Mexican activists protest after gruesome killing of woman

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Dozens of women spray-painted slogans such as “We won’t be silenced” on the facade and doorway of Mexico City’s National Palace on Friday, following the gruesome slaying of a young woman last weekend.

Not only have attacks on women become more frequent in Mexico, they have become more gruesome. In September, a young female musician in the southern state of Oaxaca was burned with acid by two men who testified they had been hired by a former politician and businessman who allegedly had an affair with her.

But the weekend killing of Ingrid

Escamilla, a young Mexico City resident who was allegedly killed by a boyfriend, has horrified Mexicans for its brutality.

The man, who has been arrested and purportedly confessed to killing Escamilla with a knife, then mutilated her body and flushed part of her corpse into the sewer.

Indignation grew after some local media published horrific photos of the skinned corpse, apparently leaked by city police officers.

The protesters read a statement on Friday saying “it enrages us how Ingrid was killed, and how the media put her body on display.”

“It enrages us that the public judges us, saying ‘this isn’t the right way to express your rage,’” the statement continued. “We are not mad, we are furious.”

In the past, feminists in Mexico City had been criticized for spray-painting historical monuments and trashing city infrastructure, but the damages on Friday were minor, and criticism almost non-existent.

Instead, officials condemned media outlets for publishing the photos and said they were investigating police who may have taken the photos with their cell phones at the crime scene.

The Interior Department said in a statement it “condemns the publication and distribution of such material, given that it re-victimizes people and promotes sensationalism and morbid curiosity. It is an attack on the dignity, privacy and identity of the victims and their families.”

The Friday morning protest occurred as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador gave his daily news conference inside the colonial-era palace.

López Obrador said such killings were hate crimes and “an act of brutal machismo.”

But early this week, he showed little patience for those who questioned him about the government’s commitment to fighting violence against women.

AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme A masked, female protester sprays fire at the entrance to the National Palace, the presidential office and residence, after demonstrators covered it in fake blood and the Spanish message: “Femicide State,” in Mexico City, on Friday.