Page 12 - AT

A12 WORLD NEWS
Monday 4 noveMber 2019
Demonstrators demand halt to killings of women in Mexico

By PETER ORSI Guerrera said the demon-
Associated Press strators were demanding a
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Rela- "real interest" on the part of
tives of women and girls authorities to address gen-
murdered or missing in der violence. She credited
Mexico marched through Mexico with having in May
the capital Sunday carry- signed onto the EU- and
ing over 100 purple crosses U.N.-sponsored Spotlight
inscribed with the names Initiative, which aims to
of victims, demanding jus- eliminate violence against
tice for their loved ones women and girls, though
and improved efforts to in- she argued that progress
vestigate their cases. toward meeting its goals
Bearing T-shirts and signs has been slow in the coun-
with photos of the victims, try.
they walked behind ban- Before the march began,
ners and chanted the vic- priest and human rights
tims' names as they head- activist Alejandro Solalinde
ed for the sprawling main sprinkled holy water over
square, the Zocalo, to set the purple crosses.
up an offering near a mas- Demonstrators hold crosses with the names of murdered or disappeared women, to demand At the Zocalo demonstra-
sive altar erected to mark justice one day after the Day of the Dead holiday in Mexico City, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2019. tors wrote victims' names
Dia de Muertos, or Day of Associated Press on two much larger cross-
the Dead. who declined to give her ourselves can walk in the of the same sorrow." es, and the plan was to
"Not one more killed!" they full name because the sus- street." Voices of Absence was bolt them to the ground
cried. "Our daughters, pect is a fugitive, described She was accompanied born out of an online chat at Monument to Mothers
where are they?" Valeria as hard-working, Saturday by about 30 rela- and has grown to encom- at a nearby intersection,
The demonstration set out healthy and beloved by tives and friends of Valeria, pass over 100 families, said the latest in a series of in-
from the Independence family and friends. and perhaps 200 other pur- Guerrera, whose organi- formal "anti-monuments"
Monument and headed "We want justice," she said. ple-clad demonstrators. zation pushes prosecutors that have sprung up to
for Mexico City's sprawl- "Justice for her, justice for "One feels the solidarity, to investigate cases and commemorate violence,
ing main square to set up all of them, so that all wom- that sisterhood among us," helps relatives navigate the repression and impunity in
an offering near a massive en, all our daughters, we Norma said. "We are sisters judicial process. Mexico.q
altar erected to mark Dia
de Muertos, or Day of the El Salvador archbishop
Dead.
Dia de Muertos is observed apologizes over priest
Nov. 1-2, and the dem-
onstration was billed as a sex abuse case
"Dia de Muertas" march, or
"Day of the Dead Women," SAN SALVADOR, El Salva- ference after celebrating
to call attention to the kill- dor (AP) — El Salvador's Mass.
ings of women and girls — top Roman Catholic cleric "At the same time we pray
nine per day in the country apologized Sunday for the for the victim and also for
on average, according to alleged sexual abuse by a the priest," he said.
the United Nations. It was priest of an unidentified mi- The victim was received by
the second Dec. 3 march nor 25 years ago. the Archdiocese's Commis-
by the organization, Voices "We have apologized to sion on Childhood Protec-
of Absence, which is out to the victim and now I am tion, which according to Es-
get the date associated repeating it publicly, and cobar, "found merit in their In this Jan. 8, 2012 file photo, San Salvador's Archbishop Jose Luis
with their cause. we also ask for forgive- accusation and suggested Escobar Alas celebrates Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral in
"We march on 'Day of the ness from the community that the proper canonical San Salvador, El Salvador.
Dead Women' to take for the scandal that this process be initiated." Associated Press
them beyond just the al- has caused," San Salvador The priest, identified as Leo- said. priests after they were
tars," journalist and activist Archbishop José Luis Esco- poldo Sosa Tolentino, was In 2016, the church de- found guilty of sexually
Frida Guerrera said. "They bar Alas said in a news con- suspended, the archbishop frocked three Salvadoran abusing children.q
did not die of old age
or from illness. They were El Salvador orders expulsion of Venezuelan diplomats
snatched away, they were
ripped from their families, By MARCOS ALEMÁN had 48 hours to leave the country. It sponded in a mocking tweet, noting
and we want them to be Associated Press said the decision is in line with com- that those ordered to leave Venezu-
seen. SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) ments by President Nayib Bukele ela were holdovers from the previ-
May they not remain in — El Salvador has ordered the ex- “not recognizing Maduro’s govern- ous government, an ally of Maduro.
the invisibility of Day of the pulsion of Venezuelan government ment as legitimate.” “I forgot to mention that our Gov-
Dead celebrations." diplomats, joining the U.S. and more Venezuela responded in kind Sun- ernment had not named a single of-
Norma, a 43-year-old Mex- than 50 other countries that have day, ordering Salvadoran diplomats ficial to our embassy in Venezuela,”
ico City resident, came in said opposition leader Juan Guaidó to leave Caracas within two days. he wrote.
memory of her daughter is Venezuela’s rightful president. Bukele “is officially taking up the role “So the Maduro regime has just ex-
Valeria, a 24-year-old en- The Salvadoran government said of pawn of American foreign pol- pelled officials 100% named by the
gineering student who was late Saturday in a statement that icy,” the Venezuelan government Government of (ex-President Sal-
murdered in June alleged- the diplomats, who are loyal to Ven- said. vador) Sánchez Cerén, whom they
ly by her boyfriend. Norma, ezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Bukele, who took office in June, re- called their friends.” q