From Ciudad Juárez to Latin America: The legacy of Ni Una Menos

June 10, 2026

The "Ni Una Menos" (Not One Woman Less) movement emerged in Argentina in 2015 following the murder of 14-year-old Chiara Páez, drawing on a slogan created by Mexican poet Susana Chávez Castillo who was herself murdered in 2011. The movement rapidly spread throughout Latin America, forcing governments to acknowledge femicide as a specific form of gender-based violence and establish official registries to track these crimes. Eleven years later, despite initial institutional responses, femicide rates remain devastatingly high with at least 4,855 women killed across Latin America in 2024 alone, while rising ultraconservative governments actively dismantle protection systems by eliminating gender ministries and slashing funding for victim support programs.

Who is affected

Women and girls across Latin America who are victims of femicide and gender-based violence
Specific victims mentioned: Susana Chávez Castillo (Mexican poet murdered in 2011), Chiara Páez (14-year-old murdered in Argentina in 2015)
Children orphaned by femicides (69 children in Paraguay alone in 2025)
Trans women (included in broader femicide counts in Argentina)
Civil society organizations and feminist movements monitoring and responding to gender violence
Citizens in countries with ultraconservative governments dismantling gender protections (particularly Argentina under President Javier Milei)

What action is being taken

Civil society organizations are monitoring media reports, documenting femicide cases, and filling gaps in official state records
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) is collecting and reporting femicide data from governments through its Gender Equality Observatory
Multiple state registries are counting and reporting femicide cases (Argentina's Supreme Court Registry, Chile's SernamEG, Colombia's Public Prosecutor's Office, Paraguay's Public Prosecutor's Office)
Ultraconservative governments are actively dismantling institutional frameworks, dissolving gender ministries, cutting budgets, and paralyzing victim-support programs

Why it matters

This matters because femicide represents systematic, gender-motivated murder that claims approximately 13 women's lives daily across Latin America, with over 19,254 deaths in just five years. The significance extends beyond the horrific death toll to encompass a critical political moment where hard-won institutional protections built over decades are being deliberately dismantled by rising authoritarian governments. The situation reveals that state violence against women operates not only through inadequate protection (98% of Colombian cases remain without sentencing) but through active policies that normalize hatred, control women's bodies through abortion criminalization, and exclude women from public life, making this both a human rights crisis and a fundamental struggle over democracy and citizenship rights.

What's next

No explicit next steps stated in the article

Read full article from source: Global Voices