Hundreds protest violence against women in Mexico

Hundreds of women demonstrated Tuesday in Mexico City against gender-based violence, which kills an average of 10 women or girls every day in Mexico, according to official data.

Mexican lawyer Alejandra Perez said she has lived in fear every day since the violence she suffered at the hands of her ex-partner left her temporarily disabled.

But the 37-year-old found the courage to join the protest to denounce the impunity of many perpetrators of gender-based violence in Mexico, and marched holding a poster showing the man she accuses of assaulting her.

“I filed a complaint against him three years ago and this man is still at large,” she said of her daughter’s father. “The system is very slow. Unfortunately, many women have to carry out their own investigations.”

The United Nations reports that 70 percent of Mexican women over the age of 15 have experienced some form of assault at least once in their lives.

Mexican parliamentary records indicate that 3,430 women died violent deaths in Mexico in 2024, including 829 victims of femicide, a crime defined as murder motivated by the sex of the victim.

Mexico is experiencing a wave of feminist fervor fueled by anger over the high number of attacks and the impunity of perpetrators.

President Claudia Sheinbaum recently launched a national campaign against sexual harassment and abuse, after a shocking video showing a man groping her highlighted the widespread problem.

The country’s first female leader has outlined a plan to guarantee prison sentences for sexual abuse across Mexico and encourage women to report incidents to police.

The 63-year-old leader was accosted while walking through Mexico City when an apparently drunk man put his arm around her shoulder, touched her hip and chest and attempted to kiss her neck, before a member of the president’s security detail pulled him away.

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