Three years after the murder of the lawyer and activist Cecilia Monzón, the court has handed down a sentence. A court in Puebla has found former PRI politician Javier López Zavala guilty of the feminicide of his son’s mother and ex-partner. He has also found guilty the hitmen who carried out the attack. The feminicide of Cecilia Monzón shocked the country and exposed, once again, the lack of protection of women who report gender violence in Mexico, even when they are public figures with a solid professional career.
The resolution comes after a long fight in the courts. More than eight months and 80 hearings before the judge that have been marked by postponements, delaying tactics by the defense, resources and strong social pressure from feminist groups and human rights activists. At the forefront of the legal strategy has been, at all times, Helena Monzón, sister of the activist, who has remained firm in the search for maximum sentences for the murderers. Helena Monzón promoted, together with legislators from all parties, a law that removes parental rights from feminicides, under the premise that a rapist can never be a good father. The law has been dubbed throughout the country as the “Monzón law.”
The Puebla court has considered it proven that Javier López Zavala, candidate for governor of Puebla in 2010, was the intellectual author of the feminicide and ordered the armed attack against the lawyer in May 2022. Two hitmen aboard a motorcycle shot Monzón, when he was traveling in his truck, in San Pedro Cholula. Jair N, Zavala’s nephew, and Silvestre N, the perpetrators, have also been found guilty of the femicide.
The State Prosecutor’s Office demonstrated through evidence, such as calls between the culprits and various testimonies, that the attack was planned by the former politician as retaliation for the demands for alimony and family violence that Monzón had filed against him. The feminicide of the lawyer sparked protests in Puebla and other states and has become an example of the institutional violence and re-victimization experienced by victims and their families in Mexico, another example of why only 1 in 10 women dare to report in the country.
While waiting for the amount of the penalty to be established, the sentence could exceed several decades in prison, as established by the Penal Code. The victim’s family has asked the court for the maximum sentence of 60 years in prison. The judges’ conclusion has been received by civil society organizations as a turning point against impunity in Puebla and a watershed in women’s access to justice. The ruling in the ‘Monzón case’ marks a before and after in the fight against femicides.
During the trial, which lasted almost a year, López Zavala’s defense tried at all times to discredit the gender motivation and participation of the accused, however, the judges have indicated that there are sufficient elements to classify the murder of the lawyer as a feminicide. Among these elements is the relationship of the victim with the aggressor, the previous documented threats and the context of power inequality between them.
The court has pointed out the importance of the previous complaints that Cecilia Monzón made a year before she died and that at that time they did not receive protection from the authorities. Last November, the Trial Court ratified López Zavala’s six-year prison sentence for family violence, a decision against which the former politician’s defense filed an appeal that has not yet been resolved.
