March 8 is International Women’s Day. It is a day to celebrate women but in Mexico it is a protest against the rampant femicide gripping the country. Women marched against the femicide this year and things turned violent when police clashed with protesters.

March 8 has a different meaning in Mexico.

Women in Mexico took to the streets to protest the rampant femicides that are devastating the country. According to the New York Times, femicides in Mexico have been increasing in recent years. There was a 10 percent increase from 2018 to 2019 with a total of 1,006 incidents of reported femicide.

In 2017, there were seven femicides a day and by 2019 the number had jumped to 10.

“Women are demanding a shift of paradigm and nothing less,” Estefanía Vela, executive director of Intersecta, told the New York Times. “These are not only hashtags. These are students protesting at the universities, and mothers demanding justice for their daughters.”

People on social media are amplifying the cause by sharing what is happening.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has made it a part of his presidency to downplay the extent of the crisis. At times, AMLO has gone on record dismissing claims of widespread femicide in Mexico.

“I’m going to give you another fact, which doesn’t mean that violence against women doesn’t exist, because I don’t want you all to misinterpret me,” AMLO said during a daily morning presser in May. “Ninety percent of those calls that serve as your base are false, it’s proven.”

Women are not allowing for the narrative of false reports to persist and are standing up to highlight the crisis. People are criticizing AMLO and his administration for seemingly turning a blind eye to the deadly crisis.

This year’s protest had more anger after the death of Ingrid Escamilla.

Escamilla was murdered in February 2020 by her domestic partner. Her body was mutilated by the attacker in a violent way. The press ran the photos of her body on the front page and sparked anger around the world. After being murdered, her body was displayed for the public to see and people are tired of women being treated so poorly.

“He was supposed to represent a change and it turns out that he is not,” Xóchitl Rodríguez, a member of Feminasty, told the New York Times. “The fact that you wake up in the morning and your president cannot reassure you on what specific actions he is taking to deal with the issue, is outrageous.”

READ: Radical Feminists Have Seized Control of a Federal Building in Mexico in Protest of the Government’s Apathy Towards Rampant Femicide

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Another tragic story has unfolded at the U.S. – Mexico border, this time involving the deaths of at least 13 people who were allegedly being smuggled into the United States. Although investigators are still working to piece together the tragic chain of events, one thing has become clear: we need serious immigration reform now.

13 people died in a tragic SUV accident near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The tragedy unfolded when a Ford Expedition carrying 27 people smashed into a gravel truck near the town of El Centro, about 30 miles from the border. Officials say that the Ford SUV and a Chevrolet Suburban, which was carrying 19 people, were earlier caught on video entering the U.S. as part of a smuggling operation.

The Suburban immediately caught fire after entering the U.S., but all the occupants managed to escape and were taken into custody by Border Patrol officers. It’s still unknown why the first vehicle caught fire.

The Ford SUV continued along its route when it collided with a gravel truck. Ten of the 13 people who died in the accident have now been identified as Mexican nationals, Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol’s El Centro sector chief told the Associated Press.

“Human smugglers have proven time and again they have little regard for human life,” said Mr. Bovino.

An SUV designed for 7 or 8 people was carrying 27 people.

California Highway Patrol said that the Ford Expedition was designed to hold seven to eight passengers safely. But in this case all of the seats had been removed apart form the driver and front passenger seats in order to pack people in.

“When I pulled up on scene, there were bodies everywhere,” Alex Silva, the Holtville fire chief, told the LA Times. “I’ve been doing this for 29 years and that’s the worst scene I’ve ever seen. I’ve been to calls where we’ve had four or five people dead. I’ve gone to calls where we had a bus accident that had 24 people. But it wasn’t the fatalities that we had in this one.”

“I’ve never seen an SUV with 25 people in it. I can’t even imagine what that must have felt like being cooped up in there.”

Officials are confident the tragedy is connected to a human smuggling operation.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said they suspected the deadly crash was tied to human smuggling after the Ford Expedition and a red Suburban were caught on surveillance footage coming through a breach in the border fence. Border Patrol agents insist they did not stop or pursue either vehicle, although community activists express skepticism. Either way, the outcome illustrated the high stakes involved in human smuggling.

While it’s unclear what caused the crash, Jacqueline Arellano, 38, who works with the nonprofit Border Angels, said crashes involving vehicles packed with people aren’t unusual in the region. Arellano, who grew up in El Centro, recalled a crash in 2003 in which she witnessed a Border Patrol vehicle chase an SUV packed with people on Highway 8 heading west toward San Diego.

Migrant advocates agree that major changes need to take place in our country’s immigration laws so that deadly tragedies such as this one never happen again.

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