Mexican law enforcement arrested suspects on Wednesday in the killing of a seven-year-old girl whose murder shocked the nation and led to protests in Mexico City.

"The alleged perpetrators of the femicide of the minor Fatima Cecilia were arrested in a town in the state of Mexico," Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum wrote on Twitter.

Seven-year-old Fatima Cecilia Aldrighett disappeared outside her school on February 11 and her body was discovered over the weekend inside a plastic bag in a rural area.

Fatima's family decried the authorities' slow response, saying that hours were wasted after the girl went missing and that calls to social services for help went unanswered.

Protesters gathered outside the girl's home and school, while others took to social media to demand justice under the hashtag #JusticeForFatima. Some feminist groups took the cause to the president, staging a demonstration at the national palace.

Gender violence 

More than 3,800 women were murdered in Mexico in 2019, including some 1,000 cases that were classified as gender-based killings or femicide.

The figure represents a 10% rise on 2018, according to government statistics.

Read more: In Latin America, women turn to apps to combat sexual violence

Mexico City has been the scene of angry demonstrations over killings of women over the past few months, including several in which protesters have vandalized major monuments and buildings.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the protests were an attempt to distract attention from his social program and that his administration was "working so that there won't be any more women's killings.''

Mexico's lower house of congress has proposed toughening prison sentences for the murder of women and sexual abuse of minors.

jcg/rt (AP, Reuters, dpa)

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