Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico – Canirac, the Puerto Vallarta, Riviera Nayarit and Costa Alegre restaurant association, announced that they will be implementing the “You’re Safe Here” campaign, which consists of Banderas Bay area restaurants acting as safe spaces for women that feel threatened, and the installation of panic buttons.
This initiative, which was introduced in Jalisco a few weeks ago and is already in use at restaurants throughout throughout the State, was designed to help eradicate gender-based violence. The Puerto Vallarta Citizen Security unit will work in coordination with the city’s restaurants with the goal of making women feel safe.
“This initiative is going to allow us to support and serve a vulnerable population which, in this case, is women. Should they feel harassed or molested in public spaces, they can enter a restaurant and ask for help. Inside the restaurants there will be panic buttons, which when pressed give immediate notice to 911, including the location so that security elements can arrive quickly to resolve the situation,” the president of Canirac, Jorge Carbajal Diaz, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The intention is that all restaurants and their staffs will participate in this movement, coordinated in the city by Canirac.
Although in Puerto Vallarta there are no real statistics on the harassment of women in public spaces, social networks have become a thermometer of the insecurity that they experience and there are more and more frequent cases in which women recount disturbing ordeals and kidnapping attempts.
Sources: Tribuna de la Bahía • Vallarta Independiente