The murder of 22-year-old Colombian influencer María José Estupiñán on May 15 has thrown an even brighter light on a worldwide increase in femicide—the murder of women because of their gender. Estupiñán, a student and model from Cúcuta, was shot in the face at her front door by a man disguised as a delivery driver, reports the Guardian. It happened the day after a judge had reportedly ruled against her ex-partner in a domestic violence case. And it was only two days after the killing of 23-year-old Mexican beauty influencer Valeria Márquez, who CNN reports was livestreaming from her salon in Zapopan when a male intruder shot and killed her.
Both murders have drawn condemnation from rights groups who say prevention of violence against women across Latin America is being met with widespread failure. "The brutal murder of María José is the result of a system that normalizes violence against women," says Alejandra Vera, director of the Cúcuta-based feminist collective Woman, Speak Out and Move It. "Colombia is facing a pandemic of femicides—every 28 hours, a woman is a victim." Femicide cases there reached a seven-year high in 2024, with 886 recorded, according to the Colombian Observatory of Femicides. By March 2025, at least 207 more had been reported.
Yet figures vary, and it's rare that offenders face charges—73% of femicides between 2021 and 2023 went unsolved. And in Mexico, the crisis is also severe. "In 2022, around 4,000 women were killed in Mexico, which amounts to 12% of all homicides that year," Human Rights Watch Americas Director Juanita Goebertus says. "And the rate of cases that lead to a verdict is around 67%."
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But the crisis is a global one. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and UN Women, around 51,100 women and girls worldwide were killed by their intimate partners or other family members in 2023, and current and former intimate partners are by far the most likely perpetrators. Africa had the worst rate of female intimate partner and family-related killings, with an estimated 2.9 victims per 100,000 females. The rate was also at record highs in the Americas (1.6 per 100,000) and Oceania (1.5 per 100,000). The murders of Estupiñán and Márquez occurred a month after CBS News reported the unrelated stabbing deaths of two female college students in Italy led to calls for a "cultural revolution" against violence towards women. (More femicide stories.)
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