Compass Gender: Mexican Women Protest Femicides

The Paso del Norte International Bridge where Mexican women gathered to protest. (Wikimedia Commons)

Hundreds of women gathered in Juárez, Mexico, on January 25 to protest the killing of feminist activist Isabel Cabanillas de la Torre. Clad in black ski masks, the women marched to the Paso del Norte International Bridge connecting Juárez to El Paso, Texas, halting border traffic for hours.

As the latest widely-reported femicide in Juárez, the murder of De la Torre on January 18 reincited demonstrations. However, outrage over violence against women in Mexico has been escalating for months.

Last August, women filled the streets of Mexico City to protest a rape committed by city police. Protesters trashed a bus station and police precinct. They sprayed their disapproval onto monuments with messages such as “rape state” on the Angel of Independence.

The newest wave of protesters shouted “not one more,” referencing past violent incidents. In a simultaneous demonstration in Mexico City, protesters expressedtheir frustration with gender-based violence by spraying police officers and monuments with paint.

Nelly Ornelas, a member of the anti-domestic violence organization Love is Not Violence, explained that the protests are a way to bring attention to femicide in her country. Though approximately ten women are murdered every day in Mexico, just one in ten of the country’s reported criminals go to jail.

Ornelas said, “Since the authorities are indifferent, lazy, the men think that they can keep killing women. So the feminists, we are going to keep going out until they learn to respect us.”

Confronted with high rates of murder, women are tired of staying home out of fear. The protests in Juárez are a demand for more visibility for women as they face the risk of gender-based violence in a patriarchal world.