On July 3, 1995, Esmeralda Martínez Montañez was found dead, her body half-naked and bearing signs of violence in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
At that time, the border municipality was beginning to gain national recognition for the large number of women who disappeared or were murdered.
However, 30 years later—and despite progress on gender issues—the outlook remains bleak, and the municipality remains the most dangerous for women in Mexico.
According to Rosaura Martínez, Esmeralda’s mother, in those years at least five women were murdered every day, and many more disappeared.
This occurred in a context where the crime of femicide was not even recognized and deaths were classified as homicides. As a result, many cases were not handled with due diligence, resulting in impunity, as in the case of the 19-year-old woman, for which no arrests have been made to date.
But this is not an isolated case; rather, it is a phenomenon that continues to this day.
According to data from the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office, between 2018 and February 2025, 140 femicides occurred, in addition to 727 investigations initiated for the crime of intentional homicide due to gender reasons.
However, compared to the number of cases during this same period, only 11 sentences have been issued for homicide and 18 for femicide, which means that in less than 20 percent of cases, the victims have accessed justice.
But aside from the low sentencing rate, there hasn’t really been a significant decrease in these crimes over the past seven years.
