Thousands of women in Latin America have been protesting the rape and murder of Lucia Perez, who was “drugged with cocaine and had suffered ‘inhumane sexual aggression’ that triggered cardiac arrest”. The people who murdered her had the audacity “to make it look like a drug overdose”. Lucia Perez, an innocent sixteen-year old girl from Argentina, who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time as she was leaving school, died because there was someone out there who thought that her life didn’t matter. Although it is heartbreaking, we should all remember that Lucia Perez is just one of the many women who had to go through the same exact torture. All because there are still people who don’t value women. Because women are seen as a joke to them. Because in reality, their machismo is fragile.
Femicide is a term used in the Argentine constitution to describe murders based on gender. In 2015, there was 235 femicides in Argentina. This means that there was 235 women who were killed just because they are women. And since Lucia Perez, there has been three more femicides. This is was a word that was created because of pure sexism. Think hard about that. People think they have the right to kill someone just based on their gender. Do you realize how crazy that is? It’s the fact that I even have to write this that is even more astonishing.
The group Ni Una Menos (Not One Less) was created to advocate for "crime prevention and justice for victims of sexual assault". They were the ones who organized the protests to express their anger at the drug-related crimes and violence of innocent people. Organizations like Ni Una Menos are very important today because unfortunately, sexual assault is still so prevalent everywhere. They help survivors get the support they need, as well as trying to prevent anymore assaults from happening. What they are doing is revolutionary for the people in Latin America since sexual assault is also very common when it comes to these countries. It’s seen as a typical everyday event that there is yet another person who has been assaulted.
I remember once going to Mexico and walking around in my little village with a friend I made. When we stopped to sit, we could hear a man screaming at his wife, yelling insulting words to her. My friend looked at me and said, “Back in the States, you would call the police if something like this was happening, right?” She looked amazed when I told her that somebody would have probably done so already. It’s astonishing to think that to her, all of this was normal. That she was used to it. Because this is something that no person should ever get used to. Because it’s something that should have never happened.
We have the right to be angry. We have the right to live. There needs to be an end to the machista violence because it is killing our sisters, our daughters, our mothers. There will be an end one day, and it will be one day soon. One day, there will be no more Lucia Perez’s. She will be an example of the hardworking and strong women of the world who stand up for what they believe in. Because ni una más.