Women in the Mexican drug war
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Since the beginning of the Mexican drug war in 2006, many women, of Mexican and other nationalities, have been victims of extortion, rape,[1][2] torture,[3][4][5][6] and murder,[7][8][9][10][11] as well as forced disappearance, by belligerents on all sides.[12] Women have been sex trafficked in Mexico by the cartels and gangs.[13] The criminal organizations, in turn, use the profits to buy weapons and expand. They have harmed[14][15] and carried out sexual assault of migrants from Latin America to the United States. The violence against women in the drug war has spread beyond Mexico to bordering and nearby countries in Central America and North America. The number of women killed in the conflict is unknown because of the lack of data.[16] Women officials, judges, lawyers,[17] paralegals,[18] reporters,[19] business owners, social media influencers, teachers, and non-governmental organizations directors have also been involved in the conflict in different capacities. There have been female combatants in the military, police,[20] cartels, and gangs. Women have lost loved ones in the conflict.[21][22]
Victimization of women
Civilian women, as well as young women and girls,[23] in Mexico have been physically and psychologically harmed in the conflict. A number have had little protection because of corruption, impunity, and apathy. Businesswomen and female farmers and laborers are threatened and coerced to pay taxes to drug gangs.[24] Other women are forced to cultivate or pack drugs.[13] Women have been forced to be mules.[25][26] They have been killed in the crossfire of gun fights and assassinations.[27][28][29] Some women have been killed for refusing the romantic advances of men, witnessing crimes,[30][31] being informants,[32] activists against crime,[33][34] and other reasons. Women have also been murdered for being the grandmothers, mothers, wives, daughters, nieces, sisters, aunts, cousins, coworkers, or friends of persons targeted for assassination.[8][35][36][37][38] Women have been bound and tortured.[4][5][39] Women's corpses have been decapitated and mutilated in other ways.[40][41][42][20] Female bodies have been disemboweled and hung from bridges.[12] The bodies and body parts of women have been displayed in other ways, including being dumped on and along highways.[43][44] The perpetrators sometimes leave written signs with threats and why they murdered the victims.
Women have been raped, tortured, and murdered by Mexican military forces and police.[1][45]
Sexual assault of migrants from Latin America to the United States, many who are escaping the drug war violence, is pervasive.[46]
Government employees, politicians, lawyers
Female officials and their family members have been murdered in the drug war.[47][48][49] Female police and military officers, as well as federal agents[20] and their family members[50][51][52] have been murdered because of their occupation and or anti-cartel efforts.[53][54][55][56] Female lawyers have been killed too.[57][17]
Journalists and media workers
Female journalists have been among those killed during the Mexican drug war while reporting on organized crime and drug trafficking. Journalists investigating cartel activities, corruption, or links between criminal organizations and public officials have faced threats, kidnappings, assaults, and killings. In some cases, members of their families have also been targeted. The risks faced by journalists have contributed to high levels of self-censorship in several regions of Mexico, where fear of retaliation has limited reporting on organized crime. Some reporters have instead relied on anonymous blogs, pseudonyms, or social media platforms to publish information about cartel violence.[58][6][19][12][59]
Sex trafficking and rape
Sex trafficking in Mexico is a significant problem.[60][61] Cartels and gangs fighting in the Mexican drug war have sex trafficked women and girls in order to obtain additional profits.[62][63][64][65] The cartels and gangs also abduct women to use as their personal sex slaves and force them into unfree labour.[62] The sexual assault of migrants from Latin America to the United States by members of these criminal organizations is a problem.
Number of casualties
The number of women killed in the conflict cannot be known because the absence of data from corruption, cover-ups, bad record keeping, and failures in interagency communication.[16][66] A number of cases involving murders and disappearances have gone un-investigated or unsolved because the authorities feared being harmed by cartel or gang members. Some corrupt or coerced authorities have tampered with evidence and documents to conceal information.[67] A great number of bodies of victims have not been found. The criminals have been known to use acids and corrosive liquids, fire, and other methods to dispose of remains and make identification difficult to impossible.[68][69] Criminals have stolen bodies from crime scenes and morgues.[70] Data has been manipulated. Government workers have intentionally underreported violent crimes.[71][72]
Women as participants
Women have participated in the Mexican drug war. They have served for all belligerents. Women have been members of cartels and gangs.[73][74] There have been female assassins[75] and drug money launderers.[76] Others have obstructed justice on behalf of the cartels.[18] They have transacted with drug trafficking entities and individuals in other ways.[77] Women have fought against the cartels and gangs as police, military, lawyers, paralegals, prosecutors, activists, and more.[17]
Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs) will assign women to high-risk assignments, but the required skills to succeed are much lower. These women are often not crucial members of the DTO. If they are captured and try to make a deal with authorities by informing the organization of a lesser sentence, giving out valuable information would be nearly impossible. Women are being incarcerated at a greater rate than men for drug offenses in Latin American countries.[78]
Women's participation in drug trafficking organizations is generally less extensive than that of men, although women have performed a variety of roles within these organizations. Some women have been used as drug couriers or smugglers, with studies suggesting that they may attract less suspicion from law enforcement in certain circumstances. Research has identified a range of factors associated with women's involvement in organized crime, including economic hardship, family or intimate partner relationships, coercion, and limited socioeconomic opportunities. Some studies have also suggested that personal autonomy or the pursuit of greater social or economic independence may influence participation, although motivations vary between individuals.[78]
Women with higher involvement in DTOs often work with their male partners. In the early 1970s, Helen Hernandez worked with her husband, Roberto Hernandez, his brother Juan, and Mercedes Coleman, who owned the home where they operated. They managed a well-organized operation based in Tijuana. It would take US and Mexican agents working together to bring the drug operation down. After a raid conducted by a joint team of US and Mexican agents, they would discover fifteen pounds of cocaine, $25,000 in cash, small arms, and a rocket launcher. Two women and six other men were also arrested. They worked as drug couriers who would smuggle the drugs across the border into San Diego. The drugs were smuggled in by the women couriers who hid the drugs within Mexican Folk art. Even after their arrests, the newly formed Drug Enforcement Agency[disambiguation needed] discovered they were operating their drug empire behind bars.[79]
María Guadalupe López Esquivel, better known as La Catrina (30 March – 10 January 2020) , was an alleged member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). Her alias refers to La Catrina, the female skeleton associated with Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). López Esquivel grew up in Tepalcatepec, Michoacán, and was reported by Mexican authorities to have joined the CJNG as a sicaria (hitwoman). According to Mexican authorities, she participated in an ambush against security forces in October 2019 in which fourteen police officers were killed. Authorities also alleged that she helped coordinate another attack the following month that resulted in the deaths of forty state police officers. Reports described her as later holding a leadership position within a local CJNG cell. She was killed during a confrontation with Mexican security forces in January 2020.[80]
Emma Coronel Aispuro is the wife of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and comes from a family with longstanding ties to the Sinaloa Cartel. Her father, Inés Coronel Barreras, and her uncle, Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel Villarreal, were senior figures within the organization. Coronel married Guzmán in 2007 at the age of 17. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. prosecutors, after Guzmán's imprisonment in Altiplano Prison, she acted as an intermediary by relaying messages and instructions on his behalf and participated in efforts to facilitate his escape and support the cartel's operations.[81]