CNN
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Valeria Marquez was addressing her Tiktoku followers during a live stream at her beauty salon in Zapopan, Mexico.
“He’s a little piglet!” The beautiful 23-year-old influencer smiled and cried, returning to viewers, unleashing the stuffed animal, throwing long blonde hair over her shoulder.
After a while she was dead and even as the live stream continued, blood was piled up on the desk in front of her and she collapsed into a chair. The footage only ended when others picked up the phone.
According to the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office, Marquez was shot dead by a male intruder in a case being investigated as a murder suspect.
The death of Marquez, a public figure with over 100,000 Instagram followers, sent a shockwave through a country that has long struggled with both high levels of murder and violence against women.
Just a few days ago, another woman – a mayoral candidate from Veracruz – was shot dead during a live stream along with three other people.
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 feminists in 2020, and reported in each of the 32 Mexican states.
Last year, Mexican government figures showed 847 murders were reported in the first three months of the year, with 162 reported in the first three months of the year.
Mexico’s response to common murder is sternly hoping, according to rights groups who say there are too few investigations that lead to prosecution.
“In 2022, around 4,000 women were killed in Mexico, which amounted to 12% of all murders that year,” Juanita Goebertus, American director of Human Rights Watch, told CNN. “And the percentage of cases leading to a verdict is around 67%.”
The main challenge, Goebertus said, is to increase the ability of authorities to investigate and protect witnesses and victims.
CNN contacted the Attorney General’s Office for further details.
