Tens of thousands of women have demonstrated across
Latin America after the rape and death of a teenage girl.
Earlier
this month 16-year-old Lucia Perez was drugged, tortured and repeatedly raped
before dying of a heart attack in the coastal city of Mar del Plata in
Argentina - two men known for selling drugs outside a school were detained in
Mar del Plata on Sunday and charged with rape and homicide.
A group
known as Not One Less organised the protests which saw female workers in Buenos
Aires stop work for an hour yesterday to take to the streets dressed in black
to highlight violent crimes committed against women.
The
Permanent Assembly for Human Rights estimates that a woman is killed every 30
hours in Argentina.
Image
Caption:Many of the women taking part int he demonstrations dressed in black
Protesters
marched through the city with some holding pictures of victims. One protester
carried a sign saying: "I march because I was luckier." Another read:
"I want to live without fear."
Demonstrator
Victoria Vazquez said: "I want to go out on a quiet street. I want to do
the same things that men do.
"I
want to go out at three in the morning and not have anything happen to me. I
want to wear a skirt in the summer and no one say anything to me, no one bother
me.
"I
don't want to feel fear each time I see a group of five guys that are waiting
on a corner to say something to me. I want to be relaxed on the street and that
they stop the killing."
Another
protester said: "The clock is ticking and there is scarcely 30 hours until
another body appears. So we all have to be here - men, women, boys, girls,
teenagers."
Thousands
of protesters also took to the streets in Chile, Bolivia, Mexico and Spain in
support of the demonstration in Argentina.
Image
Caption:These women took to the streets in Mexico City as the protests spread
beyond Argentina
In
Bolivia Protester Alejandra Canelas said: ""The women of Argentina
have called a nationwide women's protest.
"Here
in Bolivia, we are tired that women are the ones that are killed and raped
daily, and we have also decided to come together in a national women's strike,
called by the women of Argentina, so that little by little, people from other
countries will also join this mobilisation."
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