CNN
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The killing of the 22-year-old model and influencer from Colombia draws similarities to the killing of Mexican influencers last week, highlighting the high rates of murder in Latin America.
Maria Jose Estinan, a university student in Cukuta, Colombia’s northeastern city of Colombia, near the Venezuela border, was murdered on May 15, according to Magda Victoria Acosta, chairman of the National Gender Committee of Judicial Justice.
Speaking at the press conference, Acosta said the suspect disguised as a childbirth man and shot Estipinan at home as he opened the door.
“She was a young, enterprising woman who had a lifetime before her, but those dreams are cut short like the dreams of many women in this country,” Acosta said.
Estinan was a victim of a domestic violence incident and was trying to get compensation for it, Acosta added. She said the committee will “very strongly” condemn crime and work to bring justice.
Authorities are investigating the killing. CNN has contacted the Columbia National Police and the Public Prosecutor’s Office for more information.
Estupinan’s Facebook page featured photos of travel and daily life, including trips to New York and California, as well as posing at the pool and gym.
The case has been widely covered by local media and is spreading on social media, comparing it to a May 13 filming of 23-year-old beauty influencer Valeria Marquez from Mexico. A few days before Estinan’s death, Marquez was killed in a live stream of the salon by a male intruder.
Officials in Jalisco, Mexico, said they are investigating Marquez’s death, the murder of a woman or girl on gender-based reasons, as a suspicious murder.
Not all murders involving women are feminized, but many do. According to Amnesty International, a quarter of the murders of women in Mexico were investigated as feministes in 2020, and reported in each of the 32 states of the country.
Acosta did not say whether Espinen’s death was a suspected murder, but her murder highlighted the magnitude of violence against women in Colombia.
According to the nonprofit Human Rights Watch, gender-based violence across the country is widespread, including armed groups. Survivors face many obstacles when seeking care and justice, and perpetrators rarely take accountable, the group said in its World Report 2024.
Colombia’s National Gender Committee has documented thousands of cases of gender and domestic violence, including a high percentage of sexual violence, neglect, abandonment and psychological violence, Acosta said.
According to Acosta, a woman who went missing in Colombia between January and August last year was reported missing in Colombia. Most of the women were minors.
Northeast Colombia has been particularly unstable in recent months, with fighting between extremist factions rising sharply. The escalation of violence in the Katatambo region drove tens of thousands of people in January. Many flocked to Kukuta, where Colombian troops deployed thousands of soldiers and special forces.
