Norma Andrade, líder feminista mexicana: “Los feminicidios no están en la agenda del país”

Ginebra, 14 nov (EFE).- La activista mexicana Norma Andrade sigue buscando justicia por el feminicidio de su hija, Lilia García Andrade, asesinada el 14 de febrero de 2001 en Ciudad Juárez (México) cuando tenía 17 años, un crimen que continúa impune 23 años después y que evidencia la perenne violencia estructural contra las mujeres en este país.

“Nuestra lucha ha dado frutos, pero no son suficientes, los feminicidios no están en la agenda del país, afirmó en declaraciones a EFE la líder feminista, que se encuentra en Ginebra invitada por el organismo ONU Mujeres para el estreno del documental “Norma, en búsqueda de la justicia”, inspirado en su historia y dirigido por la periodista francesa Brigitte Leoni.

Andrade, quien sufrió sendos atentados a su vida en 2011 y 2012 por personas supuestamente “vinculadas a las autoridades”, según su abogada, acusó a las entidades públicas pertinentes de dilatar las investigaciones y en general de mala gestión en el caso de su hija.

El caso se dio por cerrado en 2018, tras encarcelarse a un acusado del que ni siquiera se cotejó el ADN con los perfiles genéticos obtenidos del cuerpo de la joven, que presentaba signos de tortura y violencia sexual, lo que sospechosamente exculpaba al pariente de un policía adscrito a la Fiscalía General del estado de Chihuahua y que había sido relacionado con la causa a través de una prueba genética.

Un año después de los hechos, Norma presentó el caso ante la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH), que tardó 17 años en pronunciarse porque, entre tanto, las autoridades de México le aseguraban que estaban tomando acciones para la prevención de la violencia contra las mujeres, por lo que el órgano jurisdiccional mantuvo el caso en suspenso.

Finalmente, en 2019, la Comisión emitió un informe en el que apuntaba al Estado mexicano como “responsable intencional” del feminicidio de Lilia por no haber actuado de forma inmediata.

“Este informe reconoció que el Estado había violado los derechos humanos no sólo de Lilia , sino también del resto de su familia, principalmente de su madre”, explicó la abogada de Andrade y presidenta del colectivo Grupo de Acción por los Derechos Humanos y la Justicia Social, Karla Micheel Salas.

La letrada aseguró que el Estado mexicano incumplió las recomendaciones que le hizo la Comisión, por lo que se decidió elevar en 2023 el caso a la instancia superior, la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, cuyas sentencias son de obligatorio cumplimiento para los Estados.

La directora del documental, Brigitte Leoni, destacó que este caso es muy singular porque se trata del segundo por feminicidio que llega a la Corte Interamericana en toda su historia.

Las vidas de Norma y Leoni se cruzaron cuando ésta última cubría como reportera el caso del “Campo algodonero”, como se conoce a la desaparición y asesinato de ocho mujeres en Ciudad Juárez en el año 2001 y que fue el primero que se llevó ante la instancia de derechos humanos.

La audiencia final por el caso de Norma está prevista para inicio de 2025 y ella espera obtener por fin la “justicia que tanto ha tardado” para su hija, así como marcar un nuevo hito en la defensa de los derechos de las mujeres en México, especialmente “ahora que por primera vez una mujer preside el país”.

El documental sobre esta valiente mujer será estrenado el fin de semana en Filmar, el principal festival de cine latinoamericano en Suiza, y también será proyectado en el Instituto de Altos Estudios Internacionales de Ginebra.

Mexico: Boom in organised crime making femicide invisible, local activist says

Local activist Norma Andrade, who was recently at the UN Office in Geneva to raise awareness about femicide, knows the issue first-hand. 

With more than 2,526 women murdered in the past three decades – from 1993 through 2023 – and hundreds disappeared, Ciudad Juárez remains Mexico’s deadliest city for women. 

Local activist Norma Andrade, who was recently at the UN Office in Geneva to raise awareness about femicide, knows the issue first-hand. Her own daughter, Lilia Alejandra, was murdered in that same city in 2001.

“As my granddaughter would sum it up: we are worth a peanut – which in other words means that a woman is just disposable,” she told UN News.

“On one day, she was working in a factory, the next day she disappeared, the next she is found dead, while another person has already replaced her at work, so [her death] is only important to her family - not for society, not for the government, much less for the authorities or the company,” she explained.  

Impunity is rampant

According to Ms. Andrade, the fact that Juárez is a key border crossing with the United States contributes to the lack of community rootedness, which dehumanizes the population and makes it harder to fight the crime of femicide.

But the problem is not confined there. Across Mexico, around 10 women and girls are killed every day by intimate partners or other family members, according to Government data. 

Since 2001 - the year when Lilia Alejandra was killed – 50,000 women have been murdered, while the impunity rate exceeds 95 per cent. 

Furthermore, only two per cent of cases end in a criminal sentence and only one in 10 victims dares to report their aggressor.

There is no justice

Ms. Andrade has survived two murder attempts in the 23 years since her daughter’s body was discovered, as she continues her quest for justice.  

“In Mexico, the growing number of disappearances is real, but this boom in organized crime and drug trafficking has erased what is happening to women, not that it stopped happening, but it is becoming invisible…”, she said.

Even though the violence against women is increasing, its visibility is going down - local activist Norma AndradeSpeaking about the lack of justice, she said that even when the skeletal remains of a missing young woman are found, it is an “achievement” as it gives closure to their families. “It gives them a place to go and mourn their daughter,” she added.

Since the disappearance of her daughter, Ms. Andrade has been fighting for justice. 

“Recently, an expert made me see a reality that I hadn't seen for the past 23 years, one that I didn't want to accept: maybe I won't find justice for Alejandra. Or at least not the legal justice that I want that would put Alejandra's attackers in jail”, she stressed.  

Her case was transferred to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, located in Costa Rica, in December 2023. 

Symbolic justice

“Perhaps we can find moral or symbolic justice,” Ms. Andrade said, “because the moment the Mexican State is given a criminal sentence […] it publicly acknowledges that it didn’t protect Alejandra, neither all the Alejandras in the country, nor all those children who were orphaned when their mothers were murdered; and that would alleviate to some extent the lack of legal justice”. 

Blaming the lack of political will, Ms. Andrade who is also a co-founder of non-profit association of mothers whose daughters were victims of feminicide in Ciudad Juárez, added that the mothers are the ones “swimming against the tide”.

Supported by other women, academics, feminists, and civil society, they are the ones “who must go, protest and raise their voices to be taken into account”, she said. 

In recent years, the crimes have sparked several waves of protests and put gender violence at the top of Mexico’s political agenda.

Keeping the issue of femicide in the spotlight and making information available and accessible for women, is key for holding the authorities accountable and preventing violence against women and girls. 

Since 2011, UN Women, in partnership with key state institutions, has published periodic studies analysing the scope, trends, characteristics of femicide in the country.

"Voices in Resistance: murals for justice and memory" seeks to dignify all mothers who fight for their daughters killed by femicidal violence.

‘Look at us’

Ms. Andrade stars in the documentary Norma, in search of justice directed by French journalist Brigitte Leoni, which was screened in Geneva ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November.

She hopes the documentary will bring more visibility to the cases of disappearance, noting that “this boom in organized crime has caused people to flee, crossing into the United States, and drug trafficking has made what is happening to women invisible”.

Speaking in Geneva, home to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN News asked Ms. Andrade what message she would like to share with rights experts. 

“Look at us, look at the mothers. Come here and see the families and don’t just stick with the image that the government gives to the outside world”, she said.

Femicide transcends borders

Violence against women is a global crisis, according to a report by UN Women and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), released on International Day.

The commemoration marks the start of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, an annual campaign that runs through 10 December, Human Rights Day.

Regional data shows that femicide transcends borders, socio-economic status and cultures, but its severity varies.

Africa recorded the highest rates of intimate partner and family-related femicides, with 21,700 women killed in 2023, followed by the Americas and Oceania.

In Europe, 64 per cent of victims were killed by their intimate partners; in the Americas, it was 58 per cent. 

In contrast, women in Africa and Asia were more likely to be killed by family members than by their partners.

The report revealed that globally, 140 women and girls died every day at the hands of their partner or a close relative in 2023 – one woman killed every 10 minutes.