The fatal beating in the street of a woman suspected of having killed a little girl was filmed and relayed on the internet in the city of Taxco.
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With our correspondent in Mexico, Gwendolina Duval
For a few days at Mexico, the city of Taxco in the state of Guerrero is shaken by a terrible tragedy. Little Camilla, 8 years old, was murdered on the afternoon of Wednesday March 27, when she went alone to the neighboring house to enjoy an inflatable swimming pool. His body was found the next morning on the side of a road.
Suspicion quickly fell on the couple of neighbors who were supposed to welcome the little girl. The latter assured that she had never arrived but this version is refuted by surveillance cameras in the neighborhood which show her entering the house without ever leaving.
That same day, the slowness of the police services in arresting the suspects triggered the fury of the neighborhood’s residents in the afternoon. The outburst of anger led to the lynching of the woman alleged to have committed the crime.
Frequent lynchings of criminals
The scene, of great violence, was relayed in full on the media and social networks. The neighbor, the main suspect in the murder, was beaten with points and sticks by two men in the street by a crowd until the police intervened. Taken directly to the station without going to the hospital, the woman finally died of her injuries. A man, his alleged accomplice, was then arrested for the crime of femicide of a minor according to the prosecution.
The day little Camilla disappeared, the two individuals were filmed by nearby surveillance cameras putting a large black bag into the trunk of a car. Images that contradicted their version of the facts. The child’s mother had received anonymous calls asking for money to free her, according to testimony from a relative of the family. An investigation was opened for “feminicide” on the little girl and for “aggravated homicide” on the lynched woman.
At the time of the events, the Taxco town hall explains that only six police officers were active in this small tourist town. In Mexico, the lynching of suspected criminals is frequent, an extreme reaction in a country where impunity rates exceed 90% and where victims almost never obtain justice.