Speaker 1: Dear listener, just a warning that this episode is going
Speaker 1: to be dealing with graphic references about violence against women.
Speaker 1: It was May of twenty seventeen and Araselio Sorio had
Speaker 1: arranged to meet up with her daughter, twenty two year
Speaker 1: old Leslie Bedlin.
Speaker 2: Visit via Sante Saviomoso Verno.
Speaker 1: They like to go out every Thursday, mother and daughter
Speaker 1: to the theater or to do some kind of cultural activity,
Speaker 1: so they had planned to meet at a subway station
Speaker 1: on the campus of the UNAM, the National Autonomous University
Speaker 1: of Mexico. Araseli worked at an elementary school on the
Speaker 1: campus and LESVII lived nearby.
Speaker 2: He Ya mepidioke for Suasa.
Speaker 1: But a few days before they were scheduled to meet,
Speaker 1: Arasili got a message from her daughter asking her to
Speaker 1: meet her at her house instead. It was strange, Leslie
Speaker 1: gave no reason and for the change of plan, and
Speaker 1: then before they could meet in person, Arasili got a
Speaker 1: weird phone call Ya Mislake. It was Leslie's best friend
Speaker 1: on the line, saying she was worried about her because
Speaker 1: she had heard that Leslie hadn't come home the previous night.
Speaker 2: Kas Ki told the friend to calm down, to call
Speaker 2: around and to see if her daughter was just with
Speaker 2: maybe some other friends.
Speaker 1: The friend told Lesbie's mom there was something else she
Speaker 1: was worried about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it is no solo s.
Speaker 1: A body of a woman had just been found on
Speaker 1: the university's campus. So Arasili called Jorgeluis Gonzalez, who was
Speaker 1: her daughter's boyfriend that she lived with. J told Aseli
Speaker 1: over the phone that he had been with Leslie the
Speaker 1: night before and that they had been drinking so much
Speaker 1: so that he didn't remember what else had happened. On
Speaker 1: the phone, Jorge also told Araseli that he was worried
Speaker 1: that the body found on campus the night before might
Speaker 1: be Lesbi. The next day, Arasili and Jorge got a
Speaker 1: call from a police officer asking them to come down
Speaker 1: to the station right away. At the police station, someone
Speaker 1: introduced themselves to Aralisona offering to help pay for the funeral,
Speaker 1: and jo Asili was confer used, why was this person
Speaker 1: talking to her about the cost of a funeral? Did
Speaker 1: they know something she did not, Sabi Sabilla. At this point,
Speaker 1: the police finally handed Rasseli some photos they were of
Speaker 1: the woman found dead on campus.
Speaker 2: Where's the man? No primo can be for? So Calzado susis.
Speaker 1: And the first thing Araseli noticed was the sneakers red
Speaker 1: converse high tops with Roses printed on them Flores Grabada
Speaker 1: so Roses. Immediately she knew this was her daughter. From
Speaker 1: Futuro Media and r X, It's Latino Usa, I'm Maria
Speaker 1: Rosa today Lesbie's store, and how her death made headlines
Speaker 1: across Mexico. In Mexico and throughout Latin America, there's a
Speaker 1: word that has become tragically commonplace. It's feminicilio, or femicide,
Speaker 1: which refers specifically to the murder of women because of
Speaker 1: their gender. Mexico has the second highest rate of femicide
Speaker 1: among all thirty two Latin American and Caribbean countries, after Brazil.
Speaker 1: Just last year, close to thirty five hundred women were
Speaker 1: murdered in Mexico. Eight hundred and forty eight of those
Speaker 1: were officially labeled as victims of femicide. Despite the dire numbers,
Speaker 1: Mexican authorities pay little attention. In March of twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: that got government issued a public apology for their negligence
Speaker 1: in the case of Sylvia Elena Ribera Morales, who was
Speaker 1: killed along with seven other women over twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: To this day, no one has been held accountable for
Speaker 1: their murders, and impunity in Mexico usually goes hand in
Speaker 1: hand with a lack of interest by the media, but
Speaker 1: there was an exception the case of Lesbi, and we're
Speaker 1: going to start today's show with her. We first brought
Speaker 1: you her story in twenty nineteen, and as femicide numbers
Speaker 1: continue to grow in Mexico six hundred cases through September
Speaker 1: of this year, we wanted to bring you this story again.
Speaker 1: Reporter Andaluja Noel Solov is going to pick up the
Speaker 1: story from here.
Speaker 3: Lesbie's death was an especially big deal on social media.
Speaker 3: The way I found out about the case was on Twitter,
Speaker 3: and people online who were sharing news of her death
Speaker 3: were shocked. She had apparently been strangled with a telephone
Speaker 3: cord from a payphone, and her body was left in
Speaker 3: a public space on UNAM's campus. The fact that a
Speaker 3: woman was found dead at UNAM, one of Mexico's top universities,
Speaker 3: and in a middle class area known to be pretty safe,
Speaker 3: sent chills down my spine. I also studied at UNAM.
Speaker 3: Pretty quickly, the news was reporting on her.
Speaker 4: Death telephone of pubs.
Speaker 3: In their newscast, Local television and other outlets were saying
Speaker 3: Lesbie had dropped out of high school and that was
Speaker 3: a dog walker, that she had problems with drugs and alcohol.
Speaker 3: Just hours after Arcelli had identified her daughter, the Mexico
Speaker 3: City Attorney General's office sent out a series of tweets.
Speaker 3: They tweeted that the dead woman had been identified, but
Speaker 3: they also did much more than give just the facts
Speaker 3: of her death. The Attorney General also tweeted personal information
Speaker 3: about Leslie's life. They said she had stopped attend high
Speaker 3: school in twenty fourteen, that she did not finish her coursework,
Speaker 3: that she lived with her boyfriend and had been drinking
Speaker 3: and using drugs with friends on campus. Taraselli Leslie's mom,
Speaker 3: who he heard from earlier in the story. It seemed
Speaker 3: like the Mexican government was taking a strangely aggressive stance
Speaker 3: towards her Daughterarchy.
Speaker 2: Was Taesibos con conuso trus.
Speaker 3: The government eventually erased the tweets, issued a public apology,
Speaker 3: and the head of Social Communication stepped down, but not
Speaker 3: before the tweets went viral and sparked outrage across Mexico.
Speaker 3: There was a lot of information about Lesbie's death in
Speaker 3: the headlines, but I wanted to know more about the
Speaker 3: real Lesbie, so I spoke to people close to her.
Speaker 3: UNAM was actually her home for a long time. She
Speaker 3: was a summer counselor there, went to high school on
Speaker 3: the main campus and played in the Studiantina, a student
Speaker 3: music group that plays traditional instruments. This is Leslie playing
Speaker 3: the mandolin. That's where Lizev, her best friend, met her.
Speaker 4: This is Lebrida resme mutalentosa islida instrumentos.
Speaker 3: Lisev met Lesbie as a teenager. She says she was
Speaker 3: really talented. She was a beautiful singer and was able
Speaker 3: to play songs on the mandolin within half an hour
Speaker 3: of first picking it up. They both attended high school
Speaker 3: at UNAM and in their free time, traveled all over
Speaker 3: Mexico to play music at other US university. Lesbi and
Speaker 3: Lisette started spending a lot of time with each other.
Speaker 3: She says Leslie felt like a sister to her. Right
Speaker 3: before her death, Leslie was studying for the UNAM entrance exam.
Speaker 3: It says Lisett said Leslie was an avid reader and
Speaker 3: wanted to travel, but she never got the chance to,
Speaker 3: so she traveled through her books. Her favorite book was
Speaker 3: The Little Prince. Many women online saw the media reports
Speaker 3: of Leslie's death characterizing her as a dropout and an
Speaker 3: alcoholic as an attempt to discredit her and distance her
Speaker 3: from the university. The day after Leslie's body had been found,
Speaker 3: hundreds of women started to tweet. They used the hashtagan
Speaker 3: or if they kill me. It was short for if
Speaker 3: they kill me, what will they say to blame me
Speaker 3: for my own death? Here's some translated from Spanish. If
Speaker 3: they kill me, it would be because I walk alone
Speaker 3: at night, because I wear shorts, skirts, because I use
Speaker 3: public transportation, because I enjoyed my sexuality. If they kill me,
Speaker 3: they'll say it was because I was flirtatious and I
Speaker 3: said no when he wanted me to say yes. If
Speaker 3: they kill me, it'll be because I use low cut shirts,
Speaker 3: makeup and heels and drink wine or beer. Hashtags have
Speaker 3: become a key tool in Latin America for women's fight
Speaker 3: for their rights. In twenty fifteen, the hashtag nina menos
Speaker 3: or not one woman less started trending after the murder
Speaker 3: of Giapayas, a fourteen year old girl in Argentina.
Speaker 4: As Manifestakira was pregnant at the time.
Speaker 3: Menos and also Niuna maas not one more our battle
Speaker 3: cries saying we won't tolerate the death of even one
Speaker 3: more woman. Just one day after Lesbie's death, the media
Speaker 3: started to report that the police were investigating it as
Speaker 3: a possible suicide because she was found with a payphone
Speaker 3: court around her neck and didn't seem to have other
Speaker 3: injuries that indicated a struggle. On top of the negative
Speaker 3: tweets from the Attorney General's office, this did not sit
Speaker 3: well with the public. A crowd of thousands of people,
Speaker 3: mostly female students wearing purple, gathered on UNAM's campus. The
Speaker 3: march snaked through campus and as they passed by every
Speaker 3: faculty building, more and more students joined in. They paused
Speaker 3: at the payphone booths where Lesbie was found dead. The
Speaker 3: protesters lit candles, held a moment of silence, and left
Speaker 3: flowers her in front of the rector's office. I met
Speaker 3: a chemistry student, Samantha. She told me that she thought
Speaker 3: the way the media covered Leslie's death showed how women
Speaker 3: in general in Mexico are treated. She told me that
Speaker 3: she once shared information about a women's rights event on
Speaker 3: her Facebook wall. Of course I know is a male
Speaker 3: classmate responded on her post, this is what happens when
Speaker 3: the Wi Fi reaches the kitchen. The scene was chaotic
Speaker 3: in front of the rector's office until out of the
Speaker 3: crowd emerged Leslie's mother, Racelli. Everyone went silent and she
Speaker 3: began to speak antihovinis. She said, Mexico is an unsafe country,
Speaker 3: a country that oppresses its youth. It's a country where
Speaker 3: people are killed and violence is normalized. Hundreds of women
Speaker 3: surround her and start chanting, you are not alone. Urcelli
Speaker 3: refuses to believe her daughter would have entered her life,
Speaker 3: and so after the protest, she goes looking for a
Speaker 3: video that might show what really happened that night on
Speaker 3: No Nam's campus.
Speaker 1: Coming up on Latino USA at Aicilli starts a long
Speaker 1: process of seeking justice for her daughter, Lesbie stay with us, yes, hey,
Speaker 1: we're back, and when we left off. The police in
Speaker 1: Mexico City, after a cursory investigation, believed that Leslie's death
Speaker 1: was a suicide, but Leslie's mother, A Rassili, wouldn't accept
Speaker 1: that conclusion, so she decided to go looking for proof
Speaker 1: of what really happened the night of her daughter's death,
Speaker 1: proof that might exist on a surveillance video. Reporter and
Speaker 1: lujah Noel solov is going to pick up the story now.
Speaker 3: Leslie's mom, Roceli, was sure her daughter would not have
Speaker 3: ended her own life, and so she started looking for
Speaker 3: a different answer than what the police gave her. Finally,
Speaker 3: Araceli decided to seek help in reinvestigating Leslie's death and
Speaker 3: to prove that her daughter had not committed suicide. She
Speaker 3: went to a human rights watchdog center on New NAMS
Speaker 3: campus to ask for help.
Speaker 4: Minamre Sajuriere ro man So Yeah Bogada, the La Familia,
Speaker 4: the Lesbi rivera Sordio.
Speaker 3: That's where she met Sayuria Rera, a lawyer who agreed
Speaker 3: to take Arocelli's case on pro bono. The legal team
Speaker 3: told Roseli there was surveillance footage of the area where
Speaker 3: Lesbie had been found, and so they asked to be
Speaker 3: able to view the footage, but the Attorney General's office
Speaker 3: would not release it. Then, two months after Leslie's death,
Speaker 3: on July fifth, twenty seventeen, Araceli's lawyers finally get what
Speaker 3: they were asking for the surveillance videos. Sayuri, the lawyer,
Speaker 3: described these videos.
Speaker 4: To me as we watch them, it is eldozema jo
Speaker 4: in Latlas those in media.
Speaker 3: Sayuri explains that the video shows that it's may tewod
Speaker 3: around two thirty three o'clock in the afternoon.
Speaker 4: Looky ales wee kaminnandoheluis unamigo itra ja el peru.
Speaker 3: Lesbian and Jorge are walking her dog together on campus.
Speaker 3: The couple appears in numerous surveillance images that span from
Speaker 3: the afternoon till the early morning, when they meet up
Speaker 3: with two friends to drink on campus. At two am.
Speaker 3: The surveillance footage shows Jorge and Lesbie alone, then they
Speaker 3: start fighting, yelling. Jorge waits for Lesbie to catch up
Speaker 3: to him, and they start scuffling.
Speaker 4: A yell parao e el lokas is a parta lampcha.
Speaker 3: She hugs him, attempting to calm him down, and he
Speaker 3: pushes her. She almost falls down. He hits heround the
Speaker 3: head el La. They then continue walking to the payphone
Speaker 3: booth where she was found. You can see in the
Speaker 3: video that Jorge is standing at the payphone and Leslie
Speaker 3: is standing behind it, visibly annoyed, but then the surveillance
Speaker 3: camera turns away. Hira, there's a jump in time in
Speaker 3: the tape with no explanation. The video showed a very
Speaker 3: different story than what Jorge had told everyone. Hora said
Speaker 3: that he had left Lesbie with friends and didn't know
Speaker 3: what had happened afterwards, but they were clearly caught on
Speaker 3: camera alone at two am, and he hadn't told the
Speaker 3: police that they had fought and that he had hit her.
Speaker 3: Arocelli says seeing this video made her reevaluate the events
Speaker 3: around Lesbie's death, like that strange message that she got
Speaker 3: the night before she was supposed to meet up with
Speaker 3: her daughter, asking her to come over. She now thinks
Speaker 3: her daughter was trying to leave Jorge, and the details
Speaker 3: that the media had published about Lesbie, implying that she
Speaker 3: was an alcoholic and used drugs. The lawyers looked at
Speaker 3: the case files and realized Jorge had spoken with the
Speaker 3: police about Lesbie before he even told Araceli he was
Speaker 3: worried about her. He might have given that information to
Speaker 3: the police in order to discredit Lesbie before any investigation started.
Speaker 2: Do you con sike k.
Speaker 3: Arceli feels completely betrayed by Jorge. She says she had
Speaker 3: always believed that he was telling the truth. He would
Speaker 3: tell her he was worried and scared and wanted to
Speaker 3: know what was going on, so she stayed in close
Speaker 3: contact with him. What pains her the most is that
Speaker 3: she let him attend her daughter's funeral. The next day,
Speaker 3: after Urcelli saw the video, the nightly news announced the
Speaker 3: government had detained Jorge.
Speaker 1: Insula al Novillo de.
Speaker 3: La but he is in charge with homicide because there's
Speaker 3: no video of the exact moment she died. Jorge is
Speaker 3: charged with a strange sounding crime, homicide by a mission.
Speaker 3: Basically that means he's charged for not preventing Lesbie from
Speaker 3: ending her life. The Attorney General's office put out a
Speaker 3: press release explaining the homicide by a mission charge. The
Speaker 3: News picks it up. They say that Lesbian and Jorge
Speaker 3: were talking, then Leslie took the telephone court from the payphone,
Speaker 3: put it around her neck, and hunk herself in front
Speaker 3: of her boyfriend, Jorge, who does nothing to stop her.
Speaker 3: Araceli and her lawyers immediately decided to fight this charge,
Speaker 3: and they started questioning Lesbie and Jorge's friends about the relationship.
Speaker 2: Ascomo las testimonialisciaaba in la lacion.
Speaker 3: This was the first time she discovered that Jorge had
Speaker 3: repeatedly been violent towards her daughter. With this new testimony,
Speaker 3: Araceli and her lawyers filed for the Mexico City Supreme
Speaker 3: Court to charge Jorge with femicide. The charge of femicide
Speaker 3: means the court must treat a women's murder like a
Speaker 3: hate crime. Here's Sayuri again, Araceli's lawyer.
Speaker 4: When Misilio tacencion de ocho annos com minimooz e Paris, she.
Speaker 3: Explained to me that in Mexico City, homicide can carry
Speaker 3: a sentence of eight to twenty years, while a femicide
Speaker 3: has a much harsher penalty of thirty to sixty years.
Speaker 3: Since we talked, the minimum has been raised to forty years.
Speaker 3: The rise of the word femicide in Mexico has to
Speaker 3: do with how the government has systematically failed to properly
Speaker 3: investigate when a woman is murdered.
Speaker 2: And the mysterious violent deaths of hundreds of women and
Speaker 2: girls since the early nineties.
Speaker 3: Sudan Puirez is a border city right next to El
Speaker 3: Paso where thousands of women work in factories known as machuilaloras.
Speaker 3: In the late nineteen nineties, many of them started to
Speaker 3: disappear on their way home from work. Their bodies were
Speaker 3: later found in the desert. For years, the government failed
Speaker 3: to investigate these murders. Ropperly, when the mothers of these
Speaker 3: women have realized that they would not find justice for
Speaker 3: their daughters in Mexico, they took their case to the
Speaker 3: International Court for Human Rights. In two thousand and nine,
Speaker 3: this international court declared the Mexican government guilty for failing
Speaker 3: to properly investigate these women's deaths and guarantee them their
Speaker 3: legal right to a life free of violence. After that,
Speaker 3: the crime of femicide became part of Mexico's legal code
Speaker 3: in twenty eleven, but the situation for women has only
Speaker 3: gotten worse in the last decade. Over twenty four thousand
Speaker 3: women have been killed across the country, and according to
Speaker 3: a recent study, only five percent of murder cases in
Speaker 3: Mexico of either men or women and with a conviction.
Speaker 3: In twenty fifteen, the Mexican Supreme Court heard its first
Speaker 3: case of femicide, and a rule that in all cases
Speaker 3: involving the violent death of a woman, the death must
Speaker 3: be investigated as a femicide, meaning the courts and prosecutors
Speaker 3: had to take into account the context surrounding a woman's death,
Speaker 3: including whether she was experiencing domestic violence and whether the
Speaker 3: body was left in a public space. Leaving a body
Speaker 3: in a public space is considered a threat to women,
Speaker 3: warning them that the same could happen to them. According
Speaker 3: to Sayuri, the lawyer, the police made a bunch of
Speaker 3: sloppy errors in Leslie's case. For example, they didn't take
Speaker 3: proper crime scene photos or get clean fingerprints off the
Speaker 3: phone booth.
Speaker 4: Okay Im Rabrajando and La Niversidad and Luard loserchos A
Speaker 4: porlomenoses Phi.
Speaker 3: Sayi says she formed her own forensic team of pro
Speaker 3: bono experts and over the course of ten weekends they
Speaker 3: tried to reconstruct what it happened to Lesbie, essentially reinvestigating
Speaker 3: her death. The pro bono medical expert looked at the
Speaker 3: photos of Lesbie's neck and concluded the wounds were more
Speaker 3: consistent with strangulation than with a hanging, and then October eighteenth,
Speaker 3: twenty seventeen, almost six months after Leslie's death, the Mexico
Speaker 3: City Supreme Court officially charged Jorge with femicide.
Speaker 4: The Lasa Mehicora class if the LESBI comofe Minicio Gravado
Speaker 4: and Besio missi promission.
Speaker 3: But over the next year and a half, Jorge's lawyers
Speaker 3: fight the femicide charge, delaying the trial countless times. During
Speaker 3: his various appearances in court, Jorge has said very little.
Speaker 3: I've reached out to his lawyers multiple times over the
Speaker 3: course of a year for comment via phone and email,
Speaker 3: but have not received any response for this story. And
Speaker 3: that's where we are today. Porges sits in jail and
Speaker 3: no verdict has been reached in Lesbie's case. To many observers,
Speaker 3: Leslie's death has come to symbolize a judicial system that
Speaker 3: is uninterested in prosecuting violence against women. But at the
Speaker 3: same time, the social media outcry and protest over Leslie's
Speaker 3: death have helped make people in Mexico City more aware
Speaker 3: of the problem of femicide and that it could happen
Speaker 3: to all women, regardless of class or background. Lesbie's death
Speaker 3: has also been part of a growing conversation about the
Speaker 3: role of women in Mexican society. Most recently, While the
Speaker 3: US has been having its Me TOI movement, women in
Speaker 3: Mexico hadn't been speaking up until now. Over the last
Speaker 3: few weeks, journalists, artists, filmmakers, and musicians have been calling
Speaker 3: out their alleged abusers on social media in a way
Speaker 3: that hasn't been seen before. Just last week, something big
Speaker 3: happened in Lesbie's case. The current Attorney General of Mexico
Speaker 3: City held like meeting on UNAM's campus that hundreds of people.
Speaker 5: Attended Estamosaki Lesbijra Memoria.
Speaker 3: And she did something unprecedented in a case like this.
Speaker 3: She issued a public apology.
Speaker 5: Yasu familia paroprase on authentic.
Speaker 2: School Allah familia the Lesbi ber.
Speaker 3: She apologized for the way the Attorney General's office said
Speaker 3: negative things about Lesbie and for the police declaring her
Speaker 3: death as suicide without any proof at.
Speaker 5: All Asumiro dipender com un in sob.
Speaker 3: She said that the whole justice system, from police to
Speaker 3: prosecutors to government officials, pretty much everyone in Lesbie's case
Speaker 3: had failed.
Speaker 5: Her ifamiliaris il.
Speaker 3: And that without family members like Aroselli and the thousands
Speaker 3: of women who supported her, her murder would not have
Speaker 3: been investigated properly as a femicide. Aroselli was on stage
Speaker 3: with other members of her family for the apology. She
Speaker 3: formally accepted it, but with caveats. She told the government
Speaker 3: Lesbi still deserves justice and we will be watching you.
Speaker 2: Nosotros mantendremotro soos sin noestros sentiros permanent tentos.
Speaker 3: Today, Aroselli's life is still on Paul's. She's had to
Speaker 3: take time off from her job, but in that time
Speaker 3: she's become a main support for other families whose daughters
Speaker 3: were also murdered or disappeared, and fighting for justice has
Speaker 3: become her way of life. At one of the courthouse appearances,
Speaker 3: Araceli addressed a dozen or so people that had gathered
Speaker 3: to support her and demand justice for Lesbi.
Speaker 4: Bamasa said, look at.
Speaker 2: Let's throw the rachel and poraskay is.
Speaker 3: She told the crowd, we will do what we have
Speaker 3: to to defend our right to walk in the streets
Speaker 3: dress however we want, at whatever time of night. We
Speaker 3: have the right to live. She says. If simply living
Speaker 3: is our form of resistance, then let's resist by living.
Speaker 5: Da Si La vida said lest a formal resistanciamos resist bibendo.
Speaker 1: Thanks to reporter Andalusia nos Sola for that story. In
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, what heruis gon Sally Saidnandez was convicted
Speaker 1: of femicide. He's currently serving fifty two year sentence. This
Speaker 1: episode was reported by Andalusia no Solov and edited by
Speaker 1: Sophia palisa Ka with production help from Maggie Freelin. It
Speaker 1: was bixed by Stephanie Lebau with engineering support from J. J. Rubin.
Speaker 1: Fact checking for this episode by Nidia about Tista. The
Speaker 1: Latino USA team also includes Julie Caruso, Jessica Ellis, Victoria Strada, Rinaldo,
Speaker 1: Leanoz Junior, Andrea Lopez Crusado, Luis Luna, Loni, mar Maruz,
Speaker 1: Marta Martinez Nor Saudi and Nancy Drujiro. NILLEI Ramirez is
Speaker 1: our co executive producer I'm your Host and co executive
Speaker 1: producer Maria Josa join us again on our next episode.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, I'll see you on social media. Estella
Speaker 1: Proxima ai.
Speaker 3: Latino Usa is made possible in part by Skyline Foundation,
Speaker 3: The John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the
Speaker 3: Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of
Speaker 3: social change worldwide.