Ten women are killed every day in Mexico, according to government data.
These numbers, however, seem to be insufficiently convincing for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has not only minimized the violence women face every day in Mexico, but has repeatedly sent messages that do not seem supportive of women.
On February 10, 2020, during AMLO’s daily press conference, journalists questioned Attorney General Gertz Manero about his proposal to classify femicide as an aggravated homicide. Such a move, according to activists, would minimize the problem of femicide. President López Obrador then said:
“I don’t want the topic to only be about femicide. Yes it’s important, but I can already see how this will be the highlight of the news”.
The topic of femicide was getting public attention and Lopez Obrador did not like to be overshadowed by issues not related to his populist political agenda. So his statements earned him hatred from feminist associations across Mexico.
Experts and advocates say the rampant killings and history of femicide in Mexico can be attributed to deep-rooted cultural Machismo, systemic gender inequality and latent domestic violence.
So AMLO picked a fight with the country’s burgeoning feminist movement, when he said it only started to oppose his administration.
TYT Newsroom