To the unified cry of “Not one less, long live we love each other”thousands of Salvadoran women toured the main streets of San Salvador this Sunday to demand justice for the disappeared and victims of femicides, perpetrated in the Central American country considered one of the most dangerous for women.
Feminists, trans women, war veterans, human rights defenders and students gathered at one of the entrances to the University of El Salvador (UES) and then headed en bloc to Cuscatlán Park, in a demonstration that took place on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
“Alive they took them away, alive we want them,” chanted the women who also carried different banners with messages such as: “I look prettier quietly? behind”, “my fear became strength”, “we are the cry of those who are no longer”, among others.
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“We are the ones who are not here, we are the disappeared, we are the murdered, we are the imprisoned, we are the raped, we are all and together we say: enough!” said one of the participants in the march.
According to the Observatory of Violence against Women of the non-governmental Organization of Salvadoran Women for Peace (Ormusa), young women between the ages of 18 and 30 are the main victims of registered femicides in 2021 -62%-.
In addition, in El Salvador, according to data from non-governmental women’s organizations, 4 women disappear every day and as of November 2021, more than 460 Salvadorans were registered as missing.
Amnesty International (AI) considers El Salvador one of the most dangerous countries in the world for women.
In addition, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has assured that El Salvador “continues to be the country with the highest number of murders of women in the region” and views with concern the “high prevalence” of violence against women, especially sexual, and in particular, its affectation in girls and adolescents.
The protesters also demanded a law to legalize abortion in the country, the release of women convicted of murder for allegedly having an abortion, fair working conditions for women and denounced the “lack of attention” of the State to pregnancies in girls and adolescents.
“We are first-class citizens”
The women after participating in the demonstration demanded that the Salvadoran Congress legislate for their rights, because the Constitution says in Article 1 “that the State is obliged to the human person.”
“We are not animals, we are human and therefore we have rights (…) we are not fifth-class citizens, we are first-class citizens,” trans activist Karla Guevara, of the Alejandría Collective, told Efe.
Data from the organizations indicate that, between 2015 and 2021, 694 people from the LGTBI population were forced to move due to the violence they face in El Salvador.
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