Transfeminicide: Ximena was 28 years old, she was missing and was found murdered
Ximena Madrid Flores was 28 years old. Her family reported her missing, and two days later she was found dead with signs of violence.
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MEXICO CITY, Mexico. On December 14, Ximena Madrid Flores, a 28-year-old transgender woman who had been missing for two days, was found dead. Her body showed signs of violence. Media outlets reporting the news said she was found near the Pyramid of the Moon in the Teotihuacan Archaeological Zone, a tourist site located in the State of Mexico. Ximena had been reported missing two days earlier. Her family and friends are demanding justice.
“I stand by this, I take responsibility, and I raise my voice. In memory of our daughter, our sister, our friend, our neighbor, our badass. This is just the beginning… Let’s raise our voices! Let the exposure of incompetent authorities begin, because 'our justice' is a disgrace, they don’t value us as a people. They won’t silence us, because when there is love, unity, and courage, great things are achieved. Teotihuacan is not safe,” wrote Freddy Madrid Flores, Ximena’s brother, on social media.
also denounced the Prosecutor's Office's "incompetence" in the search for her sister in a live video and announced: "Prosecutor's Office for homicides, femicides, and disappearances, I'm going all out. I'm not going to win with money, I'm going to win with justice."
Ximena was found on December 14 by her brother and friends.
“This afternoon, after a long and arduous search, we finally found you, Ximena. Your pain, your fear, your anguish were felt when we saw you there at the end of your earthly life. Family and friends never gave up. Thank you, Ximena, thank you, Chuchet, thank you for all the joy, we will always remember you,” wrote the day they found her.
Her brother Freddy, her family, friends and the community of San Juan de Aragón, where Ximena was originally from, demand justice.
“Ximena was very loved and well-known”
Ximena was originally from the town of San Juan de Aragón, located east of Mexico City and bordering the State of Mexico.
Ximena was affectionately called "Chuchet" and her favorite flower was the sunflower. She loved carnival, was part of the dance troupes in her town's carnival, and was even crowned queen.
“Ximena was a much-loved and well-known trans woman, and through her visibility she was an activist and raised awareness. She, along with her brother, was very loved by her community,” Josseline Aguilar, founder of Orgullo Ecatepec Presentes .
The search
The missing person report for Ximena Madrid Flores was issued on December 12 by the State of Mexico's Commission for the Search of Missing Persons (COBUPEM) . Her family reported that she was last seen that day in the vicinity of the Teotihuacan Archaeological Zone. The report also indicated that Ximena was a transgender woman.
Freddy Madrid denounced in a video that the authorities did not help in the search for his sister. In another video recorded during the search, in the early morning hours of December 14, he commented: “We are here, calling for my sister. How helpless we feel… Ximena!… I urge you to help us look for her. It’s very dark here.”
Local media and national press reported the incident and detailed that Ximena was found on December 14 "lifeless and tied to a tree" near the Pyramid of the Moon within the Teotihuacan Archaeological Zone.
Furthermore, several media outlets claim that authorities are “investigating with a gender perspective ,” and that “one line of inquiry is transfemicide .” However, Presentes was unable to confirm this information.
“The Prosecutor’s Office does not have specialized experts with a gender and sexual diversity perspective”
“The Attorney General’s Office of the State of Mexico lacks specialized experts with a gender and sexual diversity perspective. There are no mechanisms in place to classify hate crimes as either femicides or transfemicides, and this speaks to a structural violence where the State’s message to the lives of trans women is that they are worthless. The State is failing to guarantee the right to life of trans people,” denounces Josseline Aguilar.
On Thursday, December 15, and Friday, December 16, Presentes attempted to contact authorities in the municipalities of San Martín de las Pirámides and San Juan Teotihuacán, as well as the specialized femicide unit of the Attorney General's Office of the State of Mexico (FGJEM) in Ecatepec and Texcoco. On several occasions, they left us on hold during phone calls. At other times, they claimed to have no knowledge of the incident.
We contacted those municipalities because the territory encompassing the Teotihuacan Archaeological Zone is divided among them. We also contacted the specialized femicide units of the FGJEM (Attorney General's Office of the State of Mexico) in Ecatepec and Texcoco because media reports about the incident identified these units as being in charge of the investigation.
Neither the FGJEM, nor the Regional Prosecutor's Office of Texcoco and Ecatepec have issued press releases about this crime through their communication channels.
“The State of Mexico is not safe for trans women”
“Violence and hate crimes have always been a constant in the State of Mexico. Now, with the work of activists, the demand for justice has become increasingly evident, but it is also compounded by the context of widespread violence we are experiencing, and it is much worse. The State of Mexico is not safe for trans women,” explains activist Josseline Aguilar.
According to the Observatory of Hate Crimes against LGBT+ people in Mexico , 67 violent deaths motivated by prejudice have been reported from January to the present. Seven of these occurred in the State of Mexico, and four of the victims were transgender women.
Furthermore, according to the latest Letra S report , the State of Mexico was the third entity in the country with the most hate crimes against LGBT+ people and was where the highest number of activists who were victims of transfeminicide were reported.
Josseline Aguilar adds that violence against trans people in this state also comes from trans-exclusionary feminist groups.
“The violence is reinforced by hate speech coming from TERF feminists . And we're seeing that hate on social media, at conferences, and it translates into social issues, into what we experience every day. Even recently, TERF groups have addressed our colleague Ximena by her birth name and minimized the situation. That's revictimization, and it's a form of violence,” Aguilar adds.
Flowers, music and carnival to say goodbye to Ximena
On Saturday, December 17, family, friends, and people from the town of San Juan de Aragón gathered to say goodbye to Ximena with flowers, music, and carnival.
Ximena's wake featured live music and floral arrangements of all sizes. A tres leches cake adorned with strawberries, beer, photographs of her, a tiara, and candles was placed on her coffin.
After the funeral mass, the protocol of uses and customs of the town of San Juan de Aragón was applied with a carnival in his honor.
Hundreds of people walked along Allende Street, behind the coffin, to the cemetery where he was laid to rest. Along the route, there was a band and groups of Huehuenche dancers, a dance featuring various characters portrayed by dancers wearing masks.
“These are the people you managed to bring together, because of your charisma, because of everything you did. It’s a great goodbye because of the way you won people over, because of your personality, your smile. The most important thing is that we all carry fond memories,” said Joshua Ramos, a resident of San Juan de Aragón, during a live broadcast .
In several live streams on social media of the carnival in honor of Ximena, people shout cheers for her and slogans: "Not one more, not one more woman murdered," "We love you, Ximena," "Justice.".
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