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"The central issue is how we generate the conditions so that a family never has to go through a path of suffering," Mayor Sheinbaum said.
Mexico City's government announced the creation of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for the Crime of Femicide Monday. Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said that the move aims to address the serious problem of gender violence in Mexico's capital and North America's largest city.
"The central issue is how we generate the conditions so that a family never has to go through a via crucis (path of suffering)" to gain justice.
Sheinbaum added that many families have had to endure compounded suffering as the murders of the women and girls in their families have not been classified as femicides nor as homicides, but as suicides.
The new Specialized Prosecutor's Office is a tribute to women who have fought against similar obstacles in their search for justice, she added.
The initiative came from Attorney General Ernestina Godoy Ramos. Among the first tasks of the new office is the development of a Criminal Investigation Plan, the implementation of necessary actions to address indirect victims and safeguarding evidence around femicide cases, Ramos said.
Araceli Osorio Martinez, mother of Lesvy Berlin Rivera Osorio — a young victim of femicide at the Ciudad Universitaria that took place May 3, 2017 — attended the presentation of the new department introduced at the Government Palace of Mexico City. Martinez said that a part of eliminating femicides is to "recognize the causes and consequences of discrimination against women."
"That discrimination is not only shown in who is responsible (for the murder of a woman) but in the institutional and community violence" which prevents access to justice and revictimization, she told Aristegui News. "This structural step will be empty of all substance and purport if other factors are not addressed."
Secretary of Public Safety Jesus Orta said that an administrative responsibility procedure has been initiated against the policeman who acted as the first respondent in the case of Osorio because of his lack of due diligence and gender perspective.
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