10 years since the murder of Marisela Escobedo

 

Chihuahua, Chih., December 17, 2020. Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of the murder of Marisela Escobedo Ortiz, who was protesting in front of the Government Palace in the city of Chihuahua, demanding justice for her daughter Rubí Marisol Fraire Escobedo, who was the victim of femicide at the hands of her partner.

As of yesterday, it has been 3,653 days without justice for Marisela and 4,494 for Rubí.

As we have done for the past 9 years, yesterday we remembered Marisela's struggle and the debt of justice that exists for thousands of women in this country; however, due to the situation we are currently living because of COVDI-19, we were unable to meet physically and we did it virtually, and we sought to vindicate the struggle of Marisela Escobedo who gave her life in the hope that the femicide of her daughter Rubí Fraire would be the last in Chihuahua and in Mexico.

The first event took place at 8:00 a.m. where the Women in Black placed an offering of flowers on the plaque at the place whereMarisela Escobedo fell before her death; the Women in Black are an important precedent in the Latin American region that managed to make visible the issue of feminicidal violence in Chihuahua.

At 10:00 a.m. we had the opportunity to listen to Jessica, Juan Manuel and Alejandro Fraire, daughter and sons of Marisela Escobedo, who forcefully demanded justice for their mother's case, emphasizing that there are sufficient elements to investigate the real murderers of their mother. On the other hand, the organizations that accompanied them in their demand for justice at the Inter-American Human Rights System, emphasized the importance of the Mexican State to adopt sufficient, adequate and timely measures to prevent cases such as those of Rubi and Marisela from being repeated.

The commemoration concluded with the event broadcasted online at 18:00 hours, with the participation of Luz Estela (Lucha) Castro, who was in charge of the positioning of the organizations and emphasized that there is still a long way to go to ensure that the Mexican state responds adequately to the victims of violence in Mexico; Narce Dalia, Lavinia Ekaterina, Vivir Quintana and Alejandro Fraire also participated, sharing their art as an instrument of denunciation and collective indignation.

Also, on this tenth anniversary, a letter with the main demands of Rubi and Marisela's family, as well as those of the organizations that accompany them in the demand for justice at the international level, was delivered in different places in Mexico and the world.

This year we have remembered her murder in a very different way, due to the circumstances. This afternoon, more than fourthousand candles were lit around the Government Palace and the plaque honoring her struggle, each one symbolizing indignation, solidarity, impotence, and above all, the hope that a more fair and egalitarian Mexico is possible.

10 years after the shameful murder of Marisela Escobedo, civil society organizations and collectives:

• We demand an impartial, exhaustive, diligent and state lead investigation into the murder of Marisela Escobedo that still remains unpunished; 
• We demand an effective investigation into the actions or omissions that led Marisela Escobedo's family to seek political asylum in another country.
• We demand the adoption of all necessary measures to eradicate violence against women, girls and adolescents in Mexico, as established in the international treaties to which our country is a member.
• We will continue to insist on the need to strengthen public policies to protect human rights defenders, which necessarily implies allocating sufficient resources and adopting measures that guarantee that we can continue to carry out our work in conditions of freedom and security.
• In general, we demand compliance with the recommendations of international human rights protection organizations that present us with a path to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against girls and women in Chihuahua and Mexico.

Because Justice for Marisela Escobedo is Justice for All!

Background

Marisela was 52 years old when she was cowardly murdered. Until her 48 years, she had been dedicated to her sons and daughters, to her vocation as a nurse and to her entrepreneurial spirit. Those were the last four years of her life, the ones that marked forever the history of Chihuahua, of the accusatory criminal system in Mexico and the ones that made evident to the world the prevailing impunity in our country.

Marisela became the main investigator of the disappearance of her daughter Rubí Marisol Fraire Escobedo in August 2008. Thanks to the evidence she gathered, it was determined that Rubi was murdered by her partner, Sergio Rafael Barraza Bocanegra, who had already fled Chihuahua; Marisela was able to locate him and thanks to this, he would be arrested to face a trial in the recently launched New Criminal Justice System.

During Marisela's testimony in the trial against Sergio, she explained that she was there because she wanted her daughter's femicide to be the last one in Chihuahua. The court acquitted and freed the confessed murderer.

At a higher court, a conviction was obtained, but Sergio Rafael was no longer in custody, so Marisela began a tenacious struggle to demand the arrest of her daughter's murderer.

She traveled the country, led marches, held multiple protests, met with authorities at different levels, found Sergio on her own on three occasions and demanded his arrest, confronted the Governor, denounced the collusion between authorities and drug traffickers, faced death threats from the murderer's family, warned that she would be killed if nothing was done to protect her and that her death would be the shame of the Government.

On the night of December 16, 2010, Marisela Escobedo Ortiz was murdered at the gates of the Chihuahua Government Palace.