A War for Drugs, A War Against Womxn: Uncovering the Feminicidio Epidemic of Machista Cartels and Government

Femicide, the purposeful killing of women because they are women, has become a systemic epidemic in Mexico much do in part to two machista actors over the past few decades. These two actors are drug trafficking organizations, better known as cartels, and the government of Mexico at all levels. The investigations by many non-governmental organizations, like Amnesty International, and those by international governmental organizations, like UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), have estimated that an average of 7 women are killed per day simply because of their gender, and the government has yet to take their urgent recommendations to enact true changing legislation. Meanwhile, the government continues to provide impunity for the murders, many times cartel members. Thus, while cartels are the perpetrators of violence against women and use their body counts as a weapon of war resulting in the majority of cases of femicide, the Mexican government are using their body counts as a tool for political repression and resorting to their machista culture. This thesis works to further provide evidence of this through investigating failed laws and programs set by the government and revealing links between machismo - intense hypermasculinity - and the reason by which these perpetrators of genocide continue to do so, especially in places like Ciudad Juarez. The paper ultimately explains that cartels and governments, use women's fear of being killed to make them solidify their power over them and the country of Mexico as a whole. Recommendations to end this genocide includes holding the government completely accountable for their blatant wrongdoings against women as a population, place more women in positions of governmental power, and ensuring that corrupt and self-interested officials do not get placed into office as well as ensuring that impunity is not seen as the absolute for killing, raping, or violating women at any level in Mexico.