Protesting Violence Against Women

These women, some of them shirtless, marched thru La Candelaria protesting against violence against women, on the International Day Against Violence Against Women. Gender violence is certainly a cronic problem in Colombia, where drinking rates seem high and a macho culture persists.

According to this article, during the first four months of 2013 more than 500 girls and women were murdered in Colombia. The article in El Tiempo reports that activists plan to transmit anti-violence ads to football fans. The strategy makes sense, altho it's also ironic that football, and the drinking assocated with it, is a driver of many kinds of violence, including violence against women.

A protester wore a sign comemorating a victim of gender violence. 

Take your shirt off against violence. 

Topless participants in the protest.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours