Rage over femicide fuels 80,000-strong women’s march in Mexico City
Some 80,000 people joined a largely-peaceful International Women’s Day march in Mexico City on Sunday in an act of protest against the rising rate of gender-based killings in the country, where an average of 10 women are murdered each day.
Women carried banners reading “On the way home I want to feel free, not brave” and “Sorry to disturb: We want to live without fear” as they marched from the city’s Monument to the Revolution to the iconic Zocalo square, where the protest culminated in a large bonfire.
A small number of masked protesters threw Molotov cocktails and coloured smoke bombs at police, who responded by firing tear gas into the crowd. More than 2,700 female riot police officers had been deployed in the city centre in an effort to contain the march.
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Fifty-two people sustained slight injuries and received medical attention at the scene, while 13 people – including four police officers – were taken to hospital for treatment, the Mexico City government said in a statement.
Protests against gender violence in Mexico have intensified and become increasingly violent in recent years amid a rise in the killing of women and girls and a perceived lack of action by the government.
More than 3,800 women were murdered in Mexico last year, including about 1,000 cases that were classified as gender-based killings, or femicide. That was a 10 per cent rise compared to 2018, according to official statistics.
A recent series of particularly gruesome murders – including the stabbing, skinning and disembowelment of a 25-year-old Mexico City resident by her partner – has further fuelled anger among women.
Most historical buildings and major monuments in the city centre had been boarded up in anticipation of vandalism during the protest, but images and camera footage showed that walls and monuments were nonetheless spray-painted by protesters.
“Today, women are protagonists in the transformation of our society in order to eradicate violence, dismantle sexism and guarantee rights and equality for women and girls,” Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum wrote on Twitter.
Large protests were also taking place in other Mexican cities on Sunday including Puebla, Monterrey, Merida, Oaxaca City and Cuernavaca, Mexican newspaper La Reforma reported.
Sunday’s protest took place on the eve of a national strike dubbed “A Day Without Women” during which millions of women and girls are expected to stay home from work or school and refrain from most activities in the public sphere. (dpa)
