Sheinbaum, on March 8 at Campo Marte: “It is a tribute to the women of the Armed Forces.”

One of the symbolic images left by the commemoration of International Women's Day in Mexico was that of President Claudia Sheinbaum, dressed in purple, standing between Defense Secretary General Ricardo Trevilla Trejo and Navy Secretary Admiral Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles, in a front row of Mexican officials saluting the flag before hundreds of members of the country's armed forces. Outside, in the streets, just a few kilometers from Campo Marte, hundreds of thousands of women were preparing to march. On Monday, the president anticipated the question that had been circulating on social media since Sunday afternoon and said: “I would like to take this opportunity to tell you that yesterday we were with the women of the Armed Forces. It is a recognition. We are going to do the same with women doctors, scientists, farmers, indigenous women, and in general, the women of the Armed Forces had never been recognized before.” The image has not gone down well with many feminist groups and part of the public, who see the president's act as a message of support for one of the most secretive institutions in the country and which, after several revelations of emails within the Army, has been accused of a large number of sexual abuses, acts of torture, and forced disappearances, in a body where women are still a minority. Aware of the controversy, Sheinbaum has decided to respond and clarify: "I believe that recognizing women in history, in the present, and in the future is justice, and with justice comes a reduction in inequalities. And when inequalities are reduced, discrimination and violence against women are eradicated." This Sunday, accompanied on the front line by the president of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), Hugo Aguilar; Laura Itzel Castillo, president of the Senate, and Congresswoman Kenia López Rabadán, president of the board of the Chamber of Deputies—all of them also dressed in purple—the president reiterated on Monday that throughout the month of March, this type of recognition of women from different professions will take place. The president said that on Sunday, approximately 100,000 women marched in Mexico City and that both in the capital and in the vast majority of states, the demonstrations were peaceful. Regarding some of the violent incidents that occurred, the president said: “A very small group carried out violent acts, and, as we have always said, we do not agree with these forms of protest But they were really a minority compared to the marches that took place throughout the country.” The presidential commemorative event for this March 8 in Mexico City also came just a couple of weeks after the capture of drug trafficker Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho, in a federal operation that resulted in the deaths of at least 25 members of the National Guard and after a survey revealed, just a few days ago, that 81% of Mexicans support the Army's actions in that operation.