‘Femicide nation’: murder of young woman casts spotlight on Mexico’s gender violence crisis

Relatives and friends gathered at a funeral service for Debanhi Escobar Bazaldúa, who went missing on 9 April. Photograph: Daniel Becerril/Reuters

“Don’t take risks – stay with us,” says one of the slogans at the Nueva Castilla motel, a $37.85 (£30) per night roadside inn in the Mexican city of Monterrey.

But the horrifying discovery of a dead teenager in the lodge’s water tank has sparked a nationwide outcry and protests in a country facing a spiraling femicide crisis that saw 1,000 women murdered last year because of their gender.