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Ecatepec is a small city located within the shadow of Mexico City, a part of the greater metro area. It is also known as Ecatepec de Morelos.
What’s the distinguishing characteristic of this city compared to others in Mexico, or just those within the metro area?
Ecatepec is arguably the most dangerous city in Mexico. We’ve mentioned in our piece on “How to manage your Mexico vacation and not get shot” the different areas of Mexico and how to travel within them, including the Ciudad de Juarez, where consulate officials within the city are prohibited from traveling within the city.
And we have gone so far as to declare the city of Acapulco a “no go zone” for tourists and business travel given the risk of being in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Reiterating this advice in November 2019, with our piece on how Acapulco continues to be an unsafe city and one to avoid.
And while Ecatepec continues to be dangerous, we have added Culiacán the capitol of Sinaloa to the list of most dangerous cities in Mexico, where it is not safe for tourists to travel.
Introducing Ecatepec
One statistic stands out above all the rest: 98 percent of the residents of Ecatepec live in fear.
Yesterday we learned of the arrest of a couple who engaged in wholesale femicide. The local police tell how this couple’s telephone number was found in the text messages (SMS) of three females found murdered in Ecatepec. The couple was placed under surveillance, and following the disappearance of Nancy Noemi Huitron Solorio and her baby on September 6,
they were arrested. When arrested, they had in their possession the body parts from ten women. During the police interrogation following their arrest, they admitted to having killed Huitron, and 19 other women and having sold Huitron’s baby (which police located the baby and have placed her in the hands of her maternal grandmother.
Violence in Ecatepec is not a new phenomena, indeed when Pope Francis visited Mexico in 2016, he visited the city to highlight the violence and the prevalence of femicide. Mexico’s National Observatory on Femicide identified then Ecatepec as the center of the femicide problem in the State of Mexico.
In 2014, the headlines read, “Violence against women ‘pandemic’ in Mexico” and the piece went on to describe the city as the “women’s dumping ground” given the number of women/girls who were turning up dead. No, this violence within Ecatepec has been ongoing since at least 2006.
On 7 October, a mass demonstration was held, within Ecatepec de Morelos to draw attention to the incidents of disappearance and murder of women, femicide.
The hashtag: #NiUnaMenos (not one {woman} less) was used on social networks.
#JardinesdeMorelos #Ecatepec #Ecaterror #Niunamás Marcha Jardines de Morelos por los feminicidios pic.twitter.com/RTV19nYYDM
— Ale Herrera (@lacetxi) October 8, 2018
Bottom line - if you are traveling to Mexico City, don’t travel to or through Ecatepec, for tourists, even those who speak Spanish fluently, you are truly risking being in the wrong spot at the wrong time.
Ecatepec, is the most dangerous city in Mexico.
