Thousands of Chilean Women Denounce Male Violence

Thousands of women in Chile marked yesterday the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

The women gathered in one of Santiago's main plazas on Wednesday and performed the feminist anthem "A Rapist In Your Path", before Chilean police violently dispersed them.

The song, which was created by Chilean feminist collective Las Tesis and first performed in 2019, condemns men who attack women and is accompanied by dance moves.

Four members of Las Tesis led the performance, which has been copied and translated into different languages by women around the world.

The crowd was able to complete the performance only once before police deployed a water cannon to disperse the demonstrators from the Plaza Italia in downtown Santiago.

Earlier Wednesday, women's groups demonstrated in Santiago demanding an end to the male violence. Las Tesis gained worldwide fame during Chilean demonstrations against economic disparity in 2019 with the street theater performance.

"We believe that violence against women is part of a structural state violence and of the neoliberal patriarchal system to which we are subjected in this country," feminist lawyer and demonstrator Florencia Pinto told AFP.

Also in Venezuela, a crowd of women protesting in the capital Caracas chanted "We are being murdered." 228 femicides were documented in 2020 in Venezuela, 159 of which came after virus lockdowns began in mid-March, according to the Monitor de Femicidos.

A large crowd of women and their supporters also marched in Mexico City, including native women, trans women, and relatives of people who have been murdered or have vanished during the country's drug war.

"Let's not forget that while violence is what unites us, that violence turns into something much stronger which is dignified feminist outrage," one of the marchers, 27 year-old college student Luky Coutino told AFP.