Women’s March in San Cristobal de Las Casas on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2017. Photo: @Sipaz
On 8 March, in the context of International Women’s Day, women held two marches in which they demanded “justice for women, punishment of officials who do not fulfill their duty and effective investigation of all allegations of violence as well as cases of femicide” in San Cristobal de Las Casas. Rocio Garcia of San Cristobal de Las Casas Women’s Group A.C. (COLEM in its Spanish acronym) made a “call to women not to be silent, to denounce and demand their rights.” She pointed out that the problem of violence against women has intensified: “in 2016 there were 138 women [who died] by violent death, of which 65% have been classed as femicides, we are talking about [the fact] that there are 89 registered cases in the year 2016.” The Fourth Assembly for the Defense of the Earth, Territory and for the Participation of Women in Decision-making also denounced “the way in which the State and the death system shows their different faces in their war of extermination against peoples, men and especially against women.”
Women from Las Abejas de Acteal Civil Society Organization, handing over a letter to soldiers
For their part, the women from Las Abejas de Acteal Civil Society Organization also made a march during which, in a pacifist action, two representatives entered the military barracks of the area and handed the soldiers a letter asking them to leave their lands: “We do not come to harm you, we as women only want peace, so we tell you that we do not want you to be on our territory.” They reminded them that, “the Mexican Army trained and armed the paramilitaries who massacred 45 sisters and brothers our four babies who were not yet born and were violently removed from the womb of their mothers.”
After the march, the women read a statement in which they declared to celebrate that “every day there are more conscious women who defend their rights.” They denounced, among other things, the impunity and injustices of “the Acteal massacre (…) of the massive deportations of migrant workers (…) of the disappearance of the compañeros from Ayotzinapa.” They rejected the increase in “welfare projects and government programs that only cause division in communities”, and the distribution of chemicals “that in some cases have caused the death of the campesinos, just like the death of our mother earth.” They rejected the “gasolinazo” [increase in combustible prices]. They demanded the closure of bars “that every day become a problem causing family violence, illness and suicides.”
For more information in Spanish:
Pronunciamiento de la Campaña Permanente contra la Violencia hacia las Mujeres y el feminicidio en Chiapas (CDH Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, a 9 de marzo de 2017)
Ong declararán a San Cristóbal de las Casas “ciudad insegura e impune” durante el Paro Internacional de Mujeres #8M (M-X, a 7 de marzo de 2017)
Pronunciamiento de la Cuarta Asamblea del Movimiento en Defensa de la Tierra, el Territorio y por la participación de las Mujeres en la toma de decisiones (8 de marzo de 2017)
“Nos están matando en medio de la permisibilidad”: un acercamiento a la violencia hacia las mujeres (CDH Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, a 8 de marzo de 2017)
En este año 2017 todavía no podemos celebrar que sean respetados todos nuestros derechos porque no es así. ( Las Abejas de Acteal, 8 de marzo de 2018)
For more information from SIPAZ:
Chiapas: Sigue la violencia hacia las mujeres (24 de febrero de 2017)
Chiapas: Mujeres marchan contra los feminicidios (7 de noviembre de 2016)
Chiapas: Día Internacional de Lucha contra la Violencia hacia las Mujeres (28 de noviembre de 2016)
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