This Is What Happened in Nicaragua to the 2017 March to End Violence Against Women

Hundreds of people marched in Managua on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, outraged by the wave of crimes that has left 48 women murdered In Nicaragua during the first 10 months of 2017.

This commemoration, which takes place on November 25 of each year, is intended to be a space to denounce the violence that is exercised over women and to demand government policies that promote conditions of equality and justice for females.

The date was established in 1981 by the Latin American feminist movement, in commemoration of the murder of the “Mirabal sisters”, also called “Las Mariposas”, who at the time of their death had been politically active for around a decade. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, then the dictator of the Dominican Republic, ordered the police to execute them in 1960.

The march in Managua had problems starting in the early morning. People traveling from Chinandega, Masaya and Matagalpa were detained by the National Police who, without giving explanations, occupied the vehicles in which they were transported.

The march started fifty minutes later than the scheduled time with those able to arrive.