Relatives of young woman found dead a year ago demand justice in Mexico
Monterrey, Mexico, May 8 (EFE).- The family members and friends of a young woman who disappeared and was found dead a year ago in northern Mexico’s Nuevo León state, held a march on Monday to demand justice from state authorities and denounce the lack of progress in the case.
Dozens of feminists also participated in the protest, which took place in Nuevo León’s capital city of Monterrey on the day that marked one year since the discovery of the body of Yolanda Martínez Cadena.
Some 50 people gathered in front of the government palace and marched to the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Femicides and Crimes against Women.
Yolanda’s father, Gerardo Martínez told reporters that no progress had been made in his daughter’s case and that despite a 3,000-page investigation folder, those responsible for her disappearance and murder had still not been found.
The young woman was last seen on Mar. 31, 2022 after leaving her grandmother’s house, located in San Nicolás de los Garza, a suburb of Monterrey, but her body was found on May 8 in vacant land belonging to Juárez’s city hall.
Initially, the attorney general’s office of Nuevo León said that Yolanda committed suicide after having ingested a toxic substance.
However, the father of the 26-year-old girl, who had a young daughter, refused to accept this hypothesis and fought to have the case reclassified as a femicide.
“The lawyers are looking at the investigation file again to see what lines of investigation we have to pursue,” he said.
He added that the case was moving “very slowly” and that he is in constant fear that the matter will be declared closed.
“Prosecutor Griselda Núñez (specializing in femicides) said that due to lack of action the case would have to be closed, but I kept fighting with the support of the National Human Rights Commission,” he said.
“Throughout the case they have dragged their feet with one circumstance or another,” he added.
Several organizations have expressed concern about a wave of disappearances of women and femicides in Nuevo León in the last year.
They have also denounced that there are around 1,800 missing women in the state. EFE
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