Latin America saw its streets painted green and purple this Tuesday (08.03.2022) during protests demanding gender violence, decriminalization of abortion, fair wages and an end to femicides, among others. The following is a review of how International Women’s Day was experienced in the region.
Argentina: thousands repudiate male violence in the streets
Thousands of women marched in Argentina on Tuesday to express their repudiation against sexist violence and to demand equal rights on International Women’s Day. “The debt is with us” was one of the slogans in the main march that concentrated a multitude of women in front of the National Congress in the Argentine capital, where a new agreement with the International Monetary Fund is being debated.
The claims emphasized the violence against women that in the first two months of this year caused 54 femicides, 63% of the cases killed by partners or ex-partners, according to statistics from the NGO La Casa del Encuentro.
Bolivia: women march with pictures of rapists
Hundreds of women marched in Bolivia carrying photographs of those accused or sentenced for rape, judges and prosecutors, who have freed those involved in cases of gender violence or femicides, to demand justice and denounce the “delay in the resolution of the processes”.
The march called by the collective Women Creating began at the Murillo Lighthouse in the city of El Alto and the group walked to the Departmental Court of Justice of La Paz demanding justice for all victims of male violence and that there is no longer impunity for those responsible. This mobilization took place on March 7, prior to International Women’s Day, in which other women’s marches were also planned, even President Luis Arce was summoned to join the mobilizations of women supporters of the Government.
Brazil: demand for equality and an end to Bolsonaro’s “macho policies
Thousands of Brazilian women, but also numerous men, occupied the streets of the country this Tuesday (08.03.2022) to call for greater gender equality and protested against the “macho and genocidal” policies perpetrated by the government of President Jair Bolsonaro.
Under shouts of “Bolsonaro will fall”, “Down with genocide” or “Enough of misogyny and patriarchy”, they marched on the roads of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, among other Brazilian cities, to advocate for equality on this International Women’s Day. In Sao Paulo, the demonstrators gathered at the Sao Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), on the iconic Paulista Avenue at 16.00 local time (19.00 GMT), from where they marched about three kilometers towards the city center.
Colombia: march in first 8M after decriminalization of abortion
Thousands of Colombian women protested Tuesday, on International Women’s Day, in a colorful march through Bogota that celebrated the recent decriminalization of abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy and demanded an end to male violence.
“It’s legal, it’s legal, abortion in Colombia is legal!” chanted the women gathered in front of the Historical Memory Center, in the center of the Colombian capital. The demonstrators gathered around 15H00 local time (20H00 GMT) at different points in Bogota and marched peacefully towards the center waving green scarves, dancing and chanting.
Chile: Marching with the next first lady and future ministers
Tens of thousands of women marched this Tuesday (08.03.2022) in Santiago for greater equality, among them the next first lady, Irina Karamanos, and several ministers of the future leftist president Gabriel Boric, who will assume in three days a government that promised to be “feminist”.
“Democracy in the country, in the house and in bed,” read the banner carried by Karamanos, 32, Boric’s partner, and other future female authorities such as Camila Vallejos, the next government spokeswoman, and Izkia Siches, who will become Chile’s first Minister of the Interior, during the International Women’s Day demonstration.
Costa Rica: thousands of women march for their rights
Thousands of women marched this Tuesday in downtown San José to demand their rights and against harassment and what they consider “neoliberal policies” that affect the development of Costa Rica and its citizens.
The march had slogans against the two candidates for the Presidency of the Republic for the second round of elections on April 3: former President José María Figueres, whom the demonstrators called “thief”, and Rodrigo Chaves, whom they called “harasser” in reference to a sanction for sexual harassment imposed on him by the World Bank when he was an official of that entity. The women also expressed their support for the legalization of abortion, their repudiation of the government for its “neoliberal, patriarchal and sexist” policies, as well as for femicide and sexual harassment.
Cuba: Women’s Day commemorated amidst congratulations and criticism
Cuba commemorated on Tuesday International Women’s Day amid official congratulations for the progress achieved by Cuban women in society and criticism from independent activists on issues still unresolved.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel congratulated on Twitter “all Cuban women who make the Homeland proud with their work” and thanked them “for sustaining and raising creative resistance every day”. Similar messages were posted on social networks to highlight, for example, that Cuba signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Dominican Republic: Women claim their rights in front of the National Congress
Some 150 people demonstrated this Tuesday (08.03.2022) in Santo Domingo on the occasion of Women’s Day to make a series of demands, among them the decriminalization of abortion in three cases, as well as the prevention of violence.
Wearing orange and green clothing and carrying flags and signs, the groups of demonstrators -men and women- walked to the National Congress headquarters shouting slogans such as “Neither submissive nor obedient, women fighters” or “This day is not a day of celebration, it is a day of struggle and resistance”. After the brief march, activist Lucereida Mejía, of the Movimiento de Mujeres Trabajadoras, read a manifesto that was delivered to the National Congress, to demand from legislators “a different attitude to guarantee women’s rights”.
Ecuador: women march for equality, abortion, justice and against wars
A massive march took place this Tuesday in Quito for International Women’s Day, in which the demands for equality, decriminalization of abortion and justice against feminicide were heard again, but also against wars around the world.
Feminist groups marched through the streets of the center of the capital of Ecuador in a march in which, loudly, they demanded the president of the country, the conservative Guillermo Lasso, to eliminate the terms of the recent law that regulates abortion in cases of rape. The mobilization included a strong struggle with the police in the vicinity of the Presidential Palace, in the historic center of Quito, which has been kept under protection against the possibility of new social demonstrations.
El Salvador: Thousands demand justice for missing women and femicides
To the unified cry of “Ni una menos, vivas nos queremos” (Not one less, we want us alive), thousands of Salvadoran women marched through the main streets of San Salvador on March 6 to demand justice for the missing women and victims of femicides, perpetrated in the Central American country considered one of the most dangerous for women.
Feminists, trans women, war veterans, human rights defenders and students gathered at one of the entrances of the University of El Salvador (UES) and then headed as a block to Cuscatlán Park, in a demonstration that took place on the occasion of International Women’s Day. “Alive they took them away, alive we want them”, chanted the women who also carried different posters with messages such as: “I look prettier when I’m quiet, I don’t look quiet”, “we fight for those who are no longer here and those who are coming behind”, “my fear became strength”, “we are the cry of those who are no longer here”, among others.
Guatemala: women demand justice 5 years after state home tragedy
Dozens of women in Guatemala demanded justice on Tuesday (08.03.2022) for the death of 41 girls burned five years ago in a state-run home, in a case that is advancing by tiny steps in the Central American country’s judicial system.
The demand for justice took place during the day of International Women’s Day, both in morning and afternoon marches that took place in downtown Guatemala City, specifically at the altar created several years ago by various social organizations to remember the girls. The altar, a few meters from the National Palace of Culture, seat of the Guatemalan Government, was attended by dozens of women who honored the 41 girls who died in the tragedy, where 15 other girls were injured.
Honduras: march against femicides and demand fulfillment of their rights
Hundreds of Honduran women marched this Tuesday in Tegucigalpa against the 61 femicides that have shaken the country so far this year and to demand the fulfillment of their rights and the approval of the Shelter House Law for victims of male violence.
In one of the marches, which went all the way to the Honduran Parliament, they also protested against harassment and other macho aggressions against them, on International Women’s Day. Honduran activist Celeste Guardiola told the agency Efe that the mobilization, called by different feminist non-governmental organizations, seeks to “make visible” disabled women as well. “As women with disabilities we want to make ourselves visible to society, we have also been victims of violence,” said Guardiola, who uses a wheelchair.
Mexico: rivers of women demand justice in the face of increasing femicides
On Tuesday (08.03.2022), tens of thousands of women marched through central avenues of Mexico City, shouting for justice for the growing femicides and domestic violence, as part of International Women’s Day.
“Feminicidal state!” and “Justice! Justice!”, repeated the women who left the emblematic Angel of Independence, a monument erected on the Paseo de la Reforma, bound for the Zócalo, the country’s main square. “It’s a lot of impotence because you can’t do anything for your sisters” who have been assaulted, said to the agency AFP Diana Renedo, 19, a business relations student, as a contingent shouted in unison “Not one more murdered woman!”. Mothers of femicide victims chanted roll call of their daughters’ names. “I want to see the murderers in jail!” read a banner from that contingent.
Nicaragua commemorates Women’s Day with 14 opposition leaders imprisoned
Nicaragua commemorated this Tuesday the International Women’s Day with 14 opposition leaders detained in the framework of the socio-political crisis that the country has been experiencing since April 2018, while the government of President Daniel Ortega highlighted the advances in gender policy.
Several human rights, feminist and opposition organizations went to Twitter to “shout” for the convicted dissidents, through the hashtag #GritoPorLasPresasPoliticas, promoted by the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH).
Panama: women march for girls’ protection
At least a thousand women marched in Panama on Tuesday (08.03.2022), International Women’s Day, to demand greater protection for girls and adolescents against sexual violence and to demand better labor rights.
“We fight for these girls, because Panama is the second country in the Americas with the second highest rate of pregnant teenagers, only Haiti surpasses us,” he told the agency. Efe alternate deputy of the National Assembly (AN, Parliament) and women’s rights activist, Walkiria Chandler. Under a large banner bearing the phrase “girls, not mothers”, women of different ages, social classes and political currents marched dressed in purple, the symbol of feminism, through the main streets of Panama City.
Peru: march against male violence
Hundreds of Peruvian women marched on March 5, as part of International Women’s Day, through downtown Lima to raise their voices against male violence, a scourge that gives no respite in a country where every two days a woman is murdered for the mere fact of being a woman.
Collectives of common pots, domestic caregivers, peasants, sex workers, disabled people and relatives of disappeared women and victims of feminicide gathered in front of the Palace of Justice in the Peruvian capital and walked through the main streets of the city to demand equality and denounce the capitalist system that makes them precarious.
Uruguay: purple tinges an 8M color tainted by a union strike
The color violet tinged the International Women’s Day march in Uruguay, despite the fact that the day was marred by the general strike called by the trade union central, the PIT-CNT, in a gesture rejected by theIntersocial Feminist and described as “political” by the government.
Faced with this dilemma, tens of thousands of women marched this Tuesday in purple and flooded the streets of downtown Montevideo in the largest march in recent times with slogans such as “Let them come to see / let them come to see / the feminist struggle is not managed by the PIT CNT”. The Intersocial Feminista, which acknowledged that the day passed without incident, called the march under the slogan “Together, in all spaces, against oppressions”.
Venezuela: Chavista supporters marched in Caracas
At least 500 people, followers of Chavism, mobilized this Tuesday in Caracas to commemorate International Women’s Day and for the promotion of public policies that promote and guarantee gender equality in Venezuela.
The group, made up mostly of women, mobilized from the Plaza Morelos, in downtown Caracas, to the Miraflores Palace, seat of the Executive, where they shouted slogans in support of President Nicolás Maduro and on the occasion of the commemoration. “To victory with feminist socialism” and “Venezuelan women have what it takes” were some of the messages that the demonstrators displayed on banners as they walked through the main streets of downtown Caracas.