During 2022, 80% of women’s shelters received less budget to operate than they were allocated a year earlier, although they supported 25% more victims of violence. This situation, according to Wendy Figueroa, director of the National Network that groups these centers (RNR), left them with financial problems that put their work at risk by 2023.
Figueroa said in an interview that there are four centers for women victims of violence that today are negotiating with suppliers and workers the payment of their services so as not to have to close their doors this 2023, since the federal resource for them to operate will be transferred – if there are no delays – until March.
“The panorama we had in 2022 still has consequences that we will drag the first months of 2023. Fortunately, this year the guidelines for the next fiscal year for the shelter program were published in a timely manner, and it seems that the transfer of resources will be made on time,” he said.
The RNR accuses simulation in increase of resources
Although the RNR negotiated with committees of the Chamber of Deputies an increase in the budget allocated to the operation of the shelters, there was only an increase of 19 million pesos for their operation, a figure that, according to Figueroa, “is insufficient in the face of inflation and the real needs that exist, especially due to the growth in the number of cares.”
The director of the network regretted that, although the Budget of Expenditures of the Federation (PEF) of 2023 has allocated just over 348 million pesos labeled for the promotion of equality between women and men, more than half of these resources are actually destined to social programs without a gender approach, such as Youth Building the Future and the Pension for the Elderly.
“We see with concern that the budget for the victims is a simulation, because apparently there is an increase, but outside of the statements, in reality resources with a gender perspective are not being granted, despite the fact that we are constantly denouncing that in the country we live under an emergency situation that claims the lives of at least 10 women every day,” Added.
Read more: Despite ‘national emergency’ for violence against women, shelters received resources 10 months late
Figueroa explained that the organizations dedicated to the care of women victims of violence are not asking for the cancellation of resource transfer programs for young people or older adults, “but it must be recognized that these do not have a gender perspective, nor parameters to talk about substantive equality between men and women; In addition, we find it unfair that, while money is limited to safe havens, there are very large increases for militarization.”
The feminist psychologist lamented that this situation was compounded by the fact that the authorities at different levels “persecute and criminalize those who denounce the State’s inattention to women and the prevalence of macho attitudes and the patriarchal pact in institutions, even when we are the ones who end up doing their job.”
Despite the lack of budget and the delay in transfers, the shelters managed to ensure that at least 450 women – some of them accompanied by their children – had options to generate their own income from economic self-management.
Attention in shelters for attempted femicide rose 10%
According to the director of the RNR, in 2022 women’s shelters provided more than 35,000 care, which represented an increase of 25% over the previous year, and of them they observed a 10% increase in the number of victims of attempted femicide. Of these, 350 had gone to the authorities prior to the attempt to kill them, without being provided with protection measures.
According to figures from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), between January and November 2022, 3,470 women were murdered in Mexico, of which 878 cases, representing 25.3%, were classified by the authorities as femicides; The remainder are being investigated as intentional homicides.
In the same period, 62,126 cases were reported of women who were victims of intentional injuries, that is, who were intentionally physically assaulted.
“This reflects that omissions continue in the attention of crimes that affect women, and that these are still considered as minor matters, totally invisible, which – as we have said on several occasions from the Network of Shelters – is the prelude to femicides, a crime with impunity of more than 56%,” he says.Figueroa.
“What we see that existed in 2022 and persists in 2023 is that this government cares more about the militarization of security and tourism programs than preventing and punishing violence against women, so the challenges are quite great,” she said.
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