This archive report was first published on 26 November 2019.
On November 25, 2019, thousands of women took to the streets of Mexico City to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The protest was the latest in a series of large, rowdy marches against femicide and rape in Mexico.
Masked demonstrators, mostly women, used sledgehammers to shatter bus stop and advertising billboards, tore down barricades, lit a bonfire, and painted messages on monuments along Paseo de la Reforma, the city's most famous street. The protest was dubbed the 'Glitter Revolution' after protesters doused the Mexico City security minister in pink glitter at a previous demonstration.
Despite the declaration of a 'gender violence alert' by Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, an ally of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the protest continued. Nineteen of Mexico's 32 states have declared such alerts since 2007, but protesters remain skeptical about their effectiveness.
"In Mexico state, we've had a gender violence alert for four years running, and it hasn't done anything. They keep killing women," said Valeria Arevalo, 18, a protester from neighboring Mexico state.
Some men also joined the march, including Benjamin Vargas, who carried a picture of his 22-year-old daughter, Sol, who was murdered last year along with his wife. Mexico has the most femicides of any country in Latin America, with more than nine women murdered every day.
Two in three Mexican women say they have been victims of violence in some form, according to the national statistics institute.
