MEXICO .- They will govern territories fought by organized crime; borders in the north and south of the country; poor areas among the poor and regions on the edge of the drug government or immersed in it; between femicides and beheaded, passing migrants, stragglers, expelled … and, in any case, states that put their faith in a woman and voted for them.
There are six women who will soon be governors after the victory in the last elections of June 6 : María del Pilar Avila, in Baja California; Layda Sansores in Campeche; Indira Vizcaino in Colima; Mariana Campos, in Chihuahua; Evelyn Salgado in Guerrero and Lorena Cuéllar in Tlaxcala.
Their arrival to power as a gender block cost 68 years since the approval of the female vote in the country and 42 since the first governor-elect in the state of Colima, in 1979. They are preceded by nine more, however, it is the first time that they have arrived as state leaders at the same time through democratic means at the end of laws that forced the parties to put them in front.
Now, one step away from taking power, they will be in the eye of criticism that will not be patronizing. Neither on the part of the women nor on the part of the men because the one expect answers to the feminine agendas and problems; the others, to fight in the future in other contests.
They themselves are aware of their condition: “We have to promote a feminist agenda among governors and make it much broader: let’s talk about an agenda for equality ”, said Indira Vizcaíno, upon confirming her triumph in Colima. And something else was thrown up:
“The feminist struggle also includes the struggle for minorities, indigenous rights, human rights. We have that sensitivity and I think we can promote it together from our own States. ”
To feminist expectations are added complex realities such as violence . In Baja California, where traffickers of all kinds, fights for territory, clashes between gangs and crimes of all kinds are mutinying, María del Pilar Avila, from 34 years, the youngest of them.
“He will face enormous challenges, among them, one of the oldest, which is insecurity,” warned the College researcher. de la Frontera Norte, Víctor Espinoza.
Weeks ago, the hit-and-run homicide of two minors, a five-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl whose bodies were about to be burned by a debt of the father of the minors to organized crime.
Similar crimes occur in the state of Guerrero, where he won Evelyn Salgado, daughter of Felix Salgado , whom the National Electoral Institute (INE) removed Morena’s candidacy for not reporting campaign expenses after a scandal over accusations of rape of women. Instead, the party decided to replace him by consanguinity.
A Evelyn Salgado (Iguala, 1982) is chased by the shadow of her husband Alfredo Alonso Bustamante, son of businessman Joaquín Alonso Piedra, known as “El Abulón” or “El Señor de los fierros” who, according to the Emeequis news portal, was singled out by operate the finances of Clara Elena Laborín, wife of Héctor Beltrán Leyva, a member of the Beltrán Leyva cartel.
According to OECD and Inegi indicators, Guerrero also has other deep problems: it ranks last among the states in the country in life expectancy at birth (73. 2%) and in rate of rooms per person (0.7 %). It is in the penultimate place in dwellings with access to basic services (66. 3%) and in education it is located in the place 27 between the 32 states.
On the other side of the country to the north, Mariana Campos , the winner in the state of Chihuahua for the PRI coalition, PAN , PRD and former mayor of the capital, will raise her voice in the entity that has been a symbol of violence against women since the femicides in Juárez and until recently when the prosecution is looking for a possible serial murderer who has slit his throat to four of them.
“I feel highly committed to women to be able to show that we are not here because of gender parity or equality, but because we have been able to train ourselves to fight with men in the candidacies, ”Campos said after the trends gave him a triumph, alluding to the way in which women came to position themselves.
Even before 2014, only one or another woman became governor and more as a symbol of equity than as a matter of merits or justice, but that year the obligation was included in the constitution to the parties to guarantee their political rights. Not by will in these, but by rulings in the courts that created jurisprudence.
Still at the end of last year, the INE had to order the parties to include at least seven women from his 15 candidates for governor and the measure provoked challenges by the PAN and Morena who considered the measure as a meddling, but the order still stood. Finally, of the six governors, four are from Morena and two from the PAN, PRI, PRD coalitions.
“In the past it was said that women did not guarantee votes, therefore, they did not put themselves in elective positions, much less if they were governorships; the pretext was always a macho excuse, “says Lucía Lagunes, from the CIMAC Feminist Information Agency.
For the governors, fights are also pending regarding the reproductive rights of women. In none of the states where women won governorships is abortion allowed. In Campeche, for example, prior to the victory of Layda Sansores, senator and businesswoman, the conservative congress imposed a law that considers the ovum as a human being in order to avoid any attempt to legislate in favor of abortion.
In Tlaxcala, Lorena Cuellar from 59 years, it will have for its part a very particular gender challenge by leading in the coming years the state considered one of the epicenters of human trafficking for exploitation. The National Human Rights Commission indicated in 2018 that up to 70, 000 boys and girls are subjected to sexual exploitation in the country and the central state is the cradle of many of these Mafias.
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