The murder of Valeria Márquez, a Mexican influencer who was shot dead during a live broadcast on Tiktok, caused shock in the population and warned the levels of violence and femicide in Mexico.
Márquez, who has over 100,000 followers on Instagram, was shot by a man who broke into a beauty salon. The crime is being investigated as a suspected femicide.
By 2020, Mexican authorities recorded the murder of 3,723 women, and in 940 cases they were investigated as femicide ,.
The data indicate that by 2020 at least 10 women were killed every day in Mexico, and in one third of cases the motivation is due to the genre.
The report also points to the inefficiency of the Mexican government and the police to investigate crimes against women.
According to Amnesty International, the lack of investigation, loss of evidence and the incorrect application of the concept of gender lead to increased violence and impunity of many cases. The report also warns of the families of the victims, who end up being persecuted and harassed, often by the suspects themselves during the investigation process.
The rates of femicide have not improved in recent years. They reveal that in 2024 there were 847 cases of femicide across the country and 162 in the first three months of this year.
According to the report of violence against Mexico Women, published in April this year, the city of Juarez, in the north of the country, is the one that has the highest rate of crimes against women.
Generalized violence is also a problem for the country. , in 2023 Mexico recorded more than 31 thousand homicides. 70% of them were caused by firearms.
According to Ingi data, the homicide rate among men is 43.1 per 100,000 inhabitants. For women is 5.4 per 100,000 inhabitants.
President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office in October last year, inherited a human rights crisis “rooted in extreme violence by organized crime groups and in general abuse by state agents with almost total impunity”.
The organization points out that changes in congressional legislation during the predecessor government, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024), which includes the increase in military action in policing “could perpetuate abuse and severely undermine the rule of law.”
Remember the influence of the influencer:
In your beauty salon when someone appeared at the door to deliver a package. “He’s a little pig!” He exclaimed the beauty influencer when he returned to his cell phone and disembarked a stuffed animal.
Minutes later, Márquez was looking out when he was shot in the chest, belly and head. After the influencer falls backwards, another woman took the camera and ended the broadcast.
According to a spokesman for the Jalisco State Public Prosecution Service, where the case happened, the man accused of committing the crime appeared at the scene of the murder before Márquez’s arrival and asked directly for her. He returned to the salon later that day, when the murder occurred, as recorded in the video.
The name of the suspect was not disclosed.
In addition to working recording videos and making live broadcasts, and owner of a beauty salon. She focused on “lifestyle” and fashion content, sharing videos and photos on everyday trips and situations.
The Mexican was “Miss Rostro” (Miss Face) of Guadalajara in 2021, according to information from the profile on the Instagram social network.
