A gender violence alert has been activated for the five Chihuahua municipalities of Ciudad Juárez, Parral, Chihuahua, Cuauhtémoc and Guadalupe y Calvo, which have been identified as areas with a high level of violence against women.

“The government of Chihuahua recognizes that systematic violence against women has expanded in the state, given that every day a woman has been killed. Every day, a family suffers for the homicide of a mother, sister, or daughter,” said Alanís Sámano, head of the National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence Against Women (Conavim).

Seven of 10 Chihuahua women have been victims of violence, primarily in the home, school, workplace or the streets. And in the past 10 years, the five municipalities have seen 2,400 murders of women. In the first six months of 2021, the state ranked third for homicides of women and had an elevated level of rape, Sámano said.

The alert is a useful legal tool for addressing violence, providing monitoring mechanisms and obliging the three levels of government to comply with certain recommendations, Governor Javier Corral said. He also confirmed that the alert was issued as a result of requests presented by nonprofits in the face of insecurity and mounting numbers of gender-motivated homicides.

Alejandro Encinas, deputy minister of human rights at the federal Interior Ministry, called the alert “an important step” in recognizing and moving toward solving the problem of violence against women. He said the alert came about as a result of cooperation between various levels of government, women’s collectives, academics and others.

Anabel Sanz Luque, representing UN Women, lauded the perseverance of the organizations that have made the alert a reality, which she said lays out “a path that requires political dialogue and a collective effort to make visible the violence against women and find solutions to eradicate it.”

With reports from El Universal