LGBT+ pride march: more than 100,000 participants in Mexico, a minister sacked in Costa Rica
The LGBT+ pride march in Mexico City on Saturday brought together more than 100,000 people who came to demand equal rights, just as other demonstrators plan to do on Sunday, further south; in Costa Rica, where the Minister of Culture was fired for supporting the initiative.
Major roads in the Mexican capital were colored with rainbow flags for several kilometers up to the large Zocalo square, in a festive atmosphere.
“Enough of discrimination!”, “No more hate crimes!”, “Sexual freedom!”, the participants, more than 100,000 according to the organizers and the police, sang until nightfall.
“I am marching so that tomorrow we no longer have to hide (…) so that children are no longer victims of harassment like I suffered,” Roberto Arellano, 28, told AFP.
“We are not criminals,” he added.
Cries of “Justice!”, demonstrators grouped under the name of the Dissident Bloc marched with a white coffin symbolizing the LGBT+ people killed across Mexico.
The news portal Letra S estimates that 231 members of the LGBT+ community, mainly transgender, were murdered there between 2001 and 2023.
Like the parade in Mexico City, a pride march is to take place on Sunday in San José, the capital of Costa Rica, and will take place in Democracy Square, opposite Parliament.
The planned demonstration led to the fall of the Minister of Culture and Youth, Nayuribe Guadamuz, who was dismissed on Saturday by President Rodrigo Chaves for having granted official recognition to the initiative, in the form of a declaration of cultural interest.
A decision taken “without the authorization of the president” who “was not aware of it”, and which was cancelled on Saturday, according to a government press release.
According to the same source, the demonstration did not receive authorization from the authorities, which its organizers denied by maintaining the march.
“The formalities were completed as for any other activity,” said Geovanny Delgado, a spokesman for the March for Diversity, calling Mr. Chaves’ decision a “populist” and “illegal” act.
Elsewhere in Central America, in Guatemala, the Constitutional Court refused on Friday to ban the pride march organized in the capital on Saturday, rejecting a request from a conservative lawyer, but ordered the government to ensure the “protection” of “values” and “morality”.
bur-jjr-sem-jnd/cpy
Do you have a real estate project in mind? Yakeey & Médias24 help you make it happen!
