Protesters March Against Gender-Based Violence in Mexico City

Tens of thousands of women took to the streets in Mexico City on Sunday, 8 March, to protest gender-based violence. Many wore purple in honor of International Women’s Day, waving signs that read “Fight today so we don’t die tomorrow” and “We are the voice of those who are no longer with us,” The Washington Post reports.

Approximately 80,000 demonstrators participated in the march in Mexico City alone. The protests will continue today, as thousands of women plan to participate in a nationwide “day without women” strike.

Tens of thousands of Mexican women protest femicides, gender-based violence https://t.co/bXr0fRw9Ff

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 9, 2020

The annual women’s rights demonstration in Mexico has evolved into a social uprising after a string of recent killings, including the gruesome slaying of 25-year-old Ingrid Escamilla in February and the abduction and killing of a 7-year-old.

According to government data, femicides—killings based on the victim’s gender—in Mexico have surged 137 percent over the past five years; many violent murders go unsolved. In 2019 alone, 3,825 women were violently killed in Mexico, a 7 percent rise since 2018, Newsweek reports. In addition, thousands of women have gone missing in recent years.

A 2017 report by the National Institute for Statistics and Geography found about 66 percent of women over the age of 15 in Mexico had experienced some form of violence at least once; 44 percent had been abused by a partner.

In November 2019, Mexico’s government vowed to crack down on gender-based violence by training police on issues of gender and promoting national awareness campaigns on gender-based violence, Reuters reports.