Almost 12 years after the femicide of Mariana Lima Buendía, there is not yet any justice. For this reason, her mother, Irinea Buendía, mothers of other victims, organizations and individuals, demonstrated on March 7, 2022 outside the courts of the Neza-Bordo prison (in the State of Mexico), to continue demanding justice once again and punishment for her murderer, Julio César Hernández Ballinas.

Irinea Buendía called out that for almost two years, the hearings in the trial against the murderer stopped taking place, alleging the COVID-19 pandemic; and since they resumed again, they are suspended and postponed again and again and again. She also called out the threats and attacks that she and her family have received, pointing out that “Not only did they end my daughter’s life. They ended my life, because I had to leave my home and go live elsewhere.”

Since the murder of her daughter—on June 29, 2010—Irinea has not been taken in by the fairy tale that Mariana had committed suicide. She confronted Mariana’s then-husband and member of the Judicial Police, and told him, “You killed her!” This is because Mariana was suffering repeated terrible beatings during the year and a half of her marriage to this arrogant and macho policeman and in the first months of 2010, he threw her down a staircase in their home. Faced with this unbearable violence, she had returned to her parents’ home more than once, and he threatened her that if she filed a complaint against him, he would kill her. This misogynistic policeman even told Irinea that he was going to kill her daughter. A few days before her death, Mariana was returning to her parents’ house again, but now she had decided to file a complaint against him and leave him.

The “investigation” was carried out by the same prosecutor’s office where the murderer was a judicial police officer. They did not protect the crime scene, they did not take into account the situation of violence that Mariana was experiencing, no clear photos of her body were taken, a gynecological exam was not performed, or if she had signs of beatings, and the cord with which she supposedly hanged herself was not found... among many other maneuvers by the authorities. They covered up the crime and closed the case in 2012 with a finding of suicide. One more example of how the capitalist state defends and maintains the patriarchal system, with almost total impunity even in its most horrifying forms, such as femicide. Impunity in reported crimes of violence against women in the country reaches 94.8% and the vast majority are not even reported.

From the beginning, Irinea has fought for justice. On this path that she undertook, she joined others in Chimalhuacán, State of Mexico, and through these streets there, they held protests and marches, shouting out, “It was femicide, not suicide!” The case and this determined fight for justice have come to have a significant impact throughout Mexico and internationally.

By means of this fight, the pressure made the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) take up the case again. They found “a pattern of systematic impunity” and ordered a new investigation. This ruling on Mariana Lima Buendía also establishes that all violent deaths of women must be investigated as femicide with a gender perspective. During the new investigation, in June 2016, Mariana’s murderer was arrested as a probable perpetrator of femicide.

However, there is still no conviction and ruling on the culpability of the murderer, 11 years after Mariana’s murder and seven years after the ruling of the SCJN. Six years have passed since the proceedings, and the trial against the perpetrator of the femicide and the delaying tactics of the authorities are still continuing.

All this was behind the fury and anger of Irinea and of all of us who were there protesting. As other compañeras and compañeros said when they spoke, “We are still here, and here we will continue, along with Irinea. We won’t leave her alone. Together with her, we demand justice now!” “Let the murderer of Ballinas hear us, of course he hears us inside. There will be justice and you will pay for the crime!” And immediately in one voice, the furious shout was heard, “Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!”

Another mother of a femicide victim emphasized, “We are tired of the authorities not bringing justice, of whipping us back and forth without any progress and treating us with contempt.” The mother of Karla Gómez Velasco, murdered four years ago in Chiapas, called out, “We were received with aggression by the police” when they tried to see [Mexican president] Andrés Manuel López Obrador about her case, in the “Mañanera” [his daily morning press conference]. She demanded that the authorities “stop obstructing justice.” “Today I am very angry, very furious, and this is what brings me here, the helplessness, the courage to go out and ask for justice for my daughter and the women who have kept silent and who have not resolved their case.” She bluntly pointed out that “the alternative that I have been thinking of is to declare myself as a mother, ¡a revolutionary mother!, of a victim of femicide.” She along with the mother of Jade Guadalupe Yuin Gómez —she was 13 years old, also murdered in Chiapas in 2020— left in a caravan from Chiapas to Mexico City and attended the rally.

While the protest was taking place, with banners and posters hanging outside the courts, the National Guard and the police arrived. Some of their armed agents stood a few meters from those of us who were protesting, trying to intimidate people. A compañero from the Revolution Movement took the mike and pointed out: “Here we are, once again in front of these institutions that continue to cover up the murderer. And these institutions and their armed forces need to exercise this terror so that their system continues to function, and this is going to continue to worsen. Let’s just look at what just happened a few days ago, where the National Guard, in Ecatepec, jumped over the fence and entered a house where they pulled a woman by the hair and pushed her against the wall, and they touched her private parts, and another member of the National Guard put his finger in her vagina… They also arrested a man who was beaten by members of the National Guard with boards on the buttocks and they raped him by sticking the barrel of a rifle in him… And they continue to cover up the criminals. What is needed is to get rid of this capitalist patriarchal system, as this flyer puts it: ‘Are we going to be content with some cosmetic reforms on the patriarchal system, or should we fight to end patriarchy and all forms of oppression?’”

We must “get rid of this patriarchal system with a liberating revolution, and we are here to organize you for this revolution.” And then this leaflet was distributed: “A Call to Rebellious Women and All Those who Hate the Violence, Abuse and Disrespect Plaguing Women: Organize Now for an Actual Revolution that Wipes Out the Oppression of Women and Emancipates Humanity,” from the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico (OCR, M), which is available on the Aurora Roja blog in Spanish [and here in English].

The atmosphere of indignation and solidarity was greater than the National Guard’s attempt to intimidate us, and they had to move away from the protest. Amid slogans and to the rhythm of the drum corps, Irinea ended the rally by thanking everyone for their support, and asking us to move forward in “Justice and justice for Mariana and all women victims of femicide.”

Aurora Roja 
Voice of the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico 
auroraroja.mx@gmail.com | aurora-roja.blogspot.com 
Posted by Aurora Roja 
Download the PDF of this article in Spanish here: Mariana.pdf