Traveling safely on the subway: Mission Survival

By Lorena Jiménez

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Vanesa was just 24 years old at the time of her first sexual assault in the Mexico City Metro in 2003. Twenty-one years have passed since then. Meanwhile...in the present time, 2024, 25-year-old Renata not only shares the same experience, but also shares having suffered from the same modus operandi in which her aggressors, after masturbating, stained Vanesa and Renata's clothes, taking the aggression to another level.

In Mexico City, 2.8% of women constant users of public transport have witnessed this same episode in their lifetime, according to UN Women's Survey on Sexual Violence in Transport and other Public Spaces in the CDMX.

According to figures recorded by the CDMX Metro, the total number of passengers entering its facilities in 2022 was 1,057 million 461 thousand 875 users, on the other hand, the 2017 Origin-Destination Study conducted by the Government of the CDMX, counted 7.91 million women traveling on the subway.

Despite the fact that women-only cars in the subway have existed since 1970, the saturation on the platforms forces women to board mixed cars where stories like those of Vanesa and Renata, who were on their way to work, are daily occurrences.

Due to the increase in reports of harassment and gender violence in the Mexico City subway, authorities have taken measures such as the implementation of women-only spaces and awareness campaigns, however, aggressions continue to be a matter of concern.

The Viaja Segura campaign is one of the initiatives that emerged since 2008, whose efforts focus on naming the expressions of gender violence and informing about the ways in which authorities can provide support to women victims of sexual violence. 

Since a month ago, in the Metro, a series of posters printed on paper began to be displayed in the facilities, however, few are those that survive, some are barely a trace of what they once were, leaving only the edges in sight adhered with tape.

An example of this phenomenon is the B line, where out of 21 stations, only 4 have signs on the platforms.

As for the posters that run along Line A, they found a different destiny than informing users, since most of the campaign posters were destroyed and disappeared.

According to Metro figures, Pantitlán, which is part of Line A, crowned as the station with the highest traffic flow in 2020, with an average of 91,504 users.

In an interview with Edith Olivares Ferreto, Executive Director of Amnesty International Mexican Section, we talked about the importance of any effort to prevent violence against women and recognized that as a campaign it is useful, particularly in a country like Mexico where the numbers of violence against women are on the rise and public transportation is a place of risk for women.

"It is very important that these campaigns are linked to access to justice actions, because otherwise, the state loses legitimacy when it carries out these campaigns. When we see a poster like this and then women come out of the subway because they have been sexually assaulted and go to report and have to spend eight hours of their day waiting for their report to be picked up and also receive mistreatment from the authorities or institutional violence, you are losing legitimacy and credibility of the government."

It was only until we requested an interview with a member of Metro's spokesperson that they made a statement regarding these posters by means of an informative card that they gave us.

"In relation to the posters alluding to Viaja Segura that are in poor condition, Metro urges the user public to respect the printed material distributed, both in stations and on trains."

Vanesa, now 45 years old, assures that this type of campaign did not exist when she suffered sexual violence in the subway cars, she assures that when she left the car "there was not even a policeman" and that nowadays, this type of campaign such as Viaja Segura would have been helpful for her 21 years ago.

"I received help until I arrived at the hospital where I worked, where Lupita, the cleaning lady, helped me take shelter so I could wash my pants and hours later my boyfriend, and now husband, brought me a new pair of pants so I would be more comfortable." 

As for Renata, the accompaniment she received was from another woman who helped her get private transportation, Uber, so she could get home safely. Her decision was not to denounce or go to any police who were present on the platform.

Currently, the Secretariat of Citizen Security assigned 5,800 elements in the 195 subway stations.

In one of the posters of this campaign, in addition to providing the number *765 to receive legal and psychological support, they assure that if you are a victim of sexual violence in the subway, a police officer will give you two options: 1. If you do not wish to report it, they will accompany you to finish your trip, 2.

However, few posters survive on the screens or on the platforms; perhaps the reason why some are intact is because they are at the end of the platform, where no one sees them, or next to the ticket offices, near the policemen or the personnel of the Public Transportation System (Sistema de Transporte Colectivo).

Edith Olivares Ferreto assures that what Amnesty International has observed in Mexico is that these policies are oriented towards combating violence against women and little towards punishment, that is to say, they are policies that are focused on attending to those who have already been violated and not so much on prevention.

"Unfortunately, the Mexican State continues to have a debt with women, we have to continue launching these campaigns and continue doing these actions until this stops happening, that people stop tearing these types of posters.

In the subway, traveling safely is as difficult as making sure that these posters do not disappear. When looking at these images, there are two possibilities; the first is that by accident, users, when leaning on the walls, break these posters, or that we are facing another expression of violence against women: the deprivation of access to information for the punishment of sexual violence with the aim that the fate of our aggressors in the subway, is to remain unpunished.

*Lorena Jiménez makes video art and is a journalist based in Mexico City. 

The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.