JINHA

NEWS CENTER – 200,000 people took part in the Ni UnaMenos mobilization against femicide in Buenos Aires yesterday. Protests took place in over one hundred other cities in five Latin American countries.

Since a 2012 law that recognized femicide as its own crime, women in Argentina have waited and waited for the rate of femicide to decline. However, according to tallies by feminist NGO La Casa de Encuentro based on reports in the media, men killed 277 women in 2014 in femicides.

When 14-year-old Chiara Páez was slain by her boyfriend in May, it was the straw that broke the camel's back for women in Argentina. Women declared that they were taking action under the slogan Ni UnaMenos ("not one woman less"). They are demanding that the state take effective action against femicide, devote budgetary resources to the problem and collect official statistics on the epidemic.

Yesterday, the Ni UnaMenos movement had a massive mobilization. Mobilizations have taken place in five countries (Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia and Mexico). The largest demonstration was outside the country's congress in Buenos Aires, with more than 200,000 people in attendance. Around 100 other Argentinian cities and towns had demonstrations, as well, with 50,000 people out in the city of Córdoba. Thousands took to the streets of Montevideo, Uruguay to denounce femicide as well. Women, children and men of all ages carried photographs of slain women, signs and massive banners.

Big names have declared their support for Ni UnaMenos, including Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Barcelona football star Fernando Messi. However, feminists have said it is hard to find some of the support sincere. In Argentina, 300 women die every year from having illegal abortions under poor health conditions, yet the Catholic Church (a key force behind the continued illegality of abortion in Argentina and elsewhere) declared their support for Ni UnaMenos. For politicians and even police to say they support the protest feels like a slap in the face for many women, whose main demand is the concrete action against femicide that the state has refused to support.

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