Hundreds of thousands of women all over Mexico are getting ready to participate in International Women’s Day (8M) marches and rallies on Friday.
Feminist groups, activists of various human rights movements, family members and friends will be taking to the streets nationwide to demand – among other things – access to safe and legal abortions in all states; the eradication of gender violence; access to more jobs and better wages; more help from men with domestic work; and justice in cases of femicide that remain unpunished.
According to María de la Luz Estrada, director of the National Citizens’ Observatory of Femicide (OCNF), more than 3,000 women, girls and adolescents are murdered each year, although only 24% of these cases are counted as feminicide.
In Mexico, the March 8, or 8M, demonstrations began in the 1970s, but “in recent years they have acquired a sense of urgency due to the sexist context that women continue to face in the country,” Sara González wrote in the newspaper El País. Massive gatherings are set to occur all over the country.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador used his morning press conference to ask that the protests be peaceful. He also urged, “with all due respect,” that the demonstrators take off their hoods.
“It is not an order or a mandate, nor an instruction. It is a respectful recommendation,” he added. “If we live in a free country, why cover up? … You have to show your face.”
First and foremost, the 70-year-old AMLO stressed that he is 100% behind the right to demonstrate.
“Because in our country, there is no repression, freedoms are fully guaranteed, freedom of demonstration, expression, etc. are not limited,” he said. “It was before. I just say that you should try to protest, demonstrate, which is your right, in a peaceful manner.”
In Mexico City, 90,000 participants are expected, which would match last year’s total. Many streets will be closed to traffic as demonstrators follow a route that starts at the Glorieta de las Mujeres Que Luchan (Roundabout of the Women Who Fight).
Mexico City is also observing 8M with the Tiempo de Mujeres (Time for Women) festival from March 1-17, with more than 120 activities such as a March 16 free concert in the Zócalo by international pop star Julieta Venegas.
Other marches are scheduled in cities all across Mexico. Find your city and the departure point and time for the march below:
- Tijuana, La Glorieta, 1 p.m.
- Tlaxcala, Asta Bandera (La Virgen), 3 p.m.
- Oaxaca, Monumento a la Madre, 3:30 p.m.
- Villahermosa, Parque Estrella, 3:30 p.m.
- Mexico City, Glorieta de las Mujeres Que Luchan, 4 p.m.
- Monterrey, Explanada de Colegio Civil, 4 p.m.
- Querétaro, Plaza del Estudiante, 4 p.m.
- Puebla, El Gallito, 5 p.m.
- Morelia, Plaza Morelos/Plaza del Caballito, 5 p.m.
- Puerto Vallarta, Parque de las Mujeres, 5:40 p.m.
- Mérida, Plaza de España, 7:30 p.m.
Some demonstrations will include the construction or completion of (or paying homage to) an anti-monumento, installations that are traditionally placed during major protests in Mexico to remind people about important events and/or issues of justice that have been brushed aside or not adequately addressed by the government.
Many of these protest monuments relate to femicides, forced disappearances and violence against women. On Friday, at the installation in Mexico City (aptly referred to in the feminine anti-monumenta) where some marchers will gather, there will be an open microphone from 12-3:30 p.m. for direct and indirect victims of gender violence to speak their minds in a safe space.
With reports from El País, Animal Politico, Diario AS, La Voz, El Financiero and Mi Morelia
