The Feminicide Visibility Movement in Latin America: Mexico, Argentina, and Chile’s “Un Violador en tu camino”

At its roots, feminicide is the extreme form of violence at the endpoint of a scale of aggression against women. To discuss feminicide, then, is to discuss violence against women and the patriarchal system that traps women in discriminatory practices and roles. However, feminicide is a multidimensional problem where political, economic, cultural, and social factors make the crime almost impossible to end. While feminicide is a global issue, Latin Americans were the first to show the political courage to fight for justice, visibility, and to end the rampant impunity surrounding the crime. This Senior Thesis explores the universe of feminicide as made visible in women's struggles in Latin America through three case studies: Mexico, Argentina, and the viral Chilean protest intervention, "Un Violador En Tu Camino." My choice of Mexico as a case study acknowledges the roots of the movement to end impunity in Ciudad Juarez. Argentina, in turn, houses significant initiatives to document feminicides and the Ni Una Menos movement. Lastly, the protest performance starting in Chile went viral regionally and quickly internationally, bringing to the forefront the issue of gender violence on a global scale through social media. The analysis of the rise of feminicide as a main political issue across the three countries will help understand feminicides in context, through an interdisciplinary perspective that considers their underlying structural and immediate causes.