Hundreds of thousands of women flood the streets of Mexico to demand justice and equality

The women of Mexico want each other alive.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets this Wednesday to shout against sexist violence, gender discrimination and the laws that prohibit them from deciding over their bodies on International Women's Day.

In a country where there are 11 femicides a day and the wage gaps worsened during the pandemic, the collectives have marched like every March 8, year after year, with the conviction that rights are not asked for, they are taken away.

Every cry of "the Police don't take care of me, my friends take care of me" and "Sir, ma'am, don't be indifferent, women are killed in the face of the people" resounds on the billboards of a political class overwhelmed by the fight for feminist movement and that has not been able to incorporate or champion their demands.

Mexican women packed the Zócalo in Mexico City, stood in front of the Government Palace in Monterrey, gathered around the antimonumenta in Guadalajara, and jumped and sang on the 5 de Mayo boulevard in Puebla.

“I came to march because I was harassed since I was 12 years old,” explains Hazel Anzola, a 17-year-old girl.

Next to her, Marina Luna, her mother, carries a banner that says: "I am here so that my daughter is not afraid."

"My cousins, my friends, my grandmother... my entire personal circle has suffered the same as me and we can no longer remain silent," she says.

It's her first run.

She was moved to see such small girls shout against the violence they have suffered.

Right behind her, a woman passes carrying a sign: "Today I scream for the girl who couldn't do it while she was being raped."

Lizzet Martínez, 23, also went out to demonstrate for the first time.

"Marching for me is not feeling alone," she says.

“I suffered harassment all last year and when I reported it, they didn't believe me and re-victimized me,” she adds.

45% of Mexican women claim to have suffered some type of sexual assault in their lives, according to a survey by Enkoll for EL PAÍS published this week.

In front of the

, a contingent sings

, the feminist anthem against sexist violence in Mexico.

“When I was 18 years old, I suffered an attempted kidnapping,” says Isabel Guadarrama, 30.

"I don't think things have changed much, today more is said about this, but we still feel insecure," says her friend Indra Palacios, 28.

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Andrés Manuel López Obrador led a private act at the National Palace regarding 8M.

"We have already made feminism a reality," he said to the applause of Morena leaders, officials and militants.

The president assured two years ago that feminism was "an expression from abroad," amid criticism for coming out in defense of Félix Salgado Macedonio, a candidate from his party accused of sexual abuse by five women.

He has also commented several times that he feels more comfortable with “humanism” and that the country faces more pressing problems and crises.

“I think that the slogan that 'the Fourth Transformation must be feminist or it won't be' has already been left behind, because the fourth transformation is feminist,” he added.

Thousands of women arrive at the Zócalo in Mexico City on the afternoon of March 8. RAQUEL CUNHA (REUTERS)

“The Government does not listen to us or defend us,” retorts Alejandra López, 24.

It is enough to read the graffiti on Paseo de la Reforma, the most emblematic avenue of the capital, or to read the banners or to listen to the slogans of the green and purple tide to understand that the vast majority of the women who went out to march this 8M They disagree with the president's diagnosis.

The messages are short and direct.

“Legal and safe abortion”.

"Motherhood will be planned or it will not be."

"Why is something as simple as going home safe a privilege?"

"Why are you scared for those who fight and not for those who die?"

"These

do represent me."

Although less armor has been seen than in previous years, the march in the capital was not without tension.

Some streets of the central almond were saturated and there was a narrow space between the police cordon and the flow of protesters.

Several women who went to the zócalo denounced that the Police threw gases.

The local Secretary of Security maintained that the agents deployed did not have tear gas and that they only used protective equipment and fire extinguishers.

There were several attempts to break down the metal fence around the National Palace and altercations that prevented the assistants from moving and withdrawing easily from the central plate.

Claudia Sheinbaum, head of the Government of Mexico City, was at the center of the controversy last weekend when she called "racist and classist" the women who do not accept the sculpture of La Joven de Amajac, in the

de Reforma, renamed by the movement as the

.

The roundabout, where the authorities want to install the monument, is a meeting point for marches, a cultural space and a protest site for the families of murdered women, social fighters and activists.

And it is the seat of an anti-monument of a woman with her fist raised and pierced by the word "Justice".

Sheinbaum qualified later, saying that the criticism was not directed at them and promised to talk to reach a solution that she considers all parties.

Nor has the opposition managed to decipher the feminist demands, a horizontal movement that has no interest in entering the game of traditional politics.

The National Action Party (PAN), the main opposition force, has tried to endorse the claim against the femicides, as part of its criticism of the security policy of the Government of López Obrador.

But the PAN is a right-wing formation that struggles with speeches such as the legalization of abortion and the rights of sexual and gender minorities.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has also tried to capitalize on the discontent, but the result has a stiff and not very credible shadow.

"The PRI members reaffirm our commitment to continue promoting actions to guarantee Mexican women full access to their rights, so that they live safely and can develop freely," read a publication on their social networks.

"We want to invite them to defend their right to joy in order to have a Mexico with peace and security, in which we live in peace," said Movimiento Ciudadano, to mix their latest slogan with gender slogans.

"No party has known how to represent us, they have never taken measures," summarizes López.

Guadalupe Hernández, 64, is a sign that the message has permeated and that it goes along completely different lines.

“I have daughters and I want them to live in a free country in the future, where there is no violence, where women have the same rights and the same salaries,” she affirms.

She learned it from her daughters and this is her fourth gear.

"I do it for them, for my granddaughter and for all of them."

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