With a march, they demand justice on the Day of the Dead

Alexia Villasenor

La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, November 4, 2024, p. 11

Relatives and friends of girls and women victims of disappearance and feminicide, who make up the Voces de la Ausencia collective, held a peaceful march in Mexico City on November 3, called the Day of the Dead, demanding justice for those who were taken from us because they did not die, they were murdered.

For the sixth consecutive year, protesters left the Zócalo towards the Voces Abrazando Voces Antimonument, located on Paseo de la Reforma. A contingent of boys and girls led the protest, since a large part of them are motherless, and their main slogan is: justice for my mother, justice for my aunt, justice for my grandmother, justice for my sister, justice for all.

Two girls who survived attempted feminicide participated. One of them, Tabata, is eight years old. He shouted slogans loudly and smiled every time he had the megaphone in his hands. He suffers from slight difficulty walking as a result of the attack against him, despite which he did not stop until he reached the end of the route.

She was three years old when she was attacked by her stepfather, who left her in serious condition for months due to head trauma and left hemisphere cerebral infarction. Her grandmother, Cony, who takes care of her, said that her prognosis was bleak, a possible vegetative state, but Fortunately it wasn’t like that, that’s why every year we come, at first I brought her in a stroller, because she couldn’t walk and now with her splint she walks alone and that’s why we come to support.

Shortly after 1 p.m., the vanguard left the Zócalo, where they did a roll call of the girls and women whose lives have been taken and placed white wooden crosses with their names in a part of the Plaza de la Constitución. purple letters of the daughters, sisters, mothers and friends who have been victims of feminicide. Likewise, they displayed canvases printed with photographs and search sheets for missing babies, girls and women.

The intention, they said, is make our cry for justice resound for those who can no longer do it. Upon arriving at the Antimonument, they held a meeting in which they shared testimonies and demands for a response to their cases and sentences for the aggressors.

In addition, they asked President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo for justice for all the victims, so that their fight does not go unpunished.

They regretted that Not all of them arrived, because each of our murdered mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends are missing.. They said they trusted the President like a Sorora woman who champions the causes of feminicide. They stressed that the demonstration only had one demand: justice, truth and reparation.