The “Day of Dead Women” protest began on Friday, November 3, 2021, to raise awareness about the femicide crisis in Mexico. Femicide is the most extreme form of gender-based violence (GBV), which includes cases of homicide, domestic abuse, and sexual violence.

Over 2,500 female police officers lined the streets of Mexico City as women marched from the Angel of Independence to the Revolution in Republic Square. Protestors wore t-shirts and held signs with messages such as “Being alive shouldn’t be an achievement” and “He tried to strangle me and the Attorney General’s Office said it was a family dispute.” Protestors cited stories of women who had been skinned by a partner, murdered by a Cabify driver, stabbed while sleeping, or disappeared altogether. “I went to work one Sunday and when I got home I found [the dead body of] my daughter with her face taped up, with signs of violence and sexual abuse,” protestor Karen Reyes said in an interview given to Mexico News Daily.

During a news conference in March 2020, President López Obrador attributed the feminist protests to political opponents “who want to see this government fail.” “He is the first president to outright deny that the violence is happening,” said Wendy Figueroa, the head of the National Network of Shelters in Mexico. Although the number of women and children seeking assistance in shelters has increased by 77 percent since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Andres Manual Lopez Obrador cut funding for programs that support women in crisis. “The biggest challenge that we’re facing is with the judicial power…Of all the cases that are reported, sentences are achieved in only 1%,” said Fabiola Alanís, head of the National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence against Women.

President Obrador’s depiction of feminist movements as politically motivated neglects their humanitarian basis: the desire for security, freedom, and peace. His denial of the statistically proven reality not only paints him as an incompetent politician but also undermines his left-leaning platform. This perspective has been carried out on a systematic level through his actions, in which both economic and legislative forces oppose the existence of women.

Since President López Obrador took office nearly three years ago, an average of 10 femicides have occurred per day. GBV has only worsened since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Mexico Peace Index from the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) explained that “calls to the Mexico City women’s emergency hotline increased sharply…more than three times as many family violence calls than in 2019.” More than 4,000 women in Mexico have been killed in the past year alone. “In Mexico…we’re in a humanitarian crisis because of the quantity of women that have disappeared or been killed,” said María de la Luz Estrada, the coordinator of the National Citizen’s Observatory of Femicide.

To grasp the reality of being a woman in Mexico is to constantly be looking over one’s shoulder, whether that be in the home, while commuting, or in the workplace. As a 27-year-old protestor told newspaper El País “In Mexico, violence is an endless epidemic. Without any systematic reform, protests for victims of femicide in Mexico may simply become a macabre annual ritual. People must rally as a nationwide community to urge the government to responsibly address this tear in the social fabric.