Women's day: Mexico barrier turned into women's memorial

8 March 2021

International Women's Day

A woman stands next to placards with names of women victims of violence as preparations to the Women"s International Day in Mexico City, Mexico, 07 March 2021 — Image caption,
Women's groups have turned the metal fencing into an impromptu memorial for the victims of femicides

Fencing erected to protect Mexico's National Palace ahead of a planned march to mark International Women's Day has been turned into a memorial.

The names of hundreds of victims of femicides - murders of women because of their gender - have been painted on the metal fencing.

The three-metre-high (9.8ft) barrier was put up to protect the palace "from vandalism", the government said.

Women's groups say the government does not do enough to combat femicides.

A flower is seen among the names of victims of femicide in Mexico painted by women on fences placed outside the National Palace ahead of a Women"s Day protest in Mexico City, Mexico March 7, 2021

Reuters

Hundreds of names of femicide victims have been drawn on to the metal fence

They also criticised President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for ordering the National Palace and the Palace of Fine Arts to be surrounded by barriers, asking what he as afraid of.

People walk past a barricade with a slogan reading "There will never be walls high enough that organised women can't overthrow" in Mexico City, Mexico March 7, 2021.

Reuters

This slogan reads: "There will never be walls high enough that can stop organised women from tearing them down"

The president responded by saying that the barriers were put up "not out of fear, but to prevent provocations and to protect historic buildings".

"Last time around, bombs were thrown against this historic building," he said, referring to protests over the brutal murder of a seven-year-old girl in February 2020 in which slogans were sprayed on to the walls of the National Palace and petrol bombs lobbed against a door.

Demonstrators paint windows as they gather outside the National Palace, in Mexico City, on February 18, 2020, to protest against gender violence.

Getty Images

The president said the barriers were put up so scenes like this one in February 2020 would not repeat themselves

The president added women had the right to protest, but he said there was "much provocation, many people infiltrate [the protests] and seek to do damage, they use violence as a form of protest and throw Molotov cocktails, and we don't want anyone to get injured".

He also said he was "not a male chauvinist", in response to criticism by women who say he has ignored the problem of violence against women.

A woman places flowers beside the names of victims of femicide in Mexico on fences placed outside the National Palace ahead of a Women"s Day protest in Mexico City, Mexico March 7, 2021

Reuters

People have been placing flowers next to the names of the femicide victims

Women's rights activists say they want to draw attention to the hundreds of women that are killed every year in Mexico. Government figures suggest at least 939 women were victims of femicide in 2020.

Women embrace outside the National Palace ahead of a Women's Day protest in Mexico City, Mexico March 7, 2021.

Reuters

Almost 1,000 women were victims of femicide in Mexico in 2020

"We women want to ask for justice and that people understand, and that the president, who lives here, knows that we're fighting because they are killing us," one activist told Reuters news agency.

Mexico City officials said thousands of police, including 2,000 female officers, would be deployed across the capital ahead of the planned marches on Monday.

Women's groups are planning activities across the country. In Ciudad Juárez, a city infamous for the high number of women who have gone missing from there over the years, relatives of the disappeared held up pink crosses with the slogan "Not one more" in protest over the weekend.