Mexican women paint victim names to protest gender violence

MEXICO CITY — Adriana. Dulce. Paola. Nayeli. Ingrid. Maria — lots of Marias. These are just some of the names of the thousands of women killed each year in Mexico, often by their intimate partners.

Dozens of women carpeted Mexico City’s central Zocalo square Sunday with victim’s names in white block letters as part of protests against gender violence on International Women’s Day.

Government data shows that 3,825 women met violent deaths last year, 7% more than in 2018. That works out to an average of more than 10 women slain each day in Mexico, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world for females. Thousands more have gone missing without a trace in recent years.

“We decided it was a moment to put them into numbers — all those women who are missing, who they’ve taken from us,” said Sofia De Robina, a lawyer with the Miguel Agustin Pro Human Rights Center.

De Robina, together with friends and activists, compiled a list of names of women who have been killed in Mexico since since 2016. The idea was to put those names on the asphalt as a memorial, but also to give them a voice in the day’s protest.

Murders of women in Mexico are often accompanied by sexual violence and stunning brutality. Some women are burned. Some are mutilated.

Authorities seem incapable of preventing or properly investigating the crimes, very few of which result in convictions.

As De Robina talked, children and women passing by offered to pick up a paint brush and help.

The names on her list came from public records of deaths that appear to fall in the category of femicide, meaning those women’s killings carried marks of hatred for the female gender. De Robina and her collaborators found 3,300 apparent femicides in all.

Criminal charges of femicide carry heavier sentences than other homicides in Mexico.

Thousands of Mexican women were expected to march in protest of gender violence in the capital Sunday, with smaller demonstrations in cities across the country and some larger marches in nations across the world.

Protesters tinted red the water of the fountain to the Roman goddess Diana in Mexico City, and also the water of a fountain to the Roman goddess of wisdom, Minerva, in Guadalajara.

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Associated Press journalist Rebecca Blackwell contributed to this report.

Amy Guthrie And Alicia Hernandez, The Associated Press