Women protesting femicide in Latin America refuse to back down

What’s more, despite feeble governmental attempts to address the new territory their countries have been thrust into, those expected to help given their authority are no better suited to do so than the non-profits they are seemingly reliant on.

This is because several Latin American police forces lack even the most basic infrastructure such as the internet to take calls, with one report divulging that 590 officers in Colombia are without access to digital tools.

The disturbing spate of recent cases of violence towards women is conceivably a product of compounding long-term ramifications of the pandemic, primarily the economic fallout that disproportionately affects vulnerable women.

Stripping them of financial autonomy, researchers are calling it a regrettable loss of a decade’s work towards gender equality as these women have had no choice but to return to toxic patriarchal spaces dominated by machismo culture.

Jeopardising any former progress at a time when women are in dire need of it, the total shutdown of modern life has unfortunately laid bare what many already knew: that violence against women almost always happens out of society’s field of vision.

In Latin America, the sheer absence of a genuine comprehension of the matter, adequate prevention measures, and sufficient attention from policymakers to make visible and consequently tackle such a prevalent issue has done nothing but augment it.

As rage boils about this unrelenting wave of femicide and gender-based violence – specifically surrounding women along the US-Mexico border seeking asylum – people in America have begun organising demonstrations in solidarity with the protests that have continued to unfold.

Fortunately, these actions are helping generate awareness about the issue both locally and abroad, a display of cross-border feminist support that denounces the outsized gender violence that’s recently reached a tipping point in Latin America.

‘We can and must stay active, wherever that may be: online, in our work and study spaces, in our daily lives. Let’s not forget that differences can and must be made at micro-political levels, too,’ says Estefania Castañeda Pérez, a writer whose work calls attention to how classism, racism, capitalism, and displacement enacts violence against communities along the border, which leads to a normalisation of femicide.

‘There is a strong desire to always be open about the different struggles. There’s more awareness of femicides and machismo in general. People want to keep the ball rolling and challenge what it means to act. Last year’s mobilisations just generated more anger and more courage for us to keep mobilising in whatever way we can and in whatever capacity.’