Mexico City assesses monument damage after anti-rape march

Hundreds of city workers spent the wee hours of the morning pressure-cleaning and painting over graffiti.

The deputy director of artistic patrimony at the National Fine Arts Institute, Dolores Martinez, said at the base of the statue that officials were assessing the damage to the Angel and other points in the capital that protesters attacked.

At the same time, Martinez added, the fine arts institute ``respects freedom of speech and offers support for actions to eradicate all forms of violence against women.''

Protesters wrote phrases like ``They don't take care of us'' and ``rape state'' in lime green, purple and black spray paint across the base of the Angel monument, which commemorates Mexico's independence from Spain and is often the site of celebrations by city residents.

Demonstrators also painted the word ``rapists'' on the wall of a nearby police station and trashed a major bus station. A male television reporter was assaulted by another man while covering the protest.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, the first woman elected to head the city's
government, said via Twitter that the attorney general's office of the metropolis will investigate and bring charges against those who attacked journalists.

Violence against women is a serious problem in Mexico.

Human Rights Watch says Mexican laws ``do not adequately protect women and girls against domestic and sexual violence.'' It said in a 2019 report that provisions in Mexican law, including those that make the severity of punishments for sexual offenses contingent upon the supposed chastity of the victim, ``contradict international standards.''

Art historian Mara Fragoso came to assess the damage to the Angel with conflicted feelings. She said she understands and shares the protesters' rage over violence against women, but she feels monuments should not be violated.

The Angel in many ways is a monument to women, Fragoso said. In addition to the golden female figure of an angel at the top, stoic bronze female figures are stationed at the four corners of the base.