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PULSE NEWS MEXICO

With six-foot metal barriers barricading the National Palace — where President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) resides — three days in advance to prevent potential vandalism and the deployment of more than 3,000 police officers in riot gear to patrol the capital’s main square Zócalo, Mexico City Secretary of the Government Martí Batres said Tuesday, March 7, the the city was well prepared to ensure calm and order during the March 8  International Women’s Day March on Wednesday.

“We are calling for the entire demonstration to be peaceful,” he said in a public speech Tuesday at the Iztacalco municipality mayor’s office.

“We expect thousands of women to demonstrate peacefully, although sometimes small groups of agitators infiltrate (these marches) with the intention of generating violence.”

An estimated 80,000 women are expected to participate in the capital march, which is in defense of women’s rights and gender equality, as well as the nation’s deplorable rate of femicides and violence against women, with similar demonstrations across the country, starting at Mexico City’s Monumento de la Revolución and culminating in the Zócalo.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for women, with an average of 10 women murdered each day, adding up to nearly 18,000 since 2018.

Seven in every 10 Mexican women experience some type of violence throughout their lives.