Protesters in Mexico City on Monday demanded justice for two teenage girls who have said police officers raped them. The marchers doused the capital’s security minister in pink glitter and smashed the glass doors of the local prosecutor’s office.
About 250 people, mostly women, shouting: “Justice,” took to the streets to protest the lack of punishment in the two cases, the latest to trigger outrage over the high rate of violence against women and girls in Mexico.
Mexico City Minister of Security Jesus Orta appealed for calm as the march turned rowdy, greeting the protesters in person and telling them: “These cases have not been closed... We’re on your side.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
However, protesters responded by covering him in pink glitter and spray-painting a group of police officers standing guard. They also displayed a pig’s head outside the local prosecutor’s office.
Masked demonstrators later hurled rocks at the building, shattering the glass entrance.
The protests were sparked by two recent cases: that of a 17-year-old girl who has said that four police officers raped her in their patrol car as she left a party on the capital’s north side, and that of a 16-year-old girl who has said that a police officer raped her at the Mexico City Photography Archive Museum, in the city’s center.
No officers have been detained or punished so far in the first case. A police officer was arrested on Thursday in the second.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum — the first woman elected to the post — said that she sympathized with the protesters, but condemned their actions.
“There need to be investigations [in the two cases]... But this was not a protest, it was a provocation. They wanted the government to respond with violence, but we’re not going to do that,” she told a news conference.
Local prosecutor Ernestina Godoy said on Twitter that “various investigations” are under way in the cases.
Nine women are murdered in Mexico every day, the UN said.
‘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
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
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