Mexican women protest against 'femicide' and militarization

[News_Editor]

Mexican women protest against 'femicide' and militarization

2011-03-09 04:54:12 GMT+7 (ICT)

QUERETARO, MEXICO (BNO NEWS) -- Mexican women took to the streets Tuesday to mark the 100th International Women's Day and protest against 'femicide,' and the militarization of the country, La Jornada reported.

Some 100 members of various organizations defending women's rights marched through the main streets of Querétaro in central Mexico to demand "not one more death in the country." They remembered slain activist Marisela Escobedo with pink crosses and called on Mexican authorities to criminalize female homicides, also called 'femicides'.

In the southern state of Oaxaca, teachers of the Section 22 union marched to demand attention to women's claims, causing the suspension of classes in about 13 thousand schools in the state, with a school population of more than one million students, according to the newspaper.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Chiapas, more than a thousand women and men from various groups marched in the colonial city of San Cristóbal de las Casas to demand the demilitarization of the country, the release of political prisoners, and an end to violence and femicide. Some protesters said that "while jails are filled with social activists, the country is bleeding to death in a war without end."

In another demonstration in the municipality of Chenalho in Chiapas, about 500 members of the civil society organization Las Abejas, or "Bees," whose some of its members were killed by a paramilitary group in Acteal on December 22, 1997, staged a protest at a military camp where soldiers tried to prevent them from entering to hold a prayer vigil.

In Cuernavaca, Morelos, near Mexico City, the Sixth Continental Meeting of Indigenous Women of the Americas, concluded with a rally. Attendees expressed concern about the lack of public policies that directly involve women, youth and indigenous peoples, the unequal distribution of budgets, and enforcement of laws that are inconsistent with international standards.

On Monday, the United Nations called on the Mexican government to legally define femicide as a separate and particularly intolerable crime. According to the National Association of Democratic Lawyers, which mainly defend abuses against women, over 10,000 women and girls have been killed in the last 10 years. Each year 120,000 women are raped on average and now in the context of the war on drugs, this sector faces greater levels of violence.

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