Tijuana, Baja California: 1.5 Women Are Murdered Every Day

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Despite requesting restraining orders and filing complaints, women continue to be violated in Tijuana. So far in August, 14 homicides against women have been recorded; there are already 153 in 2021, and it is expected that the figure of 2020, where there were 206

In just one week, three women were murdered in Tijuana, events that occurred in different parts of the city; even one of them had requested a restraining order against her partner, the main suspect of having planned the crime.

Around 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, August 11, María Fernanda Hernández Viera, a dental surgeon, was in her Dentinlove office, located in the Ermita Shopping Plaza, on Ermita Avenue and Veracruz Street, in the Ermita Norte neighborhood.

Suddenly two men entered, one of them requested to see Dr. Hernández Viera; when the woman approached, the individual pulled out a firearm and shot her at least seven times.

It was then that the men fled the place, ran down from the second floor of the shopping plaza and boarded a brown vehicle, in which apparently there was a person waiting for them.

Relatives of the doctor, who preferred to remain anonymous because the investigation is still ongoing, informedZETA that the main suspect in the murder of María Fernanda is her ex-partner, father of her children and former employee of Dentinlove.

"It was known that they had problems, we never knew exactly which ones but we saw [bad behaviors], I think he destroyed the office; but weeks before she had to denounce him on social networks," said the relative.

On Dentinlove's social networks, the murdered victim had warned that her ex-partner and former employee, Alayn Rodríguez, was sending messages to discredit her work and asked her clients to ignore the posts:

"Hello good afternoon, this is a statement for all our patients, warning that in the course of these weeks we have faced problems with this Facebook profile of a former employee who has dedicated himself to sending messages discrediting the work he does in this dental office.

"The entire Dentinlove work team requests from the most attentive manner that if you receive a message from this profile or another speaking on our behalf, ignore it."

Hiram Sánchez Zamora, Central Prosecutor of the Attorney General's Office (FGE) confirmed to ZETA that the dentist had requested a restraining order against her ex-partner, which is why she makes him a suspect, but there is still a procedure that must be analyzed.

"We are working on the cameras, the videos; we are working on the issue of the ex-partner, the analysis of the measure that had been dictated in favor, what she had declared when her complaint was received."

"It is an issue that we are still analyzing; the truth is that there is a lot of information, the identity of the people who executed the homicide, in link with who could have ordered it ... there are many techniques that we are still developing," he said.

And he added: "It is one of the lines definitely because this restraining order is against him, there is this protection measure; what the victim himself had pointed out is not something that we can rule out," said the Central Prosecutor.

Just three days later, chef Miriam de Dios López, 42, was shot dead when she was with her romantic partner in the parking lot of a housing complex located on Mission Avenue in La Paz, in the Rio Zone.

The attack occurred during the last hours of Saturday, August 14; the chef was rushed to the General Hospital, where she died at approximately 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, August 15.

According to the authorities, there is no significant advance regarding the murder, however, all lines of investigation are being analyzed; at the moment it is known that the murderers fled in a compact vehicle.

On the same Sunday, the 15th, but 12 minutes later, it was reported that a person had been shot dead, aboard a gray Nissan Maxima, on Cristóbal Colón Street, between Second and Third Street in the Central Zone.

Upon arrival, Municipal Police officers informed the Radio Station that the victim was a woman, who was later identified as Joselyn Guadalupe García Pulido. So far no progress has been reported with the research.

One of the bloodiest cases was discovered in the afternoon on Friday, August 13, on a neighborhood road that leads to the Abelardo L. Rodríguez, next to the Hacienda Los Venados channel.

At the place a burned van was found, in which the body of a man was found, as well as that of a woman, however, the latter was beheaded and her head was not located at the crime scene.

According to official figures, obtained by the Attorney General's Office (FGE), during 2021, 153 women have been murdered in Tijuana, 14 of them so far in August; the increase can be seen when comparing the first half of 2020 with the same period this year:

A total of 101 women were murdered in Tijuana from January to June 2020, while in the same period the figure was 127.

2020 closed with a total of 206 women murdered in Tijuana, so in 2021, with the 153 cases so far, it is presumed that the figure will be exceeded.

Women deprived of liberty are released

It was around 12:26 p.m. on Monday, August 16, when three women  - one of them a minor - were kidnapped by hooded men from a home located on Circunvalación Sur Street, in the Los Alamos neighborhood. The women identified as Margarita González, Cristel Valadez and Zulim N, turned out to be relatives of the agent of the Municipal Police of Playas de Rosarito, César Silva, who days before had been the victim of an attack.

It happened that hours before being kidnapped, allegedly on Sunday night, criminals threw a Molotov cocktail and set fire to a vehicle.

Information obtained by sources from the Security Roundtable, reported that the women were released the same Monday night in the vicinity of the 20 de Noviembre neighborhood, without requiring ransom in exchange for the people.

Data collected by the same Security Roundtable indicate that allegedly the reason for the women being kidnapped was due to the actions of Agent Silva in the police corporation of Rosarito, since he is involved in the detention of people, who are not presented to the municipal authority; the corporation has not issued a position on the matter.

Zeta Tijuana