So far this year, in 2024, at least 14 women have been murdered in Uruguay due to sexist violence. | Photo: EFE

Montevideo, June 4 (RHC)-- Dozens of women demonstrated on Monday in the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, to demand an end to gender violence under the slogan: 'Not one less, until they stop killing us.'  They also included demands in favor of Palestine and the participants demanded that Uruguay break relations with Israel.

"The aim is to give visibility to the sexist violence exercised against women in all its forms and to make public in the streets the denunciation of all the violence that falls on our bodies and daily experiences," explained the spokesperson for the Coordinator of Feminisms of Uruguay, Ivana Silvera.

On this occasion, the concentration reached the Municipality of Montevideo, headquarters of the departmental or provincial government, where allegations were presented in defense of safe, legal and accessible abortion, urging the State to take charge of the search for those who disappeared after the dictatorship, among other claims.

The protesters then lit a bonfire and sang around it calling for "fire to the patriarchy."  "Not an aggression without a response, direct action in the face of machismo", "The machismos tremble, Latin America is going to be all feminist" or "They are not lost, they disappear to be prostituted" were some of the slogans.

Every June 3rd, for nine years, women's organizations have met to protest against sexist violence and remember the first march 'Not one less' -- organized in Argentina in 2015, to condemn the femicide of Chiara Páez, murdered at fourteen years old at the hands of her partner.

The rejection of crime spread throughout several Latin American countries and gave rise to a movement that, in Silvera's words, "Strengthens all women individually and collectively."  "Its importance lies in the fact that it allows us to make visible the different violence that we experience daily in order to escape from them," she added.

However, the Feminisms Coordinator regretted the lack of progress since the celebration of the first march until now and even denounced setbacks at the budget, penal and human resources levels to respond to complaints about the gender violence law in Uruguay.

According to the organizers, so far in 2024, at least 14 women have been murdered in the South American country due to sexist violence.  "The gestures and actions of violence towards our bodies have never disappeared and at times they intensify, which is why it is important to always be on alert against the predator," Silvera concluded.