The official story about 8M: peace, multitude and a ‘small group’
Claudia Sheinbaum painted a picture. That of the International Women’s Day marches as a predominantly quiet event. Its official narrative prioritizes peaceful magnitude over incidents.
The president highlighted that in most of the entities the demonstrations were peaceful. “I would say in all of them,” he said, although he later qualified the capital.
“In most of the entities of the Republic they were peaceful demonstrations, I would say in all of them. Here in Mexico City it was a march of around 100 thousand women, peaceful.”
The core of the message is clear: normality and control. The figure of 100 thousand attendees in CDMX serves as an anchor for that version.
The ‘small group’ and the men on stage
Then came the asterisk. The recognition that there were violent acts. Sheinbaum attributed them to a minority and, curiously, highlighted the male presence.
“And a part of a very small group that commits violent acts… By the way, many men in the violent acts, not even a good part of them were women.”
There is the discursive turn. By emphasizing that many were men, she conceptually detaches violence from the mainstream feminist movement. It is a tactical move: condemn the facts while protecting the general image of 8M.
His government reiterated its rejection of these forms. But the rhetorical weight fell on the minority of the issue compared to the rest of the country.
The question that remains, as always, is what defines small when talking about riots. And why certain details—like that note about men—become relevant in the official explanation.
