Acapulco Mexicos most violent city for women

ACAPULCO  once the playground of movie stars and the rich and famous is set to gain the title of the most violent city for women in Mexico, according to data from organizations that have recorded the deaths of 144 up to Dec. 27  this year.

Although Acapulco, in the state of Guerrero, has been one of the best tourist destinations in Mexico for its beaches and nightlife, for women it has become an insecure place and, according to the United Nations Organization for Women, is the first municipality with most  homicides of women in Mexico after passingEcatepec (State of Mexico) and Ciudad Juárez (Chihuahua).

Rosa Delgado Álvarez, a woman, mother, teacher and resident in Acapulco, says she does not feel safe because she has already suffered acts of violence in the street.

“I do not feel safe even when I’m at home because I no longer trust the police.”

The state of Guerrero was the first in Mexico for the number of homicides of women in 1987, 1998, 2006 and 2007, according to the study “Violence Feminicida in Mexico” prepared by UN-Women, the National Institute of Women and the National Citizen Observatory of Feminicide (OCNF), ranking second in the country in 2017.

According to human rights organizations, more than 2,000 women were murdered in Mexico this year.

“We are in an alarming situation because far from the number decreasing it is increasing, we estimate that the actual number of deaths of women reaches 700,” said Enrique Solano Lopez, technical secretary of the civil association Women and Men for Equity.

Solano estimates that the official figure handled by the National Bank of Data and Information on Cases of Violence against Women (Banavim) is low because many violent deaths are not included due to the absence of a complaint or the opening of an investigation.

During 2017, the gender violence alert was issued in eight different municipalities of the state of Guerrero through the National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women (Conavim). These are Acapulco, Chilpancingo, Zihuatanejo, Iguala, Coyuca de Catalán, Ometepec, Tlapa and Ayutla de los Libres, but many more are missing.