Wearing black clothing and skeletal face paint, dozens of women marched in downtown Mexico City on Wednesday to commemorate the growing number of women murdered and pressure the government to put an end to what they say is the rampant impunity fueling it.
About 200 protesters held photographs of murdered sisters, daughters and friends while chanting “not one more” in a procession that was a somber contrast to festive events elsewhere in the capital on the eve of Day of the Dead.
Homicides of women have risen by nearly a quarter on average under Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto compared with the previous administration and the nation’s total murder tally is on track to hit the highest level in its modern history this year.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“As women we face a lot of danger,” said Claudia Correa, whose 21- year-old daughter was found dead near her home in Veracruz state last month with stab wounds in the chest and neck, after speaking one evening with her ex-boyfriend.
Correa said the ex-boyfriend has since disappeared and an investigation is underway to find him.
“The authorities don’t do anything to find these killers and the killers realize that they are taking so long that they have a chance to get away. And they are going to continue doing so if we allow them to,” said Correa, donning a photo of her daughter with the caption “Justice.”
The march, planned by about 50 activists, was mirrored on Wednesday evening in several states that have registered high levels of violence against women.
“Each case is a tale of horror,” said organizer Ana Elena Contreras, who is pushing the government to do more to end the murder, rape and abuse of women in a country where thousands of violent crimes go unpunished every year.
Contreras said as long as perpetrators are not brought to book, women will continue to face grave risks in Mexico, which scored worse than the most violent countries of Central America in this year’s Global Impunity Index, published in August by the Center for Studies on Impunity and Justice and the University of the Americas Puebla.
That included Honduras and El Salvador, which have been two of the most murderous countries in the world in the past decade.
The problem of violence against women has become so serious in Mexico that the federal penal code now defines certain types of murders as “femicide.”
Still, measuring the phenomenon of femicides is difficult due to a lack of specific data, said Francisco Rivas, director-general of the National Citizen Observatory, a civil group monitoring justice and security in Mexico.
“There’s a part of society that still doesn’t consider this issue as something serious; they minimize it,” Rivas said.
In the first four years of Pena Nieto’s government, Mexico registered 2,543 homicides of women on average, up from 2,051 in the term of his predecessor Felipe Calderon, according to data published by Mexico’s national statistics agency.
The 2,735 homicides of women last year was the second-highest figure of any year since 1990 and more than double the number recorded a decade ago.
Elsewhere in Mexico City, as well as nearby states, many of the Day of the Dead celebrations commemorated the 369 people killed in the Sept. 19 earthquake.
On the Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 holiday, Mexicans set up altars with photographs of the dead and plates of their favorite foods in their homes, and gather at gravesides to drink, sing and talk to the dead.
In Mexico City’s sprawling main square, authorities set up altars with colorfully dressed skeletons, and orange helmets worn by quake rescuers were on display in a tribute to the solidarity shown by citizens in the aftermath of the quake.
Additional reporting by AP
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in