The murders of Valeria Márquez (May 13, 2025, Zapopan), Vielka Pulido (April 2024, Puebla), La Barbie Regia (October 2024, Monterrey), and Fedra Gaxiola (December 2024, Tijuana) reveal a pattern of violence against influencers who embody the “buchona” aesthetic, characterized by glamour, ostentatious wealth, and ties to drug culture.
These crimes, which occurred over a period of 14 months in cartel-dominated regions, reveal an escalation of attacks against women visible on social media. The investigation of the Márquez and Gaxiola cases as femicides highlights the gender component, while the deaths of Pulido and La Barbie Regia reflect the vulnerability of those close to criminal networks.
This pattern combines the femicide crisis in Mexico—with more than 3,000 women murdered annually—with the growing influence of social media, which amplifies both the power and the risk for these women.
The visibility of these influencers on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, where they have accumulated thousands of followers (for example, Márquez’s 200,000, Gaxiola’s 222,000), is a key and controversial risk factor.
Their buchona aesthetic, which projects wealth and status, positions them as symbols of success, but also as targets of envy, extortion, or revenge within narco-related or personal circles. Márquez’s murder, broadcast live, is particularly striking, as her concern expressed in real time (“Maybe they were going to kill me”) and the interruption of the broadcast by a third party (possibly a “friend” named Vivian de la Torre) generated viral speculation that complicates the investigation.
“Buchonas” (snitches) occupy a controversial space in narco culture, which glorifies wealth and violence but punishes women who seek autonomy. These influencers, by monetizing their image and building personal brands, challenge patriarchal gender roles that relegate them to being accessories to narco men, which can provoke violence as a way of reasserting male control.
Culturally, they are stigmatized as accomplices to crime, which justifies their victimization in the social imaginary and hinders public empathy. This stigma is especially contentious in the context of Mexico’s economic inequality, where their wealth contrasts with widespread poverty, fueling narratives that blame them for their fate. The tension between their empowerment and vulnerability highlights a deep contradiction in Mexican modernity.
The political context is equally striking and controversial, as impunity in Mexico—with more than 95% of homicides unsolved—virtually guarantees that these murders will go unpunished. The influence of cartels like the #CJNG in Jalisco, where Márquez’s murder occurred, and the alleged corruption linked to figures like Gaxiola’s ex-boyfriend, Héctor Manuel Villegas, the former director of the Tijuana police, demonstrate the collusion between crime and authorities.