Protests against militarization, femicides in Juarez, Mexico

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, May 22 (EFE).- Activists demonstrated Sunday in the downtown area of ​​Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez against militarization and the growing wave of femicides in the city.

With cardboard signs reading “No more femicides or disappearances,” “No to militarization!” and “Hospitals not National Guard!” demonstrators protested that municipal authorities removed pink and black crosses in various parts of the city that symbolize violence against women, to make way for the National Universiade.

“With this we seek that people are a little interested in this situation we are experiencing, we are going to repaint the crosses. Where the Municipal Institute for Women is, they removed some crosses,” Elizabeth Nieto Snchez, a member of the Movement against Militarization in Juarez, told EFE.

The activist said she is against the militarization of the country and believes soldiers should be in barracks, not in the city intimidating the community.

Eva Ronquillo Hernandez, another of the attendees, said this event is to point out, “that we have a lot of National Guard and the disappearances of women continue, they continue to kill them.”

She said the situation is a conspiracy between the government and the military, who are complicit in continuing the same condition of violence and insecurity in the city.

Protesters painted pink and black crosses on seats and metal structures. Later they marched to the park of the monument to Benito Juarez. There they placed investigations of the disappeared women, among them, that of Esmeralda Catillo, a young woman who disappeared 13 years ago.

The border city of Ciudad Juarez is known for the acts of femicide, also called “Muertas de Juárez”, which refers to the women murdered in this city since the early 1990s.

The Mexican government registered 1,004 victims of femicide in 2021, as murder motivated by gender violence is typified, 2.66 percent more than in 2020.

According to organizations, the state shares responsibility for violence against women due to inadequate protection measures and lack of investigation, since the aggressors are rarely prosecuted.

In Mexico, on average, more than 10 women are murdered every day, according to official figures. EFE

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