Massive rallies held across Argentina against femicide
Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets across Argentina to protest endemic violence against women, following a recent series of brutal murders in the country.
Protesters flooded the streets of Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires and more than 100 other cities on Wednesday. They were carrying signs with slogans like “machismo kills” and “enough deaths” on them.
People in the capital also held banners which read ‘Ni una menos’ (Not one less), which also served as the rallying cry for the campaign.
On April 15, Argentinians were shocked by the murder of a 44-year-old kindergarten teacher whose ex-husband, with a history of mental illness, slit her throat in front of the class.
Similar cases of brutal violence against women have been reported in Argentina in the past weeks, stoking public outrage across the South American country.
“We're seeing a social and political inflexion point,” with people mobilizing en masse because of the recent murders, said Fabiana Tunez, head of women's rights group La Casa del Encuentro, one of the main organizations behind the protest marches.
Backing the movement, football star Lionel Messi wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday that “Enough femicides. We join all Argentines today in shouting out loud 'Not one woman less'.”
Although Argentina adopted a femicide law in 2012 to punish the crime with life sentences, La Casa del Encuentro has reported that 277 women were murdered in 2014 alone, as victims of domestic violence.
According to La Casa del Encuentro, from 2007 to 2012, every 35 hours a femicide was reported in Argentina.
“We need official statistics to develop effective policies and an adequate budget to implement these policies,” said Mabel Bianco, the president of the Foundation for the Study and Research on Women in Buenos Aires.
Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner also denounced the violence and described it as “culture that devastates women”.
Similar demonstrations were also reported to be staged in Chile, Uruguay, and Mexico, which also suffer greatly from the same problem.
RS/AS/MHB
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