 "Maria Jose Estupinan was a student at Francisco de Paula Santander University (UFPS). Image courtesy: X")
The murder of a model and influencer in Colombia has made headlines around the world.
Maria Jose Estupinan, a 22-year-old college student, was shot dead at her home in Cututa on May 15.
The incident came just a day after influencer Valeria Marquez was shot dead during a livestream in Mexico.
The deaths of these two women have sparked a conversation about femicide in Latin America.
But who was Estupinan? How was she killed? And is the death another case of femicide?
Who was she?
Estupinan was a student at Francisco de Paula Santander University (UFPS), as per El Colombiano.
A seventh-semester student, she was studying Social Communication.
Her Facebook page are full of pictures and videos of her travelling to New York and California and posing at the gym and by the pool.
Estupinan on the morning on May 15, had just gotten home from the gym.
She was set to travel from Cuuta, which is near the Venezuela border, to Cartagena.
According to local media outlet Noticias Caracol, Estupinan was then approached by someone posing as a delivery man.
The killing, captured on CCTV, shows a man approaching her.
The gunman, clad in a black sweatshirt and sneakers, a red cap, had his face covered, shot her from point blank range and then fled on foot.
Estupinan was rushed to the hospital. However, she died of her injuries.
“She was killed by a man who pretended to be delivering a package,” Colonel Leonardo Capacho of Cucuta’s Metropolitan Police was quoted as saying by the outlet.
“She had the dream of becoming a presenter for a major national channel (…), at the same time she was making arrangements to complete her professional internship at Canal TRO and her degree project was focused on systematizing commercial radio stations in Cúcuta,” a source told El Colombiano.
Is it femicide?
Femicide is when girls or women are killed on account of their gender.
The case has not been labelled as such by the authorities. But it is early and the investigation is ongoing.
CNN quoted Magda Victoria Acosta, president of the National Gender Commission of the Colombian Judiciary, as saying that Estupinan suffered domestic violence from her ex-partner.
As per El Colombiano, Estupinan was set to receive compensation for the same for the case she filed in 2018 – approximately $7,000.
Police officials have claimed that Estupinian continued to be harassed by her ex.
“According to what we have been able to verify, there were indeed some threats and complaints (…) we are taking all urgent measures to establish what happened and bring those responsible to justice,” said Mecuc commander Colonel William Quintero Salazar.
As per Canal TRO, Estupinian’s ex is being investigated as a suspect.
However, no arrests have yet been made.
“She was a young, enterprising woman with a whole life ahead of her, but those dreams are cut short like the dreams of many women in this country,” Acosta was quoted as saying by CNN.
Acosta has said the country’s National Gender Commission has recorded thousands of cases of gender and domestic violence, including sexual violence, neglect, abandonment and psychological torture.
Humans Rights Watch has called gender-based violence endemic in Colombia.
Some are also pointing to the similarities between the two cases.
Marquez, who was shot dead during a livestream at a nail salon in Zapopan – which is on the outskirts of Guadalajara – was also seen talking to a delivery person.
However, in this instance, the person remained off camera.
Marquez was then shot. She collapsed and died on the spot.
During the livestream, she claimed that someone had tried to deliver an “expensive gift” when she was not present.
As per The Guardian, Marquez’s case is indeed being investigated as a femicide.
Latin America and femicide
As per The Conversation, Latin America has struggled with femicide for years.
UN secretary-general, António Guterres has called it a “shadow pandemic”.
So much so that the late Pope Francis even brought it up during a visit to Peru.
“It is not right for us to look the other way and let the dignity of so many women, especially young women, be trampled upon,” Francis said.
Amnesty International reported that in 2020, one fourth of all female killings in Mexico were investigated as femicides.
Every one of the country’s 32 states had just such a case.
A 2021 report by Amnesty International estimated that around 10 women and girls are murdered in Mexico every day.
Worse, this is happening in a country where 90 per cent of all crimes go unsolved.
A 2023 World Bank report claimed Honduras police “turn a blind eye to the soaring number of femicides”.
People also point to the culture of male chauvinism in Latin America.
Experts say the problem is the data on femicide remains unreliable and incomplete.
“Too many victims of femicide still go uncounted: for roughly four in 10 intentional murders of women and girls, there is not enough information to identify them as gender-related killings because of national variation in criminal justice recording and investigation practices,” UN Women wrote in a report last year.
With inputs from agencies