They find the corpse of a pregnant woman and recover the kidnapped baby from her womb in Veracruz

A pregnant woman died at the hands of a couple who opened her belly to steal her son in Mexico, authorities reported Monday, a new case of violence that shakes this country lacerated by femicides.

The alleged perpetrators were arrested when they had a newborn in their possession, said the Veracruz state prosecutor’s office, and this Monday they were accused before a judge of femicide and kidnapping.

The body of the victim, identified by the prosecutor’s office as Rosa Isela, was located in the municipality of Medellín de Bravo and, according to sources from the investigative body, she had a wound in the abdomen.

Testimonies from relatives published in local media say that the woman was nine months pregnant and was kidnapped when she went to an appointment with people who contacted her through social networks with the promise of giving her clothes for her future baby.

The detained couple kidnapped the mother and then opened her belly, apparently with a knife, and extracted the fetus, an agent related to the investigation told AFP, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to testify.

According to that source, the assailant would have chosen to steal the baby given the impossibility of having children, since years ago she had undergone a tubal ligation and was under pressure from her partner to get pregnant. For that purpose, she hired her accomplice.

According to the Veracruz media, this is the third case in which a pregnant woman is kidnapped to kidnap her child in recent years.

Along with the violence linked to organized crime that has hit Mexico since 2006, the country suffers an epidemic of murders and assaults on women.

In 2021, 3,751 women were murdered, according to official figures indicating that 1,004 of those cases were classified as femicides.