MEXICAN authorities yesterday arrested a couple believed to have kidnapped, tortured and murdered a 7-year-old girl, days after the discovery of the victim’s body sparked protests in the violence-wracked country.

The suspects “were detained in a town in the state of Mexico”, tweeted Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, without giving details.

The girl was reported missing on February 11 after she left school, and her body, bearing torture marks, was found in the capital on Saturday.

Video footage released earlier appeared to show the child being held by the hand of another woman and walking in the street on the day she disappeared.

Prosecutors on Tuesday released pictures of the two suspects – identified as Giovana and Mario Alberto “N” – after searching a house near the victim’s home.

During the search, investigators found “identification, photographs, clothing and other personal objects” that linked the two suspects to the child’s disappearance, said Ulises Lara, spokesman for the Mexico City prosecutor’s office.

The suspects face between 80 and 140 years in prison given the gravity of the crime, he said.

Protests demanding an end to violence against women have been staged around the capital in recent days, including at the victim’s school, her funeral and outside the presidential residence.

Mexico recorded more than 1,000 femicide victims last year, according to official figures, although experts believe the true number is much higher due to difficulties in registering murders as femicide. – AFP, February 20, 2020.