The Mexican president has claimed that a metal barrier to wall the presidential palace ahead of a planned women’s march is intended to prevent provocation and protect historic buildings from vandalism.
In a country where homicides rose by almost 130% between 2015 and 2020, critics said the decision to erect the three-meter-high barriers was symptomatic of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s indifference to the violence crisis against women.
Ahead of International Women’s Day on Monday, barriers were also installed around other buildings and monuments in downtown Mexico City, where tens of thousands of people protested against violent violence against women and impunity.
“We must avoid provocation from people who only want to cause harm,” López Obrador said during an event in Yucatan. ‘Imagine if we did not take care of the national palace and vandalize them. What image will it send to the world? ”
López Obrador reiterated that women have the right to protest and cites his own movement in 2006 as an appropriate form of peaceful protest.
“The presidency was stolen from us … and we protested, but never broke a glass. “I walked two or three times from Tabasco to Mexico City,” he said. Over the years, López Obrador has repeatedly accused opponents of election fraud.
At least 939 women were killed in Mexico last year, according to official data.
Interior Minister Olga Sánchez Cordero said on Twitter that the barriers were “for the protection of women”.
Anger among the women’s rights movement arose this year after Félix Salgado, who is accused of rape, announced his candidacy for governor of the southern state of Guerrero. Salgado denied the allegations.
López Obrador said those calling for him to end support for Salgado, a member of the ruling Morena party, were politically motivated.