’Not One More’: Mexico Women Protest Violence in Skeletal Day of Dead March Daina Beth Solomon - Thomson Reuters
go to original November 2, 2017

Activists with faces painted to look like the popular Mexican figure "Catrina" take part in a march against femicide during the Day of the Dead in Mexico City (Reuters/Carlos Jasso)

Wearing black clothing and skeletal face paint, dozens of women marched in downtown Mexico City on Wednesday to commemorate the growing number of women murdered and pressure the government to put an end to what they say is the rampant impunity fueling it.

About 200 protesters held photos of murdered sisters, daughters and friends while chanting “not one more” in a procession that was a somber contrast to festive events elsewhere in the capital on the eve of Day of the Dead.

Homicides of women have risen by nearly a quarter on average under President Enrique Pena Nieto compared with the previous administration, and Mexico’s total murder tally is on track to hit the highest level in its modern history this year.

... The march, planned by about 50 activists, was scheduled to be mirrored in several states that have registered high levels of violence against women.

“Each case is a tale of horror,” said organizer Ana Elena Contreras, who is pushing the government to do more to end the murder, rape and abuse of women, in a country where thousands of violent crimes go unpunished every year.

Contreras said as long as perpetrators are not brought to book, women will continue to face grave risks in Mexico, which scored worse than the most violent countries of Central America in the 2017 Global Impunity Index, published in August.

The problem of violence against women has become so serious in Mexico that the federal penal code now defines certain types of murders as “femicide”.

Read the rest at Thomson Reuters

Related: More Than 100 Women Murdered in Guerrero, Mexico (Prensa Latina)

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