I feel very happy …” said Alba Lorena Rodríguez, one of the three women released on March 6 by the authorities of El Salvador after spending years in jail accused of aborting. She spoke through tears and joy, as she prepared to leave the women’s prison, just hours before International Women’s Day.

More than twenty-five years since the femicides of Juarez came to light, today throughout Mexico women are disappeared and murdered on a daily basis. The government reports that there are currently more than 9,000 disappeared women on the national registry of missing persons and that figure is probably much higher due to underreporting.

Asked if Brazilian women are more prone to disappear, Moreno reacts with indignation. “If we had more accurate and realistic data, we could understand if it is men or women who disappear most and the many reasons behind it.”

From Anchorage to Acoma, all over the United States and Canada, native women have been mobilizing to procure justice for missing and murdered sisters. In recent years, the mounting grassroots efforts have made hard-won progress to counter gender-related violence in colonized communities.