Latin America will be all black and feminist: historic march in Chile for legal abortion and the fight against racism

Thousands of women marched this Thursday for the seventh time Santiago de Chileand in several parts of the country to request the Free abortion, safe and free and for the end of racism.

In a historic mobilization, for the first time those fighting for the legal termination of pregnancy have joined Afro-Chilean and migrant women and have walked the streets with their feminist songs and their green and black scarves. There were also representatives of the campaign for the right to legal, safe and free abortion of our country and Argentine actresses.

For more than three kilometers between Plaza Italia and the Republica district in Santiago, Chilean women, bads, other pregnant people, Afro-Chilean and black migrants have asked for the right to choose their body and # 39; equality.

Was the slogan of this seventh mobilization for free abortion in Chile for the first time called for anti-racism and inscribed on the occasion of the International Day of Afro-Latin Women? Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora? His slogan was "Abortmos machismo".

According to official figures of the Metropolitan Municipality, more than 6,000 people have participated in the mobilization that's in Santiago, although the organizers estimate that the number is higher and could approach 20,000. Proceedings and parades also took place in Valparaíso, Calama, La Serena and Antofagasta, Copiapó and in other parts of Chile.

To end the day of the feminist struggle, the Chilean organizers shared the stage with the Argentineans of the Campaign and the group of actresses.

"The three causes are not enough"

"It does not reach all three causes. We do not want control over our bodies, because we reject the racist policy of this right-wing neoliberal government, because women abort. We abort as a group, in misery, opulence, stop denying it "were the words Verónica Ávila, spokesperson for Struggle's feminist coordinator, on stage. Below, hundreds of Chileans applauded.

The law approving the abortion for cause in Chile dates from 2017 and, as in Argentina, it is often not respected. A recent report by the Abortion Office in Chile found that institutional conscientious objection created many disparities in law enforcement, situations of obstetric violence and serious obstacles to women exercise their right to endure the risk of one's life or the impossibility of the fetus.

The mobilization had a strong presence of young people and adolescents. 16-year-old Daniela López Awad, who accompanied her clbadmates from the Violeta Parra collective in Prado de Valdivia College, said: "We are here with my clbadmates because we want the freedom to decide. We want poor and rich women to have the opportunity to have an abortion and not die trying or going to jail. The law we have now is not enough ".

The girls wore a very big purple flag and another defended the LGBTIQ collective. They sang, jumped and danced to the beat of the batucada.

Melani a popular educator I was walking with a group of public school teachers from the community. "As a popular educator, we are here today on July 25 because we believe that it is essential to legalize abortion. We need pedagogies to become feminists and help us transform our territory. We are here among partners who support and build our feminist history, " said minuteuno.com.

In the same vein, representatives of 8M feminist coordinator Fernanda Cavada and Javiera Manzi, who organized the first multi-national women's meeting in 2018, said that one of their goals is "to integrate feminism in social movements, which is to multiple majorities. which fits into the women's struggle and dissent everywhere. "

On the side of the step, a group of young people wearing pink wigs shouted "Vasectomy". They were red-colored women with friends and in the house of Santiago who were doing work similar to that of the rescuers in Argentina.

"We are women who accompany women who abort while hiding. We existed three years ago, but many of us have had an experience of almost a decade in which women are informed of abortion for medications such as Misotrol (as they do). 39, call misoprostol in Chile), Caro told one of the network members.

"Latin America will be black and feminist"

In September 2017, Joane Florvil, a woman of Haitian descent, died after being detained for one month in Chile because of the alleged abandonment of her two-month-old daughter in the Department of Prevention and Community Promotion. Lo Prado. He went to ask for help and did not speak Spanish. The safety officer did not understand her and she decided to find someone else to help her express herself, but when she came back his daughter left and she was taken prisoner. The Chilean media quickly stoned her and treated her as a "bad mother".

Faced with the helplessness of not being able to contact the police to clarify the facts, the official version indicates that the woman was hit in the head. He was hospitalized for 30 days and died, according to the medical report, of hepatitis. Once dead, the court acquitted her and declared that it was a case of discrimination. Joane was one of the flags of the anti-racist march for abortion.

"This year, we managed to talk to the Afro-Caribbean organizations present in our country, to tell them that we would join our tasks, our struggles to cope with this march"said spokeswoman Verónica Ávila.

At the head of the march, African and Afro-Chilean women wearing a turban on their head and painted on their faces displayed a flag bearing: "In a racist society, it's not enough not to be one, you have to be anti-racist."

One of them, Paola Palacios, from the Negrocentricos Collective and the Immigrant Women's Secretariat, said minutono.com: "We are here to claim our right to decide and commemorate our day. We hope all women join this fight because together we are more. "

Julliette Micolta of the Microsesiones Negras group said in front of the crowd: "Black women have rights and we defend them. This year, the intersection that has occurred with the national feminist movement has been fundamental. The fight is for and for all. Women's rights have no borders, we migrate with our rights. Feminism will be anti-racist or not.

Kayla, a member of the same organization, said that "the health system is racist" and added that those who were present were for the most vulnerable women: "it is for them that we are and for them we fight. "

Sofia Pacheco walked with her daughter, as she did every year, but it was different because of the anti-racist component of walking. "I come to walk because I own my body and I have the right to decide, but also because this time, the union with another cause is crucial. I am the mother of an Afro-Chilean woman and witness to the racism of this country. I want my daughter to decide abortion, free, legal and anti-racist. "

Later, Mercedes appeared at the ceremony as an Afro-Chilean woman: "We are black women born in Chile" and said that a public recognition had recently been made to the black population of Chile, but that "there was not much propaganda country does not suit us to be a black country.what they do not know, is that we fight All together, all of Latin America will be black and feminist. "

One of the last speakers of the evening was one of the historic activists and founders of the Campaign for the Right to a Legal, Safe and Free Abortion in Argentina, Nina Brugo. In his speech, he recalled that "in 1990, in San Bernado," with all the women participating in the feminist meeting in Latin America and the Caribbean, we declared that on September 28, we would have the right to put end to pregnancy. Our fight makes us a sister. The abortion will be for all Latin America, "he said.