The organizations and collectives participating in the march celebrated International Women's Day in a combative manner. | Photo: @EMelgarejo_gt

Guatemala City, March 8 (RHC)-- Groups of demonstrators, mostly women from diverse social sectors, protested in Guatemala City to demand an end to gender violence and demand justice for women who have been murdered in that Central American nation.

Activists participating in the march began on Sunday to organize the sector between the Supreme Court of Justice and the Constitution Square, and remembered in a combative way International Women's Day.

During the mobilization, flowers, portraits and posters were carried, some of which alluded to recent acts of gender violence, such as the feminicide against criminal investigator Luz María del Rocío López Morales, which occurred in January.

It was also recalled that, four years after the Hogar Seguro fire and the death in that event of 41 girls (March 8, 2017), its direct and indirect perpetrators have not been tried.

The participants also called attention to the disappearance of women and girls, and demanded that the authorities search for a young girl, Angerly Daniela Castillo Velázquez, whose whereabouts have been unknown for two weeks.

The march also helped to make visible the demand for the approval of a law against sexual harassment, a regulation to resort to chemical castration of sexual rapists and the modification of the registry of sexual aggressors.

These demands are assumed, among others, by the organization Oleada Feminista (organizer of the parade), which for days has been promoting an online campaign to collect signatures and send these petitions to Congress.

In the vicinity of the Government Palace, the demonstrators burned a piñata symbolizing the figure of Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei.

According to the Observatorio de Mujeres de la Fiscalía de Guatemala, so far this year more than 10,500 cases of violence against women have been registered.  The organization adds that out of every ten complaints, three correspond to murders of women and girls.

The humanitarian organization Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo (GAM) announced that during 2020, 278 women were murdered with firearms and 37 with knives, while in 2019, 407 and 7 were murdered, respectively.