Body found of woman who went missing after taking DiDi ride in Mexico

MEXICALI, Mexico (Reuters) - Authorities found the body of a 23-year-old woman who went missing in northern Mexico days after she used the ride-hailing app DiDi, a case that has sparked outrage in the Latin American country where gender violence is prevalent.

Education student Paola Banuelos had not been seen since getting into a car hailed via the Chinese app early Monday after leaving a bar in the city of Mexicali on the U.S.-Mexico border, across from Calexico, California.

On Thursday, her body was found in a remote area showing signs of violence, according to a statement from the local state prosecutor.

Sergio Gutierrez, the driver of the DiDi car and the main suspect in the suspected murder, has turned himself in, the statement added.

Gutierrez told local media he had fled "out of fear" and that he and his family had been threatened.

"People don't really know what happened, they have ideas, they send threats," he told local journalists before turning himself in.

DiDi, China's largest ride-hailing company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Banuelos' death has reverberated in Mexico, where at least two women are killed in gender-related violence every day, according to official data, though activists say the real figure is much higher.

Of the nearly 2,600 murders of women last year, only 827 were classified as "femicides," or motivated by the victim's gender, the data showed.

"'Don't travel alone,' 'don't dress like that,' 'don't go out at night'.... No matter how hard they try, we are not to blame for living in a country where there are people who feel they have the right to kill us," said Ceci Flores on X, leader of a Mexican rights group.

(Reporting by Victor Medina; Additional reporting by Diego Ore; Writing by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Sandra Maler)