WEBVTT - If They Kill Me 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:03.600 Dear listener, just a warning that this episode is going 0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:07.200 to be dealing with graphic references about violence against women. 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:14.239 It was May of twenty seventeen and Araselio Sorio had 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:16.880 arranged to meet up with her daughter, twenty two year 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:18.840 old Leslie Bedlin. 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:21.680 Visit via Sante Saviomoso Verno. 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:24.439 They like to go out every Thursday, mother and daughter 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.440 to the theater or to do some kind of cultural activity, 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:30.520 so they had planned to meet at a subway station 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:34.880 on the campus of the UNAM, the National Autonomous University 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:38.720 of Mexico. Araseli worked at an elementary school on the 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:47.960 campus and LESVII lived nearby. 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:48.680 He Ya mepidioke for Suasa. 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:51.680 But a few days before they were scheduled to meet, 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:54.720 Arasili got a message from her daughter asking her to 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:59.000 meet her at her house instead. It was strange, Leslie 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:02.600 gave no reason and for the change of plan, and 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:05.960 then before they could meet in person, Arasili got a 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:18.920 weird phone call Ya Mislake. It was Leslie's best friend 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:21.759 on the line, saying she was worried about her because 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:25.040 she had heard that Leslie hadn't come home the previous night. 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:33.920 Kas Ki told the friend to calm down, to call 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:36.080 around and to see if her daughter was just with 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:37.559 maybe some other friends. 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:42.039 The friend told Lesbie's mom there was something else she 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:42.880 was worried about. 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:46.200 Yeah, yeah, it is no solo s. 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:55.640 A body of a woman had just been found on 0:01:55.720 --> 0:02:01.440 the university's campus. So Arasili called Jorgeluis Gonzalez, who was 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:09.000 her daughter's boyfriend that she lived with. J told Aseli 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:11.520 over the phone that he had been with Leslie the 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:14.920 night before and that they had been drinking so much 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:24.880 so that he didn't remember what else had happened. On 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:28.880 the phone, Jorge also told Araseli that he was worried 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.919 that the body found on campus the night before might 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:38.560 be Lesbi. The next day, Arasili and Jorge got a 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:41.680 call from a police officer asking them to come down 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:46.639 to the station right away. At the police station, someone 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:52.920 introduced themselves to Aralisona offering to help pay for the funeral, 0:02:55.960 --> 0:03:01.880 and jo Asili was confer used, why was this person 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:04.560 talking to her about the cost of a funeral? Did 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:15.480 they know something she did not, Sabi Sabilla. At this point, 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:19.600 the police finally handed Rasseli some photos they were of 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:21.799 the woman found dead on campus. 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:33.200 Where's the man? No primo can be for? So Calzado susis. 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:40.200 And the first thing Araseli noticed was the sneakers red 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:46.120 converse high tops with Roses printed on them Flores Grabada 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:53.720 so Roses. Immediately she knew this was her daughter. From 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:57.320 Futuro Media and r X, It's Latino Usa, I'm Maria 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:03.080 Rosa today Lesbie's store, and how her death made headlines 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:16.560 across Mexico. In Mexico and throughout Latin America, there's a 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:23.760 word that has become tragically commonplace. It's feminicilio, or femicide, 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:28.640 which refers specifically to the murder of women because of 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:33.480 their gender. Mexico has the second highest rate of femicide 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:38.560 among all thirty two Latin American and Caribbean countries, after Brazil. 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:43.440 Just last year, close to thirty five hundred women were 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:47.080 murdered in Mexico. Eight hundred and forty eight of those 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:54.800 were officially labeled as victims of femicide. Despite the dire numbers, 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:59.680 Mexican authorities pay little attention. In March of twenty twenty four, 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:03.719 that got government issued a public apology for their negligence 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:08.000 in the case of Sylvia Elena Ribera Morales, who was 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:12.240 killed along with seven other women over twenty years ago. 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:16.240 To this day, no one has been held accountable for 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:21.240 their murders, and impunity in Mexico usually goes hand in 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:25.920 hand with a lack of interest by the media, but 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:30.200 there was an exception the case of Lesbi, and we're 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:33.880 going to start today's show with her. We first brought 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:37.960 you her story in twenty nineteen, and as femicide numbers 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:42.680 continue to grow in Mexico six hundred cases through September 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:46.360 of this year, we wanted to bring you this story again. 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:50.880 Reporter Andaluja Noel Solov is going to pick up the 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:51.640 story from here. 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:58.279 Lesbie's death was an especially big deal on social media. 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:00.800 The way I found out about the case was on Twitter, 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:03.560 and people online who were sharing news of her death 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:08.320 were shocked. She had apparently been strangled with a telephone 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:10.919 cord from a payphone, and her body was left in 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:15.359 a public space on UNAM's campus. The fact that a 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:18.920 woman was found dead at UNAM, one of Mexico's top universities, 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:21.400 and in a middle class area known to be pretty safe, 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:29.840 sent chills down my spine. I also studied at UNAM. 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:32.320 Pretty quickly, the news was reporting on her. 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:48.160 Death telephone of pubs. 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.440 In their newscast, Local television and other outlets were saying 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:52.440 Lesbie had dropped out of high school and that was 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.960 a dog walker, that she had problems with drugs and alcohol. 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:01.479 Just hours after Arcelli had identified her daughter, the Mexico 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.320 City Attorney General's office sent out a series of tweets. 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:07.560 They tweeted that the dead woman had been identified, but 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.040 they also did much more than give just the facts 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:13.760 of her death. The Attorney General also tweeted personal information 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:16.800 about Leslie's life. They said she had stopped attend high 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:20.040 school in twenty fourteen, that she did not finish her coursework, 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:22.760 that she lived with her boyfriend and had been drinking 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:31.560 and using drugs with friends on campus. Taraselli Leslie's mom, 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:34.080 who he heard from earlier in the story. It seemed 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:37.680 like the Mexican government was taking a strangely aggressive stance 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:44.160 towards her Daughterarchy. 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:55.440 Was Taesibos con conuso trus. 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:59.840 The government eventually erased the tweets, issued a public apology, 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.040 and the head of Social Communication stepped down, but not 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:06.840 before the tweets went viral and sparked outrage across Mexico. 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:11.520 There was a lot of information about Lesbie's death in 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:13.920 the headlines, but I wanted to know more about the 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:16.440 real Lesbie, so I spoke to people close to her. 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:19.560 UNAM was actually her home for a long time. She 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.040 was a summer counselor there, went to high school on 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.320 the main campus and played in the Studiantina, a student 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:29.600 music group that plays traditional instruments. This is Leslie playing 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:35.800 the mandolin. That's where Lizev, her best friend, met her. 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:44.479 This is Lebrida resme mutalentosa islida instrumentos. 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:47.240 Lisev met Lesbie as a teenager. She says she was 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:50.240 really talented. She was a beautiful singer and was able 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:52.440 to play songs on the mandolin within half an hour 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:55.400 of first picking it up. They both attended high school 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.199 at UNAM and in their free time, traveled all over 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:06.640 Mexico to play music at other US university. Lesbi and 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:08.760 Lisette started spending a lot of time with each other. 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:12.839 She says Leslie felt like a sister to her. Right 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:18.800 before her death, Leslie was studying for the UNAM entrance exam. 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:27.480 It says Lisett said Leslie was an avid reader and 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:29.840 wanted to travel, but she never got the chance to, 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:32.839 so she traveled through her books. Her favorite book was 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:41.959 The Little Prince. Many women online saw the media reports 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:45.320 of Leslie's death characterizing her as a dropout and an 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:49.000 alcoholic as an attempt to discredit her and distance her 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:54.920 from the university. The day after Leslie's body had been found, 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:59.000 hundreds of women started to tweet. They used the hashtagan 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:02.439 or if they kill me. It was short for if 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:04.520 they kill me, what will they say to blame me 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:13.559 for my own death? Here's some translated from Spanish. If 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:15.439 they kill me, it would be because I walk alone 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:18.520 at night, because I wear shorts, skirts, because I use 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:22.760 public transportation, because I enjoyed my sexuality. If they kill me, 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:24.800 they'll say it was because I was flirtatious and I 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:28.800 said no when he wanted me to say yes. If 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:31.640 they kill me, it'll be because I use low cut shirts, 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:40.760 makeup and heels and drink wine or beer. Hashtags have 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:43.760 become a key tool in Latin America for women's fight 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:48.559 for their rights. In twenty fifteen, the hashtag nina menos 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:51.600 or not one woman less started trending after the murder 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:55.120 of Giapayas, a fourteen year old girl in Argentina. 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:00.760 As Manifestakira was pregnant at the time. 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:09.160 Menos and also Niuna maas not one more our battle 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:12.080 cries saying we won't tolerate the death of even one 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:16.640 more woman. Just one day after Lesbie's death, the media 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.400 started to report that the police were investigating it as 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:22.280 a possible suicide because she was found with a payphone 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.000 court around her neck and didn't seem to have other 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.960 injuries that indicated a struggle. On top of the negative 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:31.720 tweets from the Attorney General's office, this did not sit 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:35.080 well with the public. A crowd of thousands of people, 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:46.880 mostly female students wearing purple, gathered on UNAM's campus. The 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:49.320 march snaked through campus and as they passed by every 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:53.280 faculty building, more and more students joined in. They paused 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:56.040 at the payphone booths where Lesbie was found dead. The 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.520 protesters lit candles, held a moment of silence, and left 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:03.000 flowers her in front of the rector's office. I met 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:06.240 a chemistry student, Samantha. She told me that she thought 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:09.080 the way the media covered Leslie's death showed how women 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.079 in general in Mexico are treated. She told me that 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:15.320 she once shared information about a women's rights event on 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:23.480 her Facebook wall. Of course I know is a male 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:27.120 classmate responded on her post, this is what happens when 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:35.200 the Wi Fi reaches the kitchen. The scene was chaotic 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:37.440 in front of the rector's office until out of the 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:42.800 crowd emerged Leslie's mother, Racelli. Everyone went silent and she 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:55.439 began to speak antihovinis. She said, Mexico is an unsafe country, 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.439 a country that oppresses its youth. It's a country where 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:02.880 people are killed and violence is normalized. Hundreds of women 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:16.920 surround her and start chanting, you are not alone. Urcelli 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:19.400 refuses to believe her daughter would have entered her life, 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:21.920 and so after the protest, she goes looking for a 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:24.840 video that might show what really happened that night on 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:25.800 No Nam's campus. 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:36.640 Coming up on Latino USA at Aicilli starts a long 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:57.800 process of seeking justice for her daughter, Lesbie stay with us, yes, hey, 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:01.400 we're back, and when we left off. The police in 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:06.360 Mexico City, after a cursory investigation, believed that Leslie's death 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:11.040 was a suicide, but Leslie's mother, A Rassili, wouldn't accept 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:14.520 that conclusion, so she decided to go looking for proof 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.360 of what really happened the night of her daughter's death, 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:22.440 proof that might exist on a surveillance video. Reporter and 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.680 lujah Noel solov is going to pick up the story now. 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.520 Leslie's mom, Roceli, was sure her daughter would not have 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:31.920 ended her own life, and so she started looking for 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:35.560 a different answer than what the police gave her. Finally, 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:39.720 Araceli decided to seek help in reinvestigating Leslie's death and 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.320 to prove that her daughter had not committed suicide. She 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:45.840 went to a human rights watchdog center on New NAMS 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:47.000 campus to ask for help. 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:52.200 Minamre Sajuriere ro man So Yeah Bogada, the La Familia, 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:54.320 the Lesbi rivera Sordio. 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:57.760 That's where she met Sayuria Rera, a lawyer who agreed 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:01.560 to take Arocelli's case on pro bono. The legal team 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:05.080 told Roseli there was surveillance footage of the area where 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.560 Lesbie had been found, and so they asked to be 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:10.680 able to view the footage, but the Attorney General's office 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:14.480 would not release it. Then, two months after Leslie's death, 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:19.720 on July fifth, twenty seventeen, Araceli's lawyers finally get what 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:28.240 they were asking for the surveillance videos. Sayuri, the lawyer, 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:29.840 described these videos. 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:32.840 To me as we watch them, it is eldozema jo 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:36.600 in Latlas those in media. 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:40.920 Sayuri explains that the video shows that it's may tewod 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:43.400 around two thirty three o'clock in the afternoon. 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:50.240 Looky ales wee kaminnandoheluis unamigo itra ja el peru. 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.320 Lesbian and Jorge are walking her dog together on campus. 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.120 The couple appears in numerous surveillance images that span from 0:15:57.160 --> 0:15:59.640 the afternoon till the early morning, when they meet up 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:03.240 with two friends to drink on campus. At two am. 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:09.000 The surveillance footage shows Jorge and Lesbie alone, then they 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.800 start fighting, yelling. Jorge waits for Lesbie to catch up 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:14.240 to him, and they start scuffling. 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:23.560 A yell parao e el lokas is a parta lampcha. 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:26.440 She hugs him, attempting to calm him down, and he 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.800 pushes her. She almost falls down. He hits heround the 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:37.520 head el La. They then continue walking to the payphone 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:45.880 booth where she was found. You can see in the 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:48.680 video that Jorge is standing at the payphone and Leslie 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:53.440 is standing behind it, visibly annoyed, but then the surveillance 0:16:53.480 --> 0:17:02.240 camera turns away. Hira, there's a jump in time in 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:06.560 the tape with no explanation. The video showed a very 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:10.680 different story than what Jorge had told everyone. Hora said 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:13.240 that he had left Lesbie with friends and didn't know 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:16.600 what had happened afterwards, but they were clearly caught on 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:20.119 camera alone at two am, and he hadn't told the 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:22.440 police that they had fought and that he had hit her. 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:29.359 Arocelli says seeing this video made her reevaluate the events 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:32.439 around Lesbie's death, like that strange message that she got 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:34.000 the night before she was supposed to meet up with 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:37.160 her daughter, asking her to come over. She now thinks 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:40.800 her daughter was trying to leave Jorge, and the details 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:43.679 that the media had published about Lesbie, implying that she 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.919 was an alcoholic and used drugs. The lawyers looked at 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:49.199 the case files and realized Jorge had spoken with the 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:52.560 police about Lesbie before he even told Araceli he was 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.280 worried about her. He might have given that information to 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:59.680 the police in order to discredit Lesbie before any investigation started. 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:02.480 Do you con sike k. 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:08.280 Arceli feels completely betrayed by Jorge. She says she had 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:13.960 always believed that he was telling the truth. He would 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.840 tell her he was worried and scared and wanted to 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:19.080 know what was going on, so she stayed in close 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:23.000 contact with him. What pains her the most is that 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:32.520 she let him attend her daughter's funeral. The next day, 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:36.159 after Urcelli saw the video, the nightly news announced the 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:38.560 government had detained Jorge. 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:41.720 Insula al Novillo de. 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:46.920 La but he is in charge with homicide because there's 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:50.399 no video of the exact moment she died. Jorge is 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:53.960 charged with a strange sounding crime, homicide by a mission. 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:58.400 Basically that means he's charged for not preventing Lesbie from 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:02.359 ending her life. The Attorney General's office put out a 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:05.919 press release explaining the homicide by a mission charge. The 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:18.560 News picks it up. They say that Lesbian and Jorge 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:22.960 were talking, then Leslie took the telephone court from the payphone, 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:26.560 put it around her neck, and hunk herself in front 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:29.760 of her boyfriend, Jorge, who does nothing to stop her. 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:36.600 Araceli and her lawyers immediately decided to fight this charge, 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:40.160 and they started questioning Lesbie and Jorge's friends about the relationship. 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:46.920 Ascomo las testimonialisciaaba in la lacion. 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:49.840 This was the first time she discovered that Jorge had 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:54.399 repeatedly been violent towards her daughter. With this new testimony, 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:57.600 Araceli and her lawyers filed for the Mexico City Supreme 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:01.480 Court to charge Jorge with femicide. The charge of femicide 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:03.800 means the court must treat a women's murder like a 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:08.600 hate crime. Here's Sayuri again, Araceli's lawyer. 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:15.720 When Misilio tacencion de ocho annos com minimooz e Paris, she. 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:18.480 Explained to me that in Mexico City, homicide can carry 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:21.639 a sentence of eight to twenty years, while a femicide 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:24.560 has a much harsher penalty of thirty to sixty years. 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:28.080 Since we talked, the minimum has been raised to forty years. 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.639 The rise of the word femicide in Mexico has to 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:35.160 do with how the government has systematically failed to properly 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:37.440 investigate when a woman is murdered. 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.320 And the mysterious violent deaths of hundreds of women and 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:41.840 girls since the early nineties. 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:44.760 Sudan Puirez is a border city right next to El 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:48.480 Paso where thousands of women work in factories known as machuilaloras. 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:51.520 In the late nineteen nineties, many of them started to 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:54.959 disappear on their way home from work. Their bodies were 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:58.680 later found in the desert. For years, the government failed 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.960 to investigate these murders. Ropperly, when the mothers of these 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:04.119 women have realized that they would not find justice for 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:07.119 their daughters in Mexico, they took their case to the 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:11.120 International Court for Human Rights. In two thousand and nine, 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:15.159 this international court declared the Mexican government guilty for failing 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:18.560 to properly investigate these women's deaths and guarantee them their 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:22.359 legal right to a life free of violence. After that, 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:25.600 the crime of femicide became part of Mexico's legal code 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:29.200 in twenty eleven, but the situation for women has only 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:33.120 gotten worse in the last decade. Over twenty four thousand 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.119 women have been killed across the country, and according to 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:39.280 a recent study, only five percent of murder cases in 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:43.040 Mexico of either men or women and with a conviction. 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:56.600 In twenty fifteen, the Mexican Supreme Court heard its first 0:21:56.600 --> 0:22:00.000 case of femicide, and a rule that in all cases 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:03.000 involving the violent death of a woman, the death must 0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:06.800 be investigated as a femicide, meaning the courts and prosecutors 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:09.960 had to take into account the context surrounding a woman's death, 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:13.480 including whether she was experiencing domestic violence and whether the 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:20.320 body was left in a public space. Leaving a body 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:22.919 in a public space is considered a threat to women, 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:36.160 warning them that the same could happen to them. According 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:38.840 to Sayuri, the lawyer, the police made a bunch of 0:22:38.840 --> 0:22:42.280 sloppy errors in Leslie's case. For example, they didn't take 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:45.199 proper crime scene photos or get clean fingerprints off the 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:46.080 phone booth. 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:52.119 Okay Im Rabrajando and La Niversidad and Luard loserchos A 0:22:52.520 --> 0:22:53.879 porlomenoses Phi. 0:22:55.119 --> 0:22:57.679 Sayi says she formed her own forensic team of pro 0:22:57.880 --> 0:23:00.760 bono experts and over the course of ten weekends they 0:23:00.880 --> 0:23:05.520 tried to reconstruct what it happened to Lesbie, essentially reinvestigating 0:23:05.560 --> 0:23:09.000 her death. The pro bono medical expert looked at the 0:23:09.040 --> 0:23:12.480 photos of Lesbie's neck and concluded the wounds were more 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:18.240 consistent with strangulation than with a hanging, and then October eighteenth, 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:22.720 twenty seventeen, almost six months after Leslie's death, the Mexico 0:23:22.840 --> 0:23:27.520 City Supreme Court officially charged Jorge with femicide. 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:31.560 The Lasa Mehicora class if the LESBI comofe Minicio Gravado 0:23:31.600 --> 0:23:33.800 and Besio missi promission. 0:23:34.160 --> 0:23:36.760 But over the next year and a half, Jorge's lawyers 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:41.560 fight the femicide charge, delaying the trial countless times. During 0:23:41.600 --> 0:23:44.760 his various appearances in court, Jorge has said very little. 0:23:45.760 --> 0:23:48.240 I've reached out to his lawyers multiple times over the 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:50.879 course of a year for comment via phone and email, 0:23:51.040 --> 0:23:54.000 but have not received any response for this story. And 0:23:54.119 --> 0:23:58.200 that's where we are today. Porges sits in jail and 0:23:58.320 --> 0:24:05.679 no verdict has been reached in Lesbie's case. To many observers, 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:08.639 Leslie's death has come to symbolize a judicial system that 0:24:08.800 --> 0:24:13.280 is uninterested in prosecuting violence against women. But at the 0:24:13.359 --> 0:24:17.040 same time, the social media outcry and protest over Leslie's 0:24:17.080 --> 0:24:20.440 death have helped make people in Mexico City more aware 0:24:20.480 --> 0:24:22.800 of the problem of femicide and that it could happen 0:24:22.880 --> 0:24:27.480 to all women, regardless of class or background. Lesbie's death 0:24:27.560 --> 0:24:29.760 has also been part of a growing conversation about the 0:24:29.880 --> 0:24:33.280 role of women in Mexican society. Most recently, While the 0:24:33.440 --> 0:24:35.960 US has been having its Me TOI movement, women in 0:24:36.040 --> 0:24:41.040 Mexico hadn't been speaking up until now. Over the last 0:24:41.040 --> 0:24:44.840 few weeks, journalists, artists, filmmakers, and musicians have been calling 0:24:44.880 --> 0:24:47.880 out their alleged abusers on social media in a way 0:24:47.960 --> 0:24:55.120 that hasn't been seen before. Just last week, something big 0:24:55.400 --> 0:24:58.760 happened in Lesbie's case. The current Attorney General of Mexico 0:24:58.840 --> 0:25:03.000 City held like meeting on UNAM's campus that hundreds of people. 0:25:02.800 --> 0:25:11.560 Attended Estamosaki Lesbijra Memoria. 0:25:11.200 --> 0:25:13.639 And she did something unprecedented in a case like this. 0:25:14.359 --> 0:25:16.879 She issued a public apology. 0:25:18.160 --> 0:25:22.040 Yasu familia paroprase on authentic. 0:25:22.320 --> 0:25:25.119 School Allah familia the Lesbi ber. 0:25:26.480 --> 0:25:29.000 She apologized for the way the Attorney General's office said 0:25:29.080 --> 0:25:32.239 negative things about Lesbie and for the police declaring her 0:25:32.359 --> 0:25:34.480 death as suicide without any proof at. 0:25:34.440 --> 0:25:41.280 All Asumiro dipender com un in sob. 0:25:41.800 --> 0:25:44.520 She said that the whole justice system, from police to 0:25:44.680 --> 0:25:49.040 prosecutors to government officials, pretty much everyone in Lesbie's case 0:25:49.440 --> 0:25:50.200 had failed. 0:25:49.960 --> 0:25:54.000 Her ifamiliaris il. 0:25:58.760 --> 0:26:01.800 And that without family members like Aroselli and the thousands 0:26:01.800 --> 0:26:04.520 of women who supported her, her murder would not have 0:26:04.600 --> 0:26:09.679 been investigated properly as a femicide. Aroselli was on stage 0:26:09.800 --> 0:26:13.080 with other members of her family for the apology. She 0:26:13.240 --> 0:26:16.960 formally accepted it, but with caveats. She told the government 0:26:17.520 --> 0:26:21.840 Lesbi still deserves justice and we will be watching you. 0:26:22.440 --> 0:26:29.840 Nosotros mantendremotro soos sin noestros sentiros permanent tentos. 0:26:37.520 --> 0:26:40.600 Today, Aroselli's life is still on Paul's. She's had to 0:26:40.640 --> 0:26:43.120 take time off from her job, but in that time 0:26:43.320 --> 0:26:46.040 she's become a main support for other families whose daughters 0:26:46.040 --> 0:26:49.800 were also murdered or disappeared, and fighting for justice has 0:26:49.840 --> 0:26:54.200 become her way of life. At one of the courthouse appearances, 0:26:54.320 --> 0:26:57.040 Araceli addressed a dozen or so people that had gathered 0:26:57.080 --> 0:26:59.320 to support her and demand justice for Lesbi. 0:27:00.040 --> 0:27:01.359 Bamasa said, look at. 0:27:03.680 --> 0:27:06.600 Let's throw the rachel and poraskay is. 0:27:08.080 --> 0:27:09.960 She told the crowd, we will do what we have 0:27:10.119 --> 0:27:12.320 to to defend our right to walk in the streets 0:27:12.600 --> 0:27:16.080 dress however we want, at whatever time of night. We 0:27:16.160 --> 0:27:19.080 have the right to live. She says. If simply living 0:27:19.359 --> 0:27:23.159 is our form of resistance, then let's resist by living. 0:27:25.119 --> 0:27:33.040 Da Si La vida said lest a formal resistanciamos resist bibendo. 0:27:49.400 --> 0:27:53.480 Thanks to reporter Andalusia nos Sola for that story. In 0:27:53.640 --> 0:27:57.560 twenty twenty one, what heruis gon Sally Saidnandez was convicted 0:27:57.640 --> 0:28:33.840 of femicide. He's currently serving fifty two year sentence. This 0:28:34.080 --> 0:28:37.920 episode was reported by Andalusia no Solov and edited by 0:28:38.120 --> 0:28:42.080 Sophia palisa Ka with production help from Maggie Freelin. It 0:28:42.240 --> 0:28:46.600 was bixed by Stephanie Lebau with engineering support from J. J. Rubin. 0:28:47.000 --> 0:28:50.080 Fact checking for this episode by Nidia about Tista. The 0:28:50.240 --> 0:28:56.600 Latino USA team also includes Julie Caruso, Jessica Ellis, Victoria Strada, Rinaldo, 0:28:56.720 --> 0:29:01.480 Leanoz Junior, Andrea Lopez Crusado, Luis Luna, Loni, mar Maruz, 0:29:01.800 --> 0:29:06.560 Marta Martinez Nor Saudi and Nancy Drujiro. NILLEI Ramirez is 0:29:06.640 --> 0:29:09.720 our co executive producer I'm your Host and co executive 0:29:09.720 --> 0:29:12.320 producer Maria Josa join us again on our next episode. 0:29:12.600 --> 0:29:15.360 In the meantime, I'll see you on social media. Estella 0:29:15.400 --> 0:29:16.680 Proxima ai. 0:29:19.720 --> 0:29:24.240 Latino Usa is made possible in part by Skyline Foundation, 0:29:25.040 --> 0:29:29.400 The John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the 0:29:29.520 --> 0:29:33.240 Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of 0:29:33.360 --> 0:29:34.880 social change worldwide.