to the first quarter of 2015 (112 victims).
According to the expert, in addition to reporting increases in the homicides of minors, child femicides have also increased, while each month there are about 1,200 minors who arrive at hospitals victims of injuries, with a high probability that they were caused by a context family violence and are not investigated.
Likewise, in the case of homicides, he noted the tendency of the authorities to classify intentional homicides of minors as negligent, in order to relieve pressure on the investigations.
In this context, he also warned about the rise in cases in which the bodies of minors are mutilated, mainly in areas controlled by organized crime, to generate terror.
“Cruelty is increasing in homicides and unfortunately it is not becoming visible. And the most dangerous thing is impunity, of every 100 investigation folders where minors are victims of a criminal act, only three yield some type of sentence or process, ”she stressed.
On the other hand, Juan Martin Pérez argued that it is the conditions of lack of protection that generate, for the most part, violence against minors, since the criminal dynamics of family members and the lack of presence of institutions make the victims invisible and vulnerable to various types of crimes such as homicides, disappearances, among other violence ranging from sexual violence, and unwanted pregnancies.
“Common sense says that violence is not healthy for anyone, but for children and adolescents it is a human right to be free from violence and unfortunately it is one of the most violent in this country,” he concluded.
2021, the year with the most child femicides
Tania Ramírez Hernández, executive director of the Network for the Rights of Children in Mexico (REDIM) highlighted that the government figures themselves show that 2021 became the year with the most child femicides with firearms in Mexico, in addition to being the year where more guilty homicides with weapons against minors were registered.
The expert in the human rights of minors explained that while in 2020 there were 11 femicides with a firearm, by 2021 this figure rose to 15. CDMX, Guerrero and Sonora recorded the highest incidence.
On the other hand, he highlighted that there is an upward trend in homicides with firearms against children and adolescents, since more than 800 cases were registered in 2021 alone.
Ramírez Hernández considered that there is a toxic mixture of at least three factors that have an impact on minors being violated: the invisibility of children and adolescents as subjects of rights, not being taken into account as social or political actors and always seeing them like something less.
In addition to the serious crisis of armed violence that the country is experiencing, and which not only affects the adult world. “The failed strategy to the demands of public security cannot be through a reactive, armed or militarized response.”
And one last factor, he said, has to do with the sexism and machismo that is deeply present in Mexico.
