Mexico City, (EFE).- Mexico City has launched the “Violet Glasses” initiative within its massive surveillance system, aiming to incorporate a gender perspective to detect and prevent violence against women.
The program operates through the city’s C5 center: Mexico City’s Command, Control, Computing, Communications, and Citizen hub, which manages over 80,000 security cameras, the largest network of its kind in Latin America.
Salvador Guerrero, general coordinator of the C5, explained in an interview with EFE that the goal is to “recognize the realities and circumstances in which the five forms of gender-based violence identified by law, physical, psychological, patrimonial, economic, and sexual, occur.”
Guerrero highlighted that Mexico City’s approach is unique nationally, combining the extensive camera network with six emergency hotlines, including the *765 SOS Mujeres line, specifically for cases involving violence against women.
“The lens of video surveillance, now tinted violet, gives us a capability no other entity in Mexico possesses,” said Guerrero.
For comparison, he noted that the neighboring State of Mexico operates around 21,000 cameras over an area four times larger than Mexico City.
The “Violet Glasses” strategy, which aligns with the agenda of newly appointed city mayor Clara Brugada, seeks to build “substantive equality” through diagnosis, public policy, and measurable outcomes.
Emergency response to feminicide risk
One significant feature of the initiative is the *765 SOS Mujeres hotline, staffed exclusively by women.
Calls are answered in under five seconds and undergo immediate triage to assess the risk of feminicide, a term used in Latin America for the killing of a woman because of her gender.
High-risk cases include assaults such as beating, hair-pulling, strangulation attempts, threats with weapons, and severe injuries.
Additional red flags include the aggressor’s criminal record, especially if they have previously been involved in the penal system, Guerrero explained.
In cases of imminent danger, the hotline coordinates with the Women’s Secretariat, the Attorney General’s Office, the Citizen Security Secretariat, and the Citizen Council to ensure the victim receives legal accompaniment and assistance in filing charges with the Public Ministry.
From Data to Public Policy
Between Jan.1 and Apr. 9, the C5 handled 188,940 emergency calls related to women.
The majority of reports involved physical and verbal assaults, primarily occurring in private settings, Guerrero said, with 70% of incidents reported from domestic environments.
He also noted that cases spike between Thursday and Saturday, particularly during social gatherings, although many incidents are not reported until the following Monday.
This data, Guerrero stressed, is crucial for informing public policy initiatives developed in collaboration with Mexico City’s Security Cabinet.
However, he acknowledged that the C5 currently has limited capacity to determine how many of the emergency calls ultimately result in feminicide.
Despite limitations, Mexico City’s integration of gender-focused security monitoring represents a rare and large-scale attempt to systematically address violence against women in a region where such issues are often underreported and under-addressed.
Mexico, like much of Latin America, struggles with high rates of gender-based violence.
Femicide has been recognized by law in Mexico since 2012, but convictions remain low, and public pressure has mounted in recent years for more aggressive prevention measures.
mjc/seo
