and latino studies at the university of california-santa cruz, reported that women's dismembered bodies were found in the deserts of juarez one year after nafta was signed. from 1994 to 2000 it is estimated 300-400 women were murdered in juarez, one third of them being identified as maquiladora workers. in less than a decade, the once low homicide reporting juarez became known as the "murder capital of the world". female maquiladora workers human rights activist, esther chavez cano stated, "if you want to rape and kill a woman, there is no better place to do it than juarez". katherine pantaleo, professor at the department of criminology at indiana university of pennsylvania, argued that women of juarez became an easy target for men to kill as they were constantly being attracted by maquiladora worksites. the factories provided women higher pay wages compared to other employment opportunities in mexico. additionally, maquiladoras were as equally as interested in hiring women. elvia arriola explains that employers prefer hiring women because they have smaller hands which are useful in assembling intricate goods, are considered to be more submissive than mexican men, and are less likely to unionize against the factory. according to mother jones, women and young girls compose more than 60% of maquiladora workers. however, maquiladoras refuse to employ pregnant women, as the mexican government requires companies to provide monetary aid to pregnant employees. as a result, maquiladoras conduct routinely pregnancy test on their female employees, as well as analyze their sanitary napkins every menstrual cycle. birth control pills are also offered to female employees, but not other health services. jessica livingston, scholar, explains that women continue to arrive at juarez at a rate of forty to sixty thousand per year even with the maquiladoras performing intrusive acts. leslie salzinger, a sociologist who worked at a maquiladora in juarez, argues that women continue to go work at maquiladoras for a sense of independence, an opportunity to own their own money. response to the maquiladora killings maquiladora corporations and mexican officials did not take safety measures to protect female employees after the rise of femicide cases in juarez. reported by victims families, mexican authorities blamed the disappearing young girls for living a "double life", suggesting they worked as prostitutes at night. in 1999, chihuahuas state public prosecutor, arturo gonzalez rascon, stated "women with a night life go out very late and come into contact with drinkers. it's hard to go out on the street when it's raining and not get wet". melissa wright, scholar of social justice movements within mexico at penn state, reported that chihuahuas governor francisco barrio did not provide extensive resources to further investigate the murders of women. in 1998 the national commission for human rights issued a report, identifying mexicos negligence in investigating femicide cases. in the report they stated that mexico was unable to collect evidence, keep record of how many bodies were found, nor identify corpses correctly. after the report was released, suly ponce was appointed as the official prosecutor for the women's deaths, and she testified to witnessing police's carelessness at crime scenes as they would ruin evidence with footprints. there were only three successful captures of murderers. in 1995 egyptian chemist, abdel latif sharif, a convicted sex offender and employee of a us maquiladora plant was charged with killing a woman. one year later, in 1996 a gang by the name of "los rebeldes" confessed to killing six women and in 1999 the designated bus drivers for the maquiladora workers confessed to committing five murders. after this success, mexican police officers attempted to convict more bus drivers for femicide cases. in 1999 four maquiladora bus drivers admitted to 20 murders, however it was later revealed that they were tortured by police into giving a false confession. femicide cases: 2019-2021 below is a list of femicide cases that caused public outrage against mexico's inability to protect women. abril perez sagoan abril pérez sagaón, ex-wife of amazon méxico ceo juan carlos garcía, was murdered on november 25, 2019, the same day a "violence against women" march took place. garcía is the prime suspect in the case. abril had divorced garcia after he had fractured her head with a baseball bat 11 months earlier. a judge ruled that it was not attempted murder because abril was sleeping at the time of the incident and the baseball bat was not to be considered a weapon. the murder occurred three weeks after garcía's release from prison, but a judge threw the murder charges out. his daughter said the judge, who had earlier released a doctor from charges of sexually abusing a mentally-ill woman, was bribed. a "#justiceforingrid" poster in memory of her life. ingrid escamilla ingrid escamilla, 25, was skinned and disemboweled by her partner erik rosas after an argument on february 9, 2020. graphic photographs of her corpse were then displayed on the front pages of tabloids and social media. la prensa defended its policies of reporting on crime but has indicated it will review its policies about publishing explicit photos. protesters marched to the offices of la prensa and burned a newspaper delivery truck. in addition, the pasala newspaper titled the crime story as "it was cupids fault". they could not be reached for comments. fatima cecilia aldrighett memorial site made for fatima cecilia & ingrid escamilla another tragic case was that of fátima cecilia aldrighett, 7, who was kidnapped after school on february 11, 2020; her raped and tortured body was discovered on february 15. when the child's mother was late in picking her up from school, she was turned over to an unrelated woman between the ages of 42 and 45 without identification. when questioned, a representative of the autoridad federal educativa de la ciudad de méxico (federal educational authority of mexico city) explained that if a child is not picked up by a parent or guardian within twenty minutes of school closing time, the child should be taken to the local police. nonetheless, educational authorities insist that children were turned over to their parents according to established protocol. a mxn $2 million (us$107,000) reward was offered for the woman's capture. the woman was identified by her landlord, and when police searched her house they found clothing and other belongings of fatima; a drone was used to find the woman and a man suspected of the actual murder. gladys giovana cruz hernandez, who confessed to strangling the girl, and mario alberto reyes najara, who was looking for a young girlfriend, were arrested on february 19. members of all political parties have called for legislative reforms; the chamber of deputies approved a change in the law to make femicides punishable by 65 years in prison instead of 45 years. legislators also held a moment of silence for fatima. mariana sanchez davalos on february 1, 2021, olga sánchez cordero, secretary of the interior (segob), said that the death of mariana sánchez dávalos, a 24-year-old recently graduated doctor in nueva palestina, ocosingo, chiapas, would be investigated as a femicide. two months earlier she had denounced a sexual attack that had not been followed up by the state prosecutor (fge). her death had been classified as a suicide, despite evidence of violence and strangulation. discrepancies in femicide data in 2012, mexico created a new crime category for femicides, in hopes of understanding the magnitude of the issue. from 2015 to 2019 the secretary general of national public security (sesnsp) reported an increase in femicide cases from 411 to 983, a 139% difference. however, not all states within mexico were enforced to adopt femicide into their penal code, therefore there are still many femicide cases that go unreported. currently, only 13 out of 32 states in mexico have included femicide into their penal codes: chiapas, colima, districto federal, durango, estado de mexico, guanajuato, guerrero, morelos, san luis potosí, sinaloa, tamaulipas, tabasco and veracruz. still, each state differs the way in which they classify femicides, due to mexicos vague definition. this increases the risk of cases being misclassified. for example, chihuahua does not consider the killing of a women, different from a homicide. according to the national citizen observatory on femicide, only 49 percent of the 800 cases of women killed in mexico between june and july 2017 were investigated as femicide. in an attempt to accurately quantify femicide cases, local activist maria salguero has created an interactive map tracking femicides based on local and national news reports. in addition, community organizations such as casa amiga, a rape crisis shelter in juarez, have made an effort at collecting femicide cases at the border. torreblanca, the director of data analysis at data civica, urges the mexican government to improve the current femicide database, in order to best combat the issue. sexual harassment and assault the national institute of statistics and geography in mexico (inegi) reported that almost 3 million sexual attacks, ranging from rape to groping or other forms of sexual harassment, occurred between the years 2010 and 2015. in the year 2009, there were 2,795 convictions of rape, but there were 3,462 prosecutions and 14,829 complaints of rape in mexico. it has been shown through numerous surveys that the majority of women in mexico do not report rape to authorities; these studies have shown that as few as 15 percent of rapes are reported. an inegi report in 2017 found that of the women attending school in the prior 12 months, 10.7 percent of them were sexually assaulted. it is reported that the main location of sexual harassment in mexico is in the workplace, in which victims rarely file any complaints since there are no rules in place to address the problem and punish the aggressor. another common location where sexual harassment occurs is on public transportation. a survey conducted by the national institute of statistics and geography(inegi) found that 96 percent of women in mexico city have experienced some form of sexual harassment in a public space, and 58 percent have been groped. un women's safe cities program coordinator in mexico, yeliz ozman, believes that while this is due to the problem of male entitlement in mexico, it is made worse by the overcrowded public transportation system and when women have to work late night shifts. in 2016, the government of mexico city started offering free rape whistles to women at public transportation hubs. they also provided women-only subway cars and pink buses to help protect women. on february 26, 2020, twenty professors were fired from the four colleges of the autonomous university of mexico state for sexual harassment. as a response, there was a strike at nineteen schools of the national autonomous university of mexico (unam) to protest against sexual harassment and violence. domestic violence a 2003 survey conducted by the national institute of statistics and geography (inegi) in mexico found that 47 percent of women that are over 15 years old and in a relationship have experienced some form of domestic violence, and that 96 out of every 100 victims of domestic violence in mexico are women. in 2016, inegi found that 43.9 percent of women in a relationship have been attacked by their partner at some point. there are many different types of domestic violence that can occur, including emotional abuse, intimidation, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. a survey conducted by the national institute for women in mexico (inmujeres) found that 98.4 percent of all cases involving maltreatment of women include emotional abuse, 16 percent include intimidation, 15 percent include physical abuse, and 14 percent include sexual abuse. according to a 2006 survey in mexico, 38.4 percent of married women suffer from emotional, physical, financial, or sexual abuse from their husbands. as of 2011, this rate has decreased slightly to 28.9 percent. more recently, nadine gasman, head of the national institute for women in mexico (inmujeres) reported in october 2019 that 267 women and girls were victims of violence every day in mexico. violence against migrant women there are tens of thousands of migrants going through mexico from central america and other countries on the journey to the united states. most of these migrants are from el salvador, guatemala, honduras, and nicaragua. migrants are at great risk for different kinds of violence as they make their journey, including kidnapping, threats and assaults. according to a human rights groups