MEXICO CITY, Nov 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Demonstrators smashed windows, spray-painted monuments and clashed with riot police on Mexico City’s main avenue to protest Mexican authorities’ failure to stop a spiral of violence against women.
Thousands of women on Monday took to the streets of the capital for the protest marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the latest in a series of large, rowdy marches over soaring rates of femicide and rape in Mexico.
Masked demonstrators with sledgehammers shattered the glass panes of bus stops and advertising billboards, tore down barricades, lit a bonfire and painted messages such as “How many more need to die?” on monuments lining Paseo de la Reforma, the city’s most famous street.
Hundreds of riot police — mostly women, given that protest organizers had warned any men would face attacks — responded by firing pepper spray.
The movement has been dubbed the “Glitter Revolution,” after protesters doused the Mexico City security minister in pink glitter at one demonstration.
The latest unrest came despite the fact that Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, an ally of leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, recently declared a “gender violence alert” in the capital, paving the way for more funding and security and other emergency measures.
Nineteen of Mexico’s 32 states have now declared such alerts since 2007.
Some men joined the march too.
One, Benjamin Vargas, carried a picture of his 22-year-old daughter, Sol, who was murdered last year along with his wife. The killer — allegedly Sol’s spurned admirer — then burned both bodies.
Mexico has the most femicides of any country in Latin America, according to Amnesty International.
More than nine women are murdered here every day.
Two in three Mexican women say they have been victims of violence in some form, according to the national statistics institute. — NNN-AGENCIES
