CITY OF MEXICO – Hundreds of women marched to the Mexican government seat on Monday, some carrying their children, other bladder wrackers, bats and hammers, preparing for a confrontation they hoped would force the country to crack down on women.
The protest on International Women’s Day was fueled by anger over President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who supports a politician accused of raping several women in a country suffering from the world’s worst percentage of gender-based violence. Despite a split in the ruling party on the issue, Mr. López Obrador supports the politician ahead of the June election.
As the protesters gathered around the national palace – the residence of Mr. Lopez Obrador and the seat of government – their anger was focused on a metal fence erected to protect the building from invasion. Women wearing black balaclavas pulled down parts of the barrier when police fired bursts of grenades into the crowd, causing several small rushes.
At least 62 police and 19 civilians were injured late Monday night, according to the Mexico City security branch.
While Mr. López Obrador portrayed his presidency as part of a populist movement to increase the marginalized in Mexico, women activists say the president is in fact ignoring half the population. The president on Monday insisted that his government be committed to equality, but critics say little has been done about violence against women during his tenure.
In the approximately two years since Mr. López Obrador took office, the percentage of violence against women did not change significantly. Last year, an average of ten women were killed every day in Mexico, and there were about 16,000 cases of rape. A survey by one news website, Animal Politico, found that only about 5 percent of all allegations of sexual assault, including rape, yielded criminal convictions from 2014 to 2018.
It is that impunity that has angered the feminists of Mexico that has led some groups to adopt violence as a tactic to force the country to pay attention to their demands.
“We are fighting today so that we do not die tomorrow,” women chanted on Monday as they marched through the city to the national palace. Others said, “The fault is not mine, not because of where I was or what I was wearing.”
Over the weekend, activists spray-painted the barrier around the palace with the names of women killed by their husbands, boyfriends or alleged admirers.
Ivette Granados, 49, and her daughter Maria Puente, 16, attended Monday’s rally together. They said they were angry at their daily struggle against the sexual abuse that, according to many people, is every woman’s experience in Mexico. Mother and daughter took turns listing the assaults they said they had had over the years: grabbing in the street, in the subway or during a party, and men urging their genitals in public.
While Mrs. Granados does not agree with the use of force as a tactic to promote the feminist movement, she regrets that it is the only thing that makes the country aware of their long struggle for equality.
“I have seen it throughout history in the peaceful marches of women – they have yielded no results,” she said. Granados said. ‘I think these things turn governments and people around. And even though I disagree, life has shown me that only then do they turn around to see these situations. ”
This year’s protests, which put together several thousand women, were much smaller than those in 2020, when tens of thousands turned up.
Some women have pointed to the coronavirus as the cause of the smaller onset.
Last year, protesters filled the streets of the capital after several heinous assaults on women caused public outrage, including the murder of a 7-year-old girl found in a body bag.
A day later, tens of thousands of women went on strike in a nationwide strike to protest the violence.
Mr. López Obrador has repeatedly minimized the protest movement or accused feminist groups of being politically motivated.
And he further incited many women in Mexico by refusing to condemn a leading member of his own party accused of sexually assaulting several women. The candidate, Félix Salgado Macedonio, is running for governor of the state of Guerrero, pending a party poll to confirm his candidacy.
On the morning of Monday’s protest, the president again accused conservative groups of co-opting the feminist movement, claiming that the marches of women only began after he came to power. He points to his own government as a commitment to his fight for equality, the first cabinet in Mexican history to fill half the seats by women.
Mr López Obrador defends the wall his government has erected around the national palace. And he said that although he supported the feminist movement, he would not tolerate the violence or vandalism seen during the women’s march last year.
Me. Granados and her daughter said the wall does not feel proper for a president who says he is a man of the people.
“Look, I do not agree to destroy monuments or damage, do I?” Ms. Granados said. “But it is also clear to me that a monument is worth no more than the life of a girl.”
Her daughter, Mrs. Puente, suffered a pipe show.
The wall, she said, “is a contradiction.”
Ana Sosa in Mexico City reported.