Red Card for Femicide in Latin America Amidst World Cup Distractions and Official Indifference

As the World Cup kicked off, Mexico City's historic Azteca stadium buzzed with celebration, but the streets told a different story. Protests against femicide and state neglect of disappearances, particularly by mothers searching for over 130,000 missing persons, confronted police blockades. Simultaneously, a social media campaign, "Violence against women is not part of the game," aimed to raise awareness about the country's high rates of femicide, with 43.9% of women reporting abuse by partners.

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Faced with events of this gravity, the State cannot look the other way. Recognizing femicide is key to understanding that these are not common homicides, but structural violence that demands specific public policies.

This grim reality extends across Latin America. In Argentina, just before the tournament, thousands marched against the femicide of 14-year-old Agostina Vega, whose body was found in Córdoba. The murder of two other women intensified public anger and feminist demands for action. Despite this, official figures from Argentina's National Registry of Femicides reported a questionable 12.3% decrease in cases in 2025 compared to the previous year.

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We should give them a medal of distinction.

Amnesty International Argentina's executive director, Mariela Belski, stated that "the State cannot look the other way" and emphasized that recognizing femicide is crucial to understanding it as structural violence requiring specific public policies. However, the prosecutor in Vega's case, Raúl Garzón, further inflamed public anger by initially avoiding the term femicide and then crediting search dogs with finding the girl's remains, suggesting they "should be given a medal of distinction."

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You can save your cynicism, it's a charade what you are doing.

Laura Vilches, a former councilwoman, accused Garzón of "cynicism" and called his actions "a charade." Aimée Zambrano, coordinator of the Monitor de Feminicidios Utopix in Venezuela, described Vega's murder as the final straw in the severe violence Argentinian women face. Zambrano noted that Vega's case is gaining the same significance as the 2015 femicide of Chiara Páez, another 14-year-old, which ignited the Ni una menos movement. Zambrano also views Prosecutor Garzón's attitude as indicative of the current government's stance, which she believes denies women's rights and the existence of a patriarchal state that treats women differently.

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is an indicator of the type of government, the type of ideas that now exist in Argentina and that go hand in hand with denying women's rights and denying that a patriarchal state exists, and denying that there is differential treatment.