Women from several NGOs commandeered the bandstand in Guadalajara’s Plaza de Armas last week, where they hooked up a “clothesline” on which they attached photographs of men accused of being child support debtors.
The women were demanding greater government action on the part of state authorities to bring to account debtors who regularly evade child support payments, as required by federal law. They also want stricter local legislation passed that would make it easier to force fathers to contribute their fair share to single-mother households.
A spokesperson for the women accused the state government of having “a patriarchal bias” and failing to prioritize the interests of single mothers and children.
Federal laws passed in 2021 included a provision to create the first national registry of child support debtors. This registry eventually saw the light of day in March 2023. People on the register can theoretically be banned from obtaining driver’s licenses and passports or running for public office. To have their names removed from the register, debtors must provide proof of payments.
The “clothesline” protest movement outing debtors — known in Spanish as the “tendedero de deudores alimentarios” — started in Oaxaca shortly after the 2021 legislation (Ley Sabina) was passed, to focus attention on the new laws. The protests have since spread to other states, including Jalisco, where sports and entertainment personalities have been outed.
Last month, the mother of an eight-year-old child, who she says is the son of former Chivas and Mexican national team soccer star Carlos Salcido, strung up a giant poster in a prominent Guadalajara avenue calling out her former partner for failing to comply with a family court ruling to provide 52,000 pesos a month in child support.
The Jalisco women say they want legislation that duplicates the federal Sabina law and registry at the state level.