On Monday, hundreds of people took to the streets in Mexico City to protest with an unlikely weapon: pink glitter. Riots on the vicinity of the city’s security headquarters took place after four police officers allegedly raped two teenage girls on August 10. About 300 protesters, mostly women and some of which dressed up as cops, doused Security Minister Jesús Orta Martínez and some police officers with pink glitter when he came over to assure the cases would be investigated.
@natalia.l.r16This provided protesters with a colorful image that went viral in the hours that followed. Protesters had previously come up with the hashtag #Nomecuidanmeviolan (“they don’t protect me, they rape me”), which was widely shouted at officers during the demonstrations. Pigs’ heads were also hung around light posts while many signs compared cops to pigs.
@everydaymexicoClaudia Sheinbaum, Mexico City’s first elected female mayor, of the left-wing ‘Morena’ described the protest’s glitter as a “provocation.” “They wanted the government to respond with violence. But we’re not going to do that,” she reportedly said. Soon afterwards, the hashtags “#diamantinaprovocadora” (“provocative glitter”) and a wave of memes lampooning an over-reaction to said substance went viral on the Internet.
While some people were quick to cry over shattered glass and spray painting over government buildings, each year in Mexico there’s an estimate of half a millions cases of sexual abuse. Fewer than 9,000 of these cases are not reported due to mistrust of police and what victims describe as a tortuous process.
Sheinbaum informed some of the “provocateurs” had been identified after carrying out an “analysis” of security tapes. She also assured that she would hold a meeting with a “group of women” to talk over some of the leads in the investigation. “I’ll meet with some women so that the city’s Attorney General make the case known to them. I have also sent a letter to the Human Rights Commission, asking for their intervention. I’m always open for dialogue,” she concluded.
@ninotopless
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