The murder of TikToker Valeria Márquez inside her beauty salon in Zapopan, Jalisco, has once again put the state on the national media’s radar. Unconfirmed reports indicate that among the suspects in the femicide is Ricardo Ruíz Velasco, alias “El Doble R,” one of the top drug traffickers in the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
Data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP) places Jalisco as the state with the third highest number of reported femicide cases between January and March 2025. Of the 162 gender-based murders of women investigated, 18 were committed in the State of Mexico, followed only by Hidalgo, Jalisco, Morelos, Puebla, and Tamaulipas, with eight victims in each state.
Preliminary data from the SESNSP (National Commission for the Prevention and Control of Crimes) recorded 815 femicides committed nationwide in 2024, 33 of which occurred in the state of Jalisco. However, upon updating the gender-based violence figures, the number of cases dropped to 797 nationwide and 28 in the birthplace and center of operations of the CJNG (National Commission for the Prevention and Control of Crimes). Even with this reduction in women’s deaths, which were classified as intentional or negligent homicides, Jalisco ranked among the 10 most dangerous states for women.
Another warning factor is that in addition to the eight femicides in Jalisco, 25 intentional homicides and 44 negligent homicides have been reported, meaning that only one in every 11 murders of women in the state was investigated with a gender perspective.
The Missing Persons Crisis in Jalisco
In early March 2025, the state of Jalisco dominated national news with the discovery of a CJNG training and extermination camp—the latter denied by authorities—that had been operating for more than a decade under the administrations of three municipal presidents.
The case of Rancho Izaguirre in the municipality of Teuchitlán once again highlighted the missing persons crisis, with Jalisco as the leading location in the matter.
Data from the National Search Commission (CNB) show 15,268 open investigation files for missing persons in Jalisco; however, the State Registry of Missing Persons lists the number as 15,618 victims.
According to official figures, 13,823 men and 1,795 women are missing in Jalisco. Zapopan—where the TikToker was murdered—is the number one municipality with 2,807 victims.
Guadalajara (2,676), Tlajomulco de Zúñiga (1,527), and San Pedro Tlaquepaque (1,152) complete the list of municipalities with the most reported disappearances; all of them under the control of the CJNG (National Commission for the Promotion of Justice) and its strategies to expand its forces: forced recruitment, false job offers, and kidnappings, among others.
Homicides Decrease, but Disappearances Increase
In 2024, the state of Jalisco closed the year with a total of 1,445 intentional homicides, a figure slightly lower than the 1,449 people murdered in 2023 and the 1,603 documented by the SESNSP in 2022.
During the first quarter of 2025, 265 intentional homicides were already recorded in Jalisco; however, 246 crimes were investigated as negligent, suggesting to civil society organizations that the figures may be being “fussed up” to reduce the true number of victims of the violence imposed by the CJNG in Jalisco.
Regarding reports of disappearances, in 2022, the reported cases were 2,790; in 2023, they increased to 2,998; and in 2024, they decreased to 2,533; However, search groups questioned the administration of former Governor Enrique Alfaro for downplaying the crisis and claiming that in many cases, these were “voluntary absences.”
Source: infobae
