Mexican influencer Valeria Marquez's death highlights ‘level of saturation' over femicide
No sooner had 23-year-old beauty influencer
Valeria Marquez been murdered on a TikTok live stream than the Mexican rumour mill started.
Comments poured in on social media blaming her for her own death: she was involved in shady business, her ex-boyfriend was a narco, she had it coming, they said.
By Friday, the media and politicians were already moving on. Marquez seems destined to become one in a long line of
Mexican women whose murder briefly shocks the conscience only to recede into the background until the next gruesome crime happens.
'It sort of reflects a level of saturation, a level of societal acceptance of these sorts of killings,' said Gema Kloppe-Santamaria, a sociologist at University College Cork in Ireland who studies gender-based violence in Mexico.
'There's a lot of re-victimisation that I think allows people to say: 'Let's move on. This is something that won't happen to us. It doesn't happen to good girls. It doesn't happen to decent Mexican women.''
Mexican social media influencer Valeria Marquez was shot to death during a live stream in the beauty salon where she worked on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters
Marquez, who had nearly 200,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok, was known for her videos about beauty and make-up.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
6 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Khaby Lame, world's most popular TikTok star, leaves the US after being detained by ICE
Khaby Lame, the world's most popular TikTok personality with millions of followers, has left the US after being detained by immigration agents in Las Vegas for allegedly overstaying his visa. The Senegalese-Italian influencer, whose legal name is Seringe Khabane Lame, was detained on Friday at Harry Reid International Airport but was allowed to leave the country without a deportation order, a spokesperson for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed in a statement. Lame arrived in the US on April 30 and 'overstayed the terms of his visa', the ICE spokesperson said. Associated Press sent a message seeking comment Tuesday to the email address listed on Lame's Instagram account. He has not publicly commented on his detainment. His detainment and voluntary departure from the United States comes amid US President Donald Trump's escalating crackdown on immigration, including raids in Los Angeles that sparked days of protests against ICE, as the president tests the bounds of his executive authority. A voluntary departure – which was granted to Lame – allows those facing removal from the US to avoid a deportation order on their immigration record, which could prevent them from being allowed back into the US for up to a decade. Khaby Lame leaves The Mark Hotel before attending the Met Gala in New York in May. Photo: AP The 25-year-old rose to international fame during the pandemic without ever saying a word in his videos, which would show him reacting to absurdly complicated 'life hacks'.
South China Morning Post
17 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong court convicts couple of child cruelty, murdering newborn son
A Hong Kong court has convicted a couple of murdering their newborn son after rejecting their assertions that the infant's head trauma and rib fractures could have been inflicted by his brother out of jealousy. A High Court jury comprising three men and four women returned a unanimous verdict on Tuesday to convict Imran Hossain, 32, and his wife Farzana Akter, 29, of murdering their seven-week-old baby, Iyman Hossain, in 2019. The unemployed couple was also found guilty of child cruelty for breaching their duty of care to the deceased. The trial heard the boy died in hospital six days after he became unresponsive and displayed abnormal eye movement in the family's subdivided flat in Sham Shui Po on August 24, 2019. Prosecutors said the defendants, both Hong Kong residents, failed to call emergency services that morning and only took the baby to hospital at least 90 minutes after he lost consciousness. The court heard the deceased was growing healthily in his last medical check-up at a clinic on August 8, 2019, but stopped gaining weight and displayed poor growth before he was admitted to hospital. An initial medical examination diagnosed Iyman with multiple thigh and rib fractures, with the child's right first rib found broken to a level of severity typically seen in a car crash or a fall from a great height. He was also found with bruises on his cheeks and forehead, scratches over a nostril and bloodstains on his nasal bridge.
South China Morning Post
a day ago
- South China Morning Post
When a family of five died tragically in a murder-suicide in 1999
'Three boys and their parents were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide yesterday,' reported the South China Morning Post on June 10, 1999. 'The bodies of Ng Jo-yin, 12, Ng Ho-yin, 10, and Ng Chung-yin, 8, were discovered on a bed with their father, Ng Chung-kit, 42, and mother, Lam Siu-ying, 39, in a Tin Shui Wai flat. 'The windows and doors of the flat were sealed and charcoal had been burned. Lam was lying to one side of the three boys, hemming them in against the wall, and Ng was lying across his wife and sons. A letter was left in the flat on the 18th floor of Shui Sum House on Tin Shui Estate. Firemen broke in after work colleagues called at the flat because Ng, a Regional Services Department cleaner, had been absent from work since Monday. How the tragedy was reported in the South China Morning Post on June 10, 1999. Photo: SCMP Archives Yuen Long District Board member Chow Wing-kan, who knew the family, said: 'Mr Ng has been working as a grade two cleaner at a Sheung Shui market since early this year. He had been unemployed since 1995 and found only temporary work from time to time. He came to me complaining about his livelihood and his children's education,' said Mr Chow, who saw the bodies in the flat. 'He and his family were very active and participated in district events and festivals. He had no bad habits that I know of besides occasional gambling.' 'Mr Chow said he saw the family 'acting normally' on Monday night, returning home after a meal out. The mother was found in pyjamas, the eldest son in school uniform and the other two both in T-shirts and pants. An incense burner was found in the room and all the windows were closed, with cloths and jeans used to seal the gaps. ''The room and flat were very tidy. The bodies were neatly dressed,' [Yuen Long district crime squad's Senior Inspector Poon Ka-yui] said.' On June 11, the Post reported that 'Police were yesterday examining the bank and credit-card records of market cleaner Ng Chung-kit who died with his wife and three young sons in a murder-suicide on Wednesday. Officers were trying to estimate the size of Ng's debts, mentioned in a note left at the family flat where the five died, according to [Inspector Poon].
