Live, the opening of the Women of America Forum
The rights of women in America, their well-being and their participation in politics are the focus of a meeting organized by EL PAÍS taking place this Wednesday in Mexico City. Prominent American politicians are attending the event in person or online, including Mexico City Premier Claudia Sheinbaum; Francia Márquez, Vice President of Colombia; Yolanda Díaz, second vice president of Spain, all in dialogue with Pepa Bueno, director of this newspaper, on the challenges facing women in a continent marked by inequality and violence.
“Women don’t achieve dreams of power to be vases,” stressed Francia Márquez. “The end of change is not in government positions, the ultimate purpose and real power is being able to guarantee people’s rights,” continued the vice president of Colombia, the first Afro woman to hold the position in the first left-wing government of the country country reached . “The attacks on me are not only directed against what I propose, but also against what I represent, how I dress, how I express myself, how I behave. When I see these classist and racist attacks and aggressions, it is a deep critique of the intersectionality of race, class and gender,” he summarized.
Claudia Sheinbaum defended the coincidence between defending democracy and defending women’s rights. “In the fight for democracy, we fight for the presence of women in public space,” said the head of government in Mexico City. “When we fight for public education rights, we fight for women’s rights, when we talk about public health or decent work, we fight for women’s rights,” she exemplified.
The meeting, sponsored by Iberdrola México and Telefónica, will take place from eight in the morning at the National Museum of Anthropology and will include various exhibitions and round tables such as women’s participation in democracy, their political rights and their representation in public life. This table will be attended by Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile; María Emma Mejía, former Secretary General of UNASUR; Eleonora Caroit, French MP; Marcela Aguiñaga, Perfection of the Guayas Provincial Government in Ecuador; and Myriam Méndez, coordinator of Valiente es Dialogar and former director of the Ford Foundation. This table is moderated by W Radio journalist and EL PAÍS columnist Gabriela Warkentin.
In a region where 2022 ended with more than 4,000 female victims of femicide, the meeting analyzes the conditions under which they have access to justice, as most of these crimes also go unpunished. Of all violent deaths of women, only between 30% and 35% are classified by authorities as femicide, according to Mexico’s National Observatory on Feminicide, a trend repeated in other countries in the region. Beatriz Argimón, Vice President of Uruguay; Ernestina Godoy, Attorney General of Mexico City; and Ana María Salazar, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Pentagon.
Sustainable development and the role of women after the Covid-19 pandemic will also be the subject of analysis at a round table attended by Aurora Vergara, Minister of Education of Colombia; Rosa Junquera, Director of Sustainability at PRISA; Aimée Sentmat de Grimaldo, President of Banistmo, in Panama; and María Noel Vaeza, Regional Director of UN Women. Following the event, also organized by PRISA Media, the Government of Mexico City and UN Women, participants will visit two of Claudia Sheinbaum’s flagship projects in the Mexican capital: the Cablebús, which runs through Iztapalapa, one of Mexico’s largest delegations City and PILARES, a project for the reintegration of young people through culture.
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