Women In Mexico Marched For International Women’s Day And Things Got Violent
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.”
