“4T costs lives. More than 3,000 femicides”, read a monumental banner placed in front of the National Palace. It was with this legend that thousands of women were received in the Zócalo of the capital as part of the demonstrations on the occasion of the 8M International Women’s Day.
“Brave, free and eternal”, “Not one more murdered”, “Long live we love each other”, shouted this Tuesday more than 75,000 women, who with decorated banners, flowers, and music filled the main streets with purple between the Paseo de la Reforma and the Zócalo of Mexico City, to demand an end to gender violence in the country.
In small or large groups, these mostly young women protested for themselves, their friends, daughters, and anyone who has experienced violence in their lives.
While the demonstration was also joined by a small group of policewomen who were given flowers along the way by demonstrators as a sign of solidarity.
The first time for many
Nataly, 35, and her daughter Melany, 8, went out for the first time to march and although they were nervous at first, she does not regret raising her voice on this day.
She assures that what motivated them to leave was having to explain to her daughter the bad things that are happening in the country and that I am not afraid to leave as long as it is for a just cause.
“At school they are already beginning to talk about femicide and it is something that she hears a lot on TV,” she adds.
While Melany herself points out that she wanted to go out because she wants to learn to fight for her rights and respect, well, she says, “it is not correct that they touch us without permission, there are already many dead women and they are afraid, I want to go out and play but I can’t because it’s not sure that it will come out”.
For Norma and her 9-year-old granddaughter, this event is a symbol of unity. “They are cries of struggle, of desperate mothers for their children, and because of the repression against women I am here,” she said.
When leaving for the femicide of a close friend, Claudia, with tears, expresses that she feels emotion “to see many women, mothers, sisters, friends, it is exciting.”
In the end, after three hours of demonstration, the undersecretary of Security of the CdMx, Marcela Figueroa, reported that the ERUM provided medical attention to more than 40 people, of which most were due to dehydration or heat stroke.
Regarding hospital care, the official stressed that it was required for eight people; six of them, police officers because one was injured with an ice pick to the face, hit to the nose, hit by a bat, bruised right knee, another hyperglycemia and another due to intoxication. And two civilians who tried to break a glass in Metro Hidalgo.