Classification: Documented

Alejandra Icó Chub: femicide, a viral video, and justice in Chisec

The Maya Q’eqchi’ woman killed in Alta Verapaz in 2018 became known online as “Miss PacMan” because of footage her family asked people not to share. This dossier restores her name and examines prior abuse, the 2023 sentence, and reparations without reproducing the images.

Chisec, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala · See stories from this place and nearby

A woman before an internet nickname

Alejandra Icó Chub was 32, a Maya Q’eqchi’ woman and mother of three in a rural community of Chisec, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Her sister María described her in contemporary reporting as hardworking and cheerful. An academic investigation records that she and another woman connected to the perpetrator had built mutual support in the face of poverty and violence. These facts do not sum up her life; they help recover a real person behind “Miss PacMan,” a nickname created and spread online from images of her suffering. There is no indication that she chose that name.

Isla del Norte: distance is part of the story

Alejandra lived in Isla del Norte, near San Miguel village in Chisec. The atlas marker indicates only the approximate municipality, not the victim’s or her relatives’ home. Journalist Andrea Ixchíu reported in 2018 that the community was about 45 minutes from the municipal center and that help was slow to arrive. Territorial context matters without turning the community into an exotic setting: distance from services, access to care in Indigenous languages, and institutions’ ability to receive complaints affect women’s safety. Years later, court-ordered reparations included local action and communication in Q’eqchi’.

Violence before 29 October

Field reporting and interviews collected by Erin Beck and Amir Mohamed describe a history of control and abuse attributed to Mario Tut Ical, Alejandra’s partner. Their study records a 2017 abuse complaint by another woman connected to him and the absence of an effective investigation then. Prensa Comunitaria heard relatives’ accounts of earlier violence against Alejandra. These are documented accounts and analyses; individual details should be attributed to their sources, not presented as separate convictions. The central point is that femicide cannot be explained as an isolated burst of “jealousy.” Information about threats and dependence shows why leaving an abusive relationship may be difficult when protection and support do not arrive.

The night of 29 October 2018

On 29 October 2018, Alejandra was attacked at home with a machete by Tut Ical. Neighbors heard her calls for help; she died from her injuries. The event, place, and perpetrator were established in the case that led to the 2023 conviction. The gravity of the crime can be understood without describing the mutilation in detail. The attacker fled. That night her children lost their mother, and the community faced both the violence and the late arrival of authorities. The later trial would decide criminal responsibility, but it could not undo what happened.

The video: a record turned into another harm

Someone filmed Alejandra’s final moments on a phone; the footage spread without safeguards. Instead of serving only as a possible record, it became a commodity for social media viewing and commentary. Her family publicly asked people to stop sharing it, Prensa Libre reported. Beck and Mohamed examined how circulation shifted attention from gender-based violence to visual shock and requests for the footage. “Miss PacMan” came from that circuit, not from Alejandra’s identity. This dossier does not link the video or still frames: verifiable reporting and the court process are enough to tell the story without repeating her exposure.

Flight, capture and charges

Tut Ical was located on 31 October 2018 in the Ixcán, Quiché area after fleeing Chisec. Reports describe residents’ actions before he was handed to police. In November, a court formally linked him to the femicide case and ordered pretrial detention. Statements attributed to him alleged infidelity; that was his allegation, not evidence about Alejandra’s conduct. Researchers note that uncritical repetition of his words in news coverage invited victim-blaming. The capture and charge belonged to 2018; the sentence would come nearly five years later.

What femicide meant in the case

Guatemala’s Law against Femicide and Other Forms of Violence against Women, Decree 22-2008, addresses the killing of women in unequal power relations and gender-based violence. This case was not tried as an ordinary domestic argument that happened to end in death. Testimony, the weapon, and expert examinations of the history and context of violence were considered, according to coverage of the trial. The legal framing matters: “jealousy” is neither a defense nor proof of provocation. Focusing on an alleged act by the victim obscures the perpetrator’s decision and the responsibility the court recognized.

A difficult judicial path

The case moved through procedural incidents and disputes over expert evidence and the role of Mujeres Transformando el Mundo (MTM), which assisted the family. In November 2018 a judge recused herself, citing alleged hostility toward the organization; MTM contested the reason. Beck and Mohamed’s 2021 study examines those disputes while the case was still pending. A 2023 report interviewed prosecutor Édgar Gómez and MTM’s Paula Barrios about the obstacles to admitting gender and cultural expert evidence. The sequence shows why a specialist court alone does not guarantee a timely response to a family in a remote community.

29 August 2023: the sentence

The Femicide Sentencing Court in Cobán, Alta Verapaz, sentenced Mario Tut Ical to 50 years in prison for Alejandra’s femicide on 29 August 2023. Prensa Libre reported the decision based on prosecution information and the trial. In a 4 September report, the newspaper noted that the sentence was not yet final at that date. The sources reviewed here do not establish the later outcome of every appeal or full execution of the sentence. This dossier therefore states the known decision and date without passing off 2023 reporting as an unverified current judicial update.

1 September: redress beyond punishment

At the reparations hearing on 1 September 2023, the court ordered 50,000 quetzales for each of Alejandra’s three children for moral harm, according to Prensa Libre. It also directed psychological care, educational and social support, prevention campaigns, and communication of the ruling’s operative part on community radio in Q’eqchi’. The order recognized the children as indirect victims and sought to reach the community where the case arose. A court order is not evidence that every payment and service was delivered; the sources reviewed did not provide an accounting that would establish full implementation.

What research found about the coverage

Beck and Mohamed compared femicide cases and found that Alejandra, an Indigenous woman living in poverty, was particularly exposed to online revictimization. In their sample, the accused man’s account was often repeated while the history of abuse and structural barriers to protection received less attention. Andrea Ixchíu had already criticized coverage framing the killing as “anger” or “passion,” along with accusations directed at the victim, in 2018. This analysis does not indict the whole community or all journalism: many residents, journalists, and organizations documented the case carefully. The editorial lesson is concrete: reporting can inform without repeating the viral video’s logic or making the victim a spectacle.

What is established and what needs care

Established: Alejandra Icó Chub was killed in Chisec on 29 October 2018; Tut Ical received a 50-year femicide sentence in August 2023; the court ordered reparations in September. Attributed to testimony and research: prior violence and specific institutional failures, which must be read with each source’s author and date. Not confirmed here: whether the 2023 sentence became final or whether every measure of redress was carried out. The case matters because delayed justice, prior abuse, and the circulation of images reveal different ways a woman can be failed. A first step against repeating them is to remember her name and protect her dignity.

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