No to institutional violence by the gendarmerie

The city's police officers struggle to understand that people will not die exclusively from the coronavirus, that there are other, more lethal viruses attacking women, girls, and adolescents: violence in all its forms, and that they are perpetrators of cruel and torturous situations that could be avoided to lessen the suffering of single mothers.

Once again, we have to share some unpleasant news: local authorities are failing to grasp the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 health measures on women, girls, adolescents, and young people who are enduring mandatory confinement and a lack of resources for food. These disproportionate measures are causing hunger, vulnerability, and other unmet needs, and it is women, especially mothers, who are mobilizing to ensure their children are fed.

At the Women's House, women (redundancy intended) arrive seeking support, protection, and assistance, which can be psychological, legal, and food-related. The latter has led to the search for support that allows for the purchase and supply of food for some women and their families who were experiencing hunger; and this is not a welfare handout or a replacement for the State, quite the contrary, it is an attitude of defiance against the "stay at home" order to wait for death by starvation.

But that's not what concerns us today. It turns out that a single mother, who suffers from male violence, has just endured institutional violence from the municipal police, who, in an act of arrogance and authoritarianism, took away her only means of supporting her children, a cart for selling quinoa, at the doors of the Women's Center.

In the face of the abuses of the gendarmerie, let us close ranks and denounce the indifference of people who are unaware of the rumbling of empty stomachs and the crying of children for a piece of bread and a glass of milk, which is almost always tea.

Stop the injustices, give back the means of survival to poor women.

Solidarity and respect for women street vendors!

No to institutional violence!

Women's Center