The attempted kidnappings highlight a concerning trend in Jalisco, where the number of women reported missing has risen steadily in each of the last four years, peaking at 1,161 disappearances in 2015. Another 187 women were reported missing here in the first two months of this year, prior to the surge of cases in March that has drawn greater attention to this issue.Related: How Pimps in Mexico's Smallest State Trick Young Girls Into the World of Sex Trafficking
Having narrowly avoided becoming another statistic, Velasco immediately called an emergency police hotline to report the attempted abduction. The officer on duty told her she must have misinterpreted the situation, and that surely a family member had called the taxi for her.'In that moment I heard a voice over the taxi radio say: 'Get out and grab the bitch''
Outraged, Velasco replied to Alfaro's post. If victims were unable to file reports with the police, she said, they would continue to talk about their cases on social media and none of these cases would ever be solved. She did not receive a response.Related: A Reporter Tweeted a Video of Her Sexual Assault to Highlight Impunity in Mexico
Municipal authorities were providing seven of these victims with psychological, medical and legal support, he said, adding that from now on, all female victims of crime would receive assistance filing reports with state authorities.In a separate press conference, Jalisco Attorney General Eduardo Almaguer said there was no evidence that a single band of kidnappers was behind the phenomenon, although he did note certain similarities in the cases.Most involved one or two aggressors driving in a truck who tried to grab a young woman off the street and pull her into their vehicle. Whenever passersby have intervened, the assailants have backed off and driven away, he said.Darwin Franco, an independent investigative journalist who has spent the last five years documenting disappearances in Jalisco, believes the current wave of abductions may be linked to instability within the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which has grown rapidly into one of Mexico's most powerful criminal organizations over the past five years.'She's like what we're looking for'
Franco speculated that recent arrests of cartel leaders may have caused smaller criminal cells to break away from the cartel and seek fresh revenue streams from human trafficking. Another possibility, he said, was that separate groups of human traffickers had moved into the region to take advantage of the power vacuum.Franco recently published a series of interviews with several victims of attempted kidnappings, and he told VICE News the majority of those targeted have been short, slim, and fair-skinned brunettes in their late teens or early 20s. He suspects the kidnappers thought they would be easier to force into cars.In one case, Ana Karen, a 19-year-old student who narrowly escaped when two men tried to force her into their black Ford Windstar at midday on March 5, told Franco she heard one of her aggressors say "she's like what we're looking for."Another young woman who evaded abduction in Guadalajara that week was 20-year-old Daniela Martínez. After leaving work at the Jalisco state government's family welfare agency shortly after 3pm on March 11, she dozed off on the bus ride home and woke up a couple of blocks past her usual stop.Martínez had barely walked half a block along Avenida María Guadalupe when a blue truck pulled up alongside her. The driver, a plump, bearded man whom she judged to be in his 30s, asked for directions.Related: How the Jalisco New Generation Cartel Is Terrorizing the People of Western Mexico
Martínez began to scream for help, but her cries were drowned out by loudspeakers blaring advertisements for a pawn shop across the road. She struggled and screamed louder, but her aggressor covered her mouth with his hand. Then the workers at the pawn shop noticed what was happening."They came running across the road shouting, 'Hey assholes, let her go!' and one of them punched the man who had hold of me by both arms," Martínez said. "He fought back but as soon as he let go of me I punched him in the face and ran across the street."The two assailants drove off, but Martínez, who was still in shock, didn't get their license plate number. The pawn shop workers declined to formally testify at the attorney general's office, and there were no other witnesses around.As a state government employee, Martínez said she is well aware of the level of impunity and the difficulties that victims face when reporting such crimes. She called a friend who works at the attorney general's office, but he told her that with so little proof she would not be able to formally report what happened.'They came running across the road shouting, 'Hey assholes, let her go!' and one of them punched the man who had hold of me by both arms'
Martínez said she felt "great impotence" when she read the mayor's comments dismissing accounts such as hers. She decided that her only real option was to report what happened on Facebook, in a bid to warn friends who commute through the same area.In February, the state government declared a gender alert in eight municipalities, including the entire Guadalajara metropolitan area, triggering the release of federal funds and the adoption of heightened security protocols. These are supposed to include immediate search operations for missing women and children, and more police patrols in high-risk areas.Related: Sexual Violence Against Women on India's Election Agenda, But Not Really
Authorities declared the alert because of the high level of violence against women, yet within weeks the Jalisco attorney general and Guadalajara mayor downplayed the significance of the attempted abductions of local women.The situation has led Franco, the local investigative journalist, and others to point to a culture of victim-blaming among police and government officials. On March 16, after three adolescent girls were held at gunpoint by two older men, Guadalajara police repeatedly emphasized that they had "decided to skip school" and go to a party by "their own free will."Franco said it's hard to imagine the situation improving until authorities change their attitude."The first thing they should do is very simple: they should listen to them," he said, "Instead of denying, criminalizing or stigmatizing women, they should at least approach them and listen to what happened to them in order to see what can be done to help."'Instead of denying, criminalizing or stigmatizing women, they should at least approach them and listen to what happened to them in order to see what can be done to help'
Follow Duncan Tucker on Twitter: @DuncanTuckerRelated: Murdered in Mexico State: The Silent Epidemic of Women Killings in Mexico