By Daina Beth Solomon
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Women across Mexico are preparing their marches to celebrate International Women’s Day on Monday, fueled by anger that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador supported a politician accused of rape at a time when the country’s rampant sexual violence endure.
Activists have been displaying a purple banner over the past few days declaring “no abuser is in power” across Mexico City’s main square, renamed streets with placards pasted on women and purple, green and pink on social media. avatars are used.
At the National Palace, where Lopez Obrador lives, protesters painted the names of hundreds of women murder victims over 10-foot (3-meter) metal barriers erected last week to protect the historic building from vandalism during Monday’s marches.
Activists also projected feminist slogans in bright lights across the blocked palace facade, including a message saying a rapist would not be a governor, effectively turning the riot control measures into a monument to the government’s alleged apathy against violence against women.
Lopez Obrador has been standing by his party’s candidate in the June midterm elections for Guerrero’s governor Felix Salgado for weeks, describing the calls to execute him on rape charges as politically motivated.
Guerrero prosecutors are investigating one charge of rape against Salgado, after dropping an investigation into another charge earlier this year, which they say was filed too long after the alleged crime.
Salgado denied the allegations, Mexican media reported.
Lopez Obrador said Monday that more women than ever before are involved in politics, including nine ministers, and defends his government’s unprecedented move to surround the palace with barriers, to discourage violent protests without provoking clashes with riot police.
“There are many ways to protest peacefully, such as shouting and even insulting,” he told his regular news conference. “But not to drop bombs, not to use hammers, and not to light fires.”
Thousands of women took to the streets a year ago to demand a tougher government response to murders of women, with some protesters putting Molotov cocktails at the national palace and vandalizing buildings in what were otherwise peaceful protests.
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Additional Reporting by Raul Cortes; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)