The fed up of Mexican women leads the 8-M protest to an armored National Palace

The demands for justice for the victims of femicide and respect for women's rights have once again been heard loudly in the Zócalo of Mexico City.

Despite the pandemic, thousands of women have marched to the main square of the country to demand an end to gender violence.

The demonstrations for International Women's Day in Mexico this time had a main recipient for their message: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Women's groups have questioned the president who has treated the demands of half the country's population with disdain.

“I already chole with impunity.

See you at the polls, ”the protesters have written as a warning to the president, in white letters in the largest square in Latin America.

Although the image of a massive protest in March 2020 has been left behind, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Government of Mexico City shielded dozens of monuments and buildings since last Friday to prevent women from filling the walls with graffiti demanding justice .

It has also surrounded for the first time the National Palace, headquarters of the Executive and the presidential residence, generating a wave of indignation among feminist groups and relatives of victims of femicide.

During Saturday and Sunday these groups turned the government narrative around and turned the police wall into a great memorial for the victims of femicides.

The siege has not been enough, dozens of women tried to tear down the fence for more than three hours and confronted the police who repressed the mobilization with tear gas.

Several groups of women gathered shortly after noon on the esplanade of the Monument to the Revolution.

The fence that the capital government placed around the obelisk was also intervened with graffiti and the names of several men accused of violence.

The violet color of the jacarandas that bloom in March in the capital frames the route of the march of the women, who have also worn some garment or masks of this color.

A group of girls try to tear down the fence that shields a part of the Monument to the Revolution.

He does it wrapped in dozens of women who shout "we were all" and "he is not going to fall, we are going to throw him away" in reference to the patriarchyhttps: //t.co/NW3lYvMgqV pic.twitter.com/sBqDUZYtnD

- Georgina Zerega (@zeregag) March 8, 2021

Far from the starting point of the demonstration, a group of 30 masked demonstrators with ski masks were surrounded by the shields of several hundred policemen.

The protesters who were trying to reach the meeting point for the march, asked to be let out loudly and with megaphones.

The police, wearing helmets and fire extinguishers, surrounded them, forming a wall with shields while more reinforcements arrived in the area.

Other women have thrown plastic bottles and demanding that there be no violence against the protesters.

Hundreds of elements from the Secretariat of Citizen Security and the Banking and Industrial Police lined the route of the march.

Several of the police officers were women and received the shout of "traitors" from the protesters.

A little further on, near Alameda Central Park, a squad waited in a perfect rectangular, almost military formation.

Nancy Rodríguez, 33, has joined the feminist march for the first time due to the exhaustion of not being able to go out quietly to the streets.

“The guy who harasses you or says things to you on the street is never missing,” he said.

He also decided to protest because he was shocked by the disappearance and death of the daughter of a co-worker who was 17 years old.

In front of the Hilton Hotel, the metal fence to protect the building became a war drum.

The protesters try to knock him down with hammers and kicks.

A few blocks from the central square, on Avenida 5 de Mayo, the march of the demonstration was evident.

Not an unbroken glass, not a wall without purple or green paint.

The protesters attacked all the metal posts on the sidewalks.

In front of the high protective metal fences of the most emblematic buildings, a small business has defended itself with a paper sign that begged: “Please, this position belongs to an 80-year-old woman.

Respect it ”.

Nor has it been saved.

Chantal, 19, came to the protest because she has suffered the abuse firsthand.

The son of the woman who cared for her touched her when she was 18 years old.

"I'm afraid to tell my mother, I don't know what would happen to her if she found out."

Chantal has also come to the march to demand that the Government have promised to provide them with security and not have done so.

"He has left us alone," he says.

Upon reaching the central square, the high wall that surrounded the National Palace was breached.

A group of women managed to pull down part of the fence and the police responded with tear gas to disperse them.

The Zócalo Square turned into a fire of purple and white smoke.

Femicides, sexual harassment and the candidacy of Félix Salgado Macedonio were the main demands of women this Women's Day.

Those who managed to get close to President López Obrador's wall beat him over and over again.

“It is not going to fall.

We are going to throw it away ”, they sang in unison.

The girls continue to tear down the fence of the National Palace.

On the other side, a police deployment that tries to shield the official residence of the president pic.twitter.com/IWc3pw79sg

- Georgina Zerega (@zeregag) March 8, 2021

At the pepper spray response from the police, the women covered themselves until the acid cloud dispersed.

They threw plastic bottles and some managed to strip the officers of their plastic shields to protect themselves from the gas.

Several injured women were treated by volunteers from the Human Rights Observatory on the Zócalo grid.

Minutes later, the protesters noticed the presence of several security elements on the roof of the National Palace.

While protesters resisted tear gas from the police at ground level, the women speculated whether they were snipers.

What these elements were holding are frequency inhibiting rifles to prevent the flight of drones, according to the spokesman for the presidency, Jesús Ramírez Cuevas.

This is the weapon carried by the security forces on the roof of the National Palace pic.twitter.com/F4pK27E2Q3

- Georgina Zerega (@zeregag) March 8, 2021

The health contingency caused the protest to also have a creative touch.

During the broadcast of López Obrador's morning press conference, hundreds of comments on YouTube and Facebook asking the president to break the patriarchal pact.

"The Government does not take care of me" or "justice for all" were some of the messages accompanied by emojis purple and green hearts.

Other feminist collectives called for virtual demonstrations through audios, such as the Constelación collective or with banners, such as Lado B.

Away from the center of Mexico City, other streets were also intervened this Monday.

Feminist groups changed the name of some of the main roads in the city, such as Álvaro Obregón, an artery in the Roma neighborhood, whose posters were covered with the name of María del Jesús Patricio, the indigenous leader known as

Marichuy

.

True peace is that which is built collectively, organically.

What a good Sunday. # LasCallesTambienSonNuestras # TomaLasCallesNoCalles pic.twitter.com/5HEMrj1i5P

- Adriana Muro (@adrianawall) March 8, 2021

The figures of gender violence in Mexico leave chilling numbers.

From 2017 to 2020, femicides in the country increased from seven a day to 10.5, according to data from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Of the 46.5 million women live in the country and at least 66% of them have suffered violence at some point in their lives, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).

López Obrador's attitude of contempt towards feminist mobilizations has resulted in widespread outrage.

62% of Mexicans consider that the president's attitude towards the demands of women has not been adequate, according to a survey by Simo (Systems of Intelligence in Markets and Opinion) for EL PAÍS.

The health crisis resulting from the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated violence against women.

According to the National Network of Refuges of Mexico, calls for help increased 39% in 2020, the increase being more marked after the confinement began.

This year's demonstrations also take place in the middle of the start of the largest electoral campaign in the history of Mexico.

The candidacy for the Guerrero government of Félix Salgado Macedonio, a man close to López Obrador denounced for rape and accused of sexual abuse, has opened a gap inside and outside the party.

The unqualified support from the president, who has said that these are typical accusations of the electoral processes, has aroused the fury of the feminist movement that demands that he "break the patriarchal pact."

The intervention of the feminist groups of the wall of the National Palace was extended Sunday night with a projection on the walls that read: "A rapist will not be governor", "Mexico femicide" and "Legal abortion now."

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