As of December 2020, there is a report that 20 women have been attacked with acid in Mexico, with 2018 being the year with the highest number of attacks, with seven being recorded. Three assaults occurred last year.
In the country there is no official figure of the number of women victims of this type of violence, however, Carmen Sánchez, activist and victim of an acid attack by her ex-partner in 2014, and researcher Ximena Canseco, have tailed cases since 2000, mostly, of women who have approached Carmen.
For those leading this investigation, the number of attacks could be higher, as there are many cases that are not reported and are not made public.
Read: Get back to life after an acid attack, the long and difficult process for recovery
During the conversation, Experiences of Feminicidal Violence in Mexico, organized by the CCH Sur, Ximena Canseco reported that Mexico City and Puebla record five cases of acid attacks each; the State of Mexico three; Waterscalientes two; while in Hidalgo, Quintana Roo, Oaxaca, Guanajuato, Querétaro and Yucatan one has been registered with each entity.
The average age of the victims was between 20 and 30 years. And in most cases, his assailants were his partners or ex-partners, according to his research.
And what happened? 65% of cases of acid attacks are in impunity and without comprehensive damage repair.
So that these attacks do not fall alone in a figure, some of the victims have told their stories to make visible everything they have faced, from a lack of medical care, lack of support, to revictimization and lack of justice, as their aggressors remain free or without sentence.
In Huixquilucan, State of Mexico, a mural was made for the first time that makes visible and names some of the women attacked with acid in Mexico. It shows the faces of Carmen Sánchez, Esmeralda Millán, Elena Ríos and Ana Saldaña.
This intervention is for the state to remember that “we are still here despite their forgetfulness and abandonment, that we will continue to demand justice,” Carmen says.
These are the faces of pain and anger for injustice, but they are also faces of tireless struggle and resistance to this feminicidal state, describes the mural called “Worthy Rage Has the Face of Women”, created by the artists Pedro Peña Reyes, Trom and Miguel Sant, with the support of Alejandro León of the Council of Organizations of the Civil Society of Edomex.
The idea, Carmen explains, is to be able to appropriate the bards that are completely abandoned and become murals of protest.
“We are convinced that art is a very powerful mechanism of public denunciation and demand for justice. I wish we could have a mural in every state of the women we survived the acid attacks,” she says.
In this case, the wall intervened is to make aware that these aggressions in Mexico are real showing the faces women who are still waiting for justice, and also, to make it visible that there is no response from the authorities.
In this first mural of victims of acid attacks, they painted the faces of four surviving women, one of them is Esmeralda Millán, a young woman who was sprayed with acid by her ex-partner along with three other people on December 2, 2018, in Puebla.
She needs reconstruction of the nose, mouth and a cornea transplant, in addition to burning her face, the acid hurt her neck, hands and chest.
Esmeralda lived with her assailant for nearly eight years until she left him for his violent behavior, in doing so threatened her: “If you’re not going to be with me, you’re not going to be with anyone.” Then the aggression occurred.
Esmeralda’s ex-partner is in jail, but she hasn’t been sentenced for more than a year even though he also dropped acid during the attack and that represents proof of what he did. The rest of the aggressors are still free.
On several occasions they have suspended his aggressor’s hearing and are afraid he may be released. Esmeralda continues to fight for justice.
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The face of María Elena Ríos, the young saxophonist from Oaxaca, was drawn next to the phrase: “It could be your daughter, sister or mother.” On September 11, 2019 she was attacked with acid, a chemist who also left burns on her mother.
Progress in his case has been made by pressure on the authorities and the support of civil society. He still demands justice: an apprehension order is lacking and the other four alleged culprits linked to the process, including Juan Vera Carrizal, his ex-partner, receive a sentence.
Maria Elena recently saw one of her assailants on the street, alerted then-prosecutor Rubén Vasconcelos, but did nothing, just got angry,for which Maria Elena questions the system of state justice that “has allowed impunity, disappearances and femicides”.
Male has been grafted skin to the face, neck, arm, hands and chest. Your recovery is progressing. The road is still long.
She was dedicated to managing trips, arranged the procedures to renew or remove passports and on the day of her assault, a man made an appointment with her to carry out some formalities. He arrived with a boat. Maria Elena thought the man was carrying food, it was acidic.
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Ana Helena Saldaña was attacked with acid in Mexico City on November 12, 2018 by a woman waiting for her outside her home, apparently selling jellies and desserts.
Anne thanked him and told him that at the moment he did not want to, but that perhaps his neighbors did. The woman was still very insistent that she check the bag where the jellies were supposed to be.
When Anne opened the door of her house her dog attacked the woman, that allowed her to be a little away and not burn her whole face. Anne thought she’d given her a jelly, but it was acidic.
The assailant did not leave immediately after the attack, in her hands she held a jar but did nothing, left with a man who was waiting for her. His burns were classified as injuries that take 15 to 60 days to recover, as in most cases. Two years after the attack, he’s still recovering.
She lost her sight in her right eye and had to undergo various surgeries. So far there are no detainees for his aggression. In the mural his face is shared with the phrase: “You wanted to burn me, you forgot I’m fire.”
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Carmen Sánchez was sprayed with acid by her ex-partner on February 20, 2014. She hasn’t been held justice for seven years.
The authorities have not arrested their aggressor Efrén García Ramírez, even though the arrest warrant against him was turned on 2 May 2014, and that even the authorities have offered a reward to anyone reporting his whereabouts.
For Carmen, the face of a man who attacked her, not hers, is the one that would have to be on the media and on social media. “He is the only one who must feel shame and fear of going out on the street, not me.”
Prior to the attack, Carmen had twice denounced her ex-partner, once for a sex crime and once for child abduction, but the authorities of the State of Mexico never proceeded.
Acid damaged half his face. Carmen has grafts on her arms, legs, chest, chest and face, her neck was severely damaged. His eyelid is not yet rebuilt. In these seven years, nearly 60 surgeries have had to be undergoed
“One burdens not only with the physical scars of such devastating violence, but with social revictimization, with lack of access to justice, with exclusion, lack of medical, psychological and legal care; and of course, with the sadness and anger accumulated over years and years,” carmen says.
Acid aggression continues and that shows that there is a state failure, which is not preventing and justice is not being done because there are no detainees. That implies, according to Carmen, a risk of more aggressors because there is impunity.
In the mural his face is shown with the phrase: “Women attacked with acid in Mexico exist, resist and survive this Feminicida State despite machismo and impunity”.
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