Sparse subway trains, traffic, schools and shops closed … The call for a national strike was heard on Monday March 9 by countless Mexican women. The calm in the streets of central Mexico City contrasted with the usual bustle of the megalopolis of more than 22 million inhabitants. In the aftermath of huge protests for International Women’s Day, the initiative, dubbed “#UnDiaSinNosotras” (“a day without us”), denounced the government’s inaction in the face of a record wave of feminicides.
"Today, our absence means enough! ", says Arlett Gaxiola, driver of VTC, who left his vehicle in the parking lot. This thirty-something single mother spent the day with her two children in her apartment in the heart of Mexico City. Like others, lawyers, bankers, civil servants or shopkeepers, Arlett respected, Monday, the instructions of feminist organizations: "No work, no school, no household chores, no shopping …" And her neighbor, Cristina Montiel, a 27-year-old accountant, explains: "We become invisible so that men can feel the impact. What would happen if we were all killed? "
A question that is not absurd in the deadliest country for women on the American continent: 10.5 women are murdered on average every day in Mexico, against seven in 2017. This macabre increase brings their number to 3 825 l 'last year. But the authorities only recognize 1,006 murders as feminicides, a figure that has nonetheless increased by 136% in four years.
Impunity reigns
"This is a humanitarian crisis! ", alarmed in the media Arussi Unda, spokesperson for the feminist collective, Las Brujas del mar (the "witches of the sea") which launched the call for strike on February 18. The watchword was quickly relayed on social media. Two barbaric murders in the capital had just rocked the country: that of Ingrid, 25, brutally butchered by her husband, then that of Fatima, a 7-year-old girl, kidnapped after school and raped. In protest, the women disappeared from television screens on Sunday. Over a third of the bank branches, Banamex and Bancomer, had to close for lack of staff. Ditto in many schools and other public services.
