From Ciudad Juárez to Latin America: The Legacy of Ni Una Menos

• Ni Una Menos emerged as a powerful regional movement against gender-based violence, originating from the 2015 murder of 14-year-old Chiara Páez in Argentina.
• The movement popularized the term "femicide," forcing governments across Latin America to acknowledge gender-related homicide and establish specialized registries.
• Despite a decade of activism, systemic violence remains pervasive, with recent data showing thousands of annual femicides across the continent.
• Ultraconservative political shifts are actively dismantling institutional protections, cutting funding, and eroding gender equality frameworks.

Historical Origins and Expansion

• The movement's slogan traces back to Mexican poet Susana Chávez Castillo, who first used "Not One Woman Less" to denounce the systematic murder of women in Ciudad Juárez in 1995.
• After Chávez Castillo herself was murdered in 2011, her words became a rallying cry following the 2015 killing of Chiara Páez.
• The movement rapidly expanded from Argentina to Mexico, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Bolivia, Colombia, and Paraguay, shifting the public discourse from "unfortunate incidents" to "femicide."

Current Status and Regional Statistics

• According to ECLAC, at least 4,855 women were victims of femicide in Latin America in 2024, averaging 13 per day.
• Civil society data often surpasses official government statistics, exposing gaps in state reporting:
  • Argentina: 200 official femicides recorded in 2025, while the National Ombudsman recorded 247 when including trans femicides and related suicides.
  • Chile: Recorded 40 completed and 283 attempted femicides in 2025, primarily committed by intimate partners.
  • Colombia: Experienced 342 recorded cases in the first half of 2025, marking a 6.5 percent increase; 98 percent of these cases remain unsentenced.
  • Paraguay: Reported 37 femicides in 2025, leaving 69 children orphaned, with 85 percent of crimes committed by current or former partners.

Institutional Backlash and Future Challenges

• Many governments have failed to back symbolic declarations with necessary budgets or political will.
• Authoritarian administrations are actively dismantling progress by:
  • Dissolving dedicated gender ministries.
  • Cutting victim-support funding by up to 90 percent in some jurisdictions.
  • Promoting discursive attacks that label feminism an "ideology" and gender diversity a "threat to the nation."
• The movement persists, asserting that the fight requires shifting from mere slogans to sustained organization and the exercise of political power as a counter-measure to the withdrawal of state support.