Two left-wing parties in Mexico are under fire after nominating several men to run as female candidates in the upcoming municipal elections in the state of San Luis de Potosí. The move appears to be a way to exploit a loophole in the Gender Parity Law in Mexico’s constitution, which requires 50% of all elected positions to be held by women in an effort to combat the country’s rampant sexual violence.
The Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) have nominated a number of males to run in the municipal elections to be held in San Luis de Potosí, one of the country’s 31 states. But due to the Gender Parity Law, the men are registering as “women” in order to successfully run.
It is unclear at this time if the parties simply didn’t have enough female candidates to run, as all political parties must nominate at least five women in order to participate in the elections. The move might also be a way of guaranteeing a win, as female candidates can often “leapfrog” over their male opponents if parity has not been met.
For the Green Ecologist Party, José Reyes Martínez Rojas has been selected to run as a “woman” in Venado, Roberto Carlos Medina Hernández will run as a “woman” in Vanegas, and Daniel Alfonso Zavala de la Rosa will run as a “woman” in Villa de Arista.
The Party of the Democratic Revolution has nominated Saulo Morales Guerrero as their female candidate in Ahualulco.
Morales Guerrero had initially registered as a male candidate, but later changed his gender to “female” in order to comply with gender parity guidelines. Had he not done this, he likely would not have been allowed to run as there were already too many male candidates.
A representative from Morales Guerrero’s party told Pulso SLP that they were focusing on equity during this election, stating: “This year’s process opens the door to a historic opportunity to build equality and inclusion where all social groups such as women, indigenous peoples, the LGBTQ+ community and people with disabilities can have guaranteed participation and have their voices heard in every space.”
Despite registering as “women,” the male candidates have not changed their legal names or sexes. Many of them have families, and have posted photos showing their wives and children on social media. Some have even forgotten to refer to themselves as “women.”
But despite the obvious ploy, the Consejo Estatal Electoral y de Participación Ciudadana (CEEPAC), the institution in charge of organizing the electoral processes in San Luis Potosí, has declined to speak out against the candidates.
According to El Tiempo del Altiplano, CEEPAC councillor Juan Manuel Ramírez García stated that “it must be recognized that the nominations are initially in good faith,” and that it is necessary to wait until April 19 for the decisions to accept or reject the candidates to be finalized.
While citizens are allowed to present challenges to the candidates, sources in the community tell Reduxx that most women are too afraid to do so out of fear of threats from the men. There has only been one complaint filed against one of the candidates – José Reyes Martínez Rojas – by someone who believes that he is exploiting the Gender Parity Law.
The Gender Parity Law came into force on June 6, 2019, and was a historic moment in Mexico’s history as it was an unprecedented achievement in guaranteeing women’s political rights. Mexico had long been struggling with one of the highest femicide rates in the world, with police and politicians often refusing to take concrete action to protect women. The Gender Parity Law represented an effort to give Mexican women a political voice to advocate for themselves legally.
But recent efforts to advance women’s rights have now come into conflict with gender ideology, as trans activists have pushed to expand self-identification laws in the country.
While in 2018, over one dozen men were disqualified from political candidacy after falsely claiming to be “transgender,” no such pushback is occurring today. Some have attributed this to the increasingly vocal claims of violent trans activists that people can self-identify as whatever gender they’d like without question.
In a statement to Reduxx, Claudia Espinosa Almaguer, a professor and feminist lawyer, condemned the “deception” occurring in the election.
“it should be taken into account that women make up 52% of the population, out of 127.8 million we are 66.2 million. In other words, we are not a minority; on the contrary, our participation is a key element in measuring the quality of democracy in the country,” she said.
But Espinosa Almaguer, who is also an advisor to the State Human Rights Commission of San Luis Potosí, says certain factions of liberal feminists have been too complicit in allowing the lines between sex and gender to be blurred.
“Even from women who proclaim themselves to be feminists, there seems to be a complacency. This is despite the fact that they know about the deceptions of gender [ideology], and also about the systemic threats that make it unfeasible for Mexican women to have guaranteed participation in any sphere with the level of violence that we suffer in general for the mere fact of being women.”
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