Safe Rides Mexico City: Feminist Network Transport

MEXICO CITY (AP) — When a male driver for a popular ride-hailing app asked Ninfa Fuentes for her phone number on a trip through Mexico City, she froze. But when he persisted in asking her repeatedly about her plans for Valentine’s Day, a torrent of terror washed over her body.

What should have been a peaceful trip home at the end of the work day three years ago turned into a nightmare that many women in Mexico experience daily: holding their breath until they know they have made it home alive.

“I felt like I was dying,” said Fuentes, 48. The international economics researcher and survivor of sexual violence has not used public transportation or app services since then.

The conversation about the alarming levels of sexual harassment and gender-based violence resurfaced strongly this week after Mexico’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, was caught on video being groped by a drunken man.

Following the incident, Sheinbaum said she had filed charges against the man and revealed a plan to make sexual harassment a crime in all Mexican states, in an attempt to make it easier for women to report such assaults in a country where an average of 10 women are murdered daily.

After her terrifying ride-hailing experience, Fuentes turned to AmorrAs, a self-organized feminist network that provides safe transportation—and support—to women in Mexico City and its suburbs.

AmorrAs seeks to offer a solution to the endemic problem of sexual harassment and other forms of gender violence that women routinely face on ride-hailing and in Mexico’s public transportation system.

The network was founded by Karina Alba, 29, following the 2022 murder of Debanhi Escobar, who was found dead days after getting out of a taxi on a dark road in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey.

Alba founded AmorrAs in hopes of providing safe rides for women, and chose her mother, taxi driver Ruth Rojas, as the network’s first driver. It now has more than 20 “allied” drivers exclusively for women who serve more than 2,000 passengers a year.

“My dream was to contribute in some way to society,” said Alba. “And I decided to do it by creating a safe space for women, where they could develop with dignity and free of violence.”

One recent afternoon, Dian Colmenero, 38, received a WhatsApp message from Alba confirming that the woman she was going to take was waiting for her at her workplace. At the other end, the passenger read a message with the details of the trip, the name and number of her “ally” driver, and a reassuring pink heart emoji. Her “ally” driver would be with her soon.

For security reasons, women must schedule their trips with AmorrAs in advance by filling out a form. The price of each service varies depending on the distance traveled.

Colmenero, who works in marketing when not driving with AmorrAs, stole a kiss from his partner and petted his old Yorkie before heading to one of the city’s financial districts.

“Before being an allied driver in AmorrAs, I have experienced violence in public transport, in the subway and even in these taxis,” she stated. “Once I had a driver who made my partner and I very afraid to travel with him… because he had been saying many things, that he had hit women.”

Colmenero greeted his usual passenger, Ninfa Fuentes, with a warm hug. They chatted about their families, the book Fuentes is writing, and their recent shared diagnosis of ADHD.

As the noise of traffic in the Mexican capital shakes the car, Fuentes looks out the window, confident that she will get home safely.

According to the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System, 61,713 sexual crimes have been reported in Mexico so far in 2025, including 8,704 complaints of sexual harassment.

The National Citizen Observatory of Femicide says that sexual crimes in Mexico are the least reported due to the high level of stigma surrounding them and the lack of credibility that authorities often give to women’s reports.

Lawyer Norma Escobar, 32, collaborates with AmorrAs offering legal support to women who claim to have been harassed or attacked.

On more than one occasion, the lawyer said she had heard how a forensic doctor from the gender crimes department of the attorney general’s office of the State of Mexico dismissed women who filed a complaint of sexual assault, telling them “Nothing happened to you, there have been worse cases.”

Escobar, who handles harassment cases on the street and on public transportation, said the absence of a medical examiner has sometimes prevented women from officially filing a complaint.

After being contacted by The Associated Press, a spokesman for the Mexico State attorney general’s office said he was not aware of the doctor’s alleged comment, but that when problems have been discovered, the office has taken action against those involved.

Experts and rights advocates say Mexico’s history of violence against women is rooted in deep-rooted cultural machismo and systemic gender inequality, along with a justice system plagued by problems.

“Seeing that the authorities minimize it, women become inhibited and give up on their processes,” said Escobar, pointing out that, when it comes to guaranteeing women’s access to justice, “there is a lack of attention, commitment and professionalism on the part of the authorities.”

Like many other women in Mexico, Nejoi Meddeb, 30, always traveled with her hand on the door handle so she could escape if necessary. This is how Lidia Gabriela Gómez, 23, died in 2022, when she jumped out of a moving taxi in Mexico City after the driver took a different route than the one she had requested.

María José Cabrera, a 28-year-old engineer, said a man followed her when she got off a minibus on her way to the subway. She ran to take refuge in the train car reserved only for women. On another occasion, in one of the city’s mixed subway cars, she said a man touched her inappropriately, and by the time she reacted, he was already gone.

Cabrera, who now travels with AmorrAs, said she also avoided wearing skirts and never went anywhere without making sure someone she trusted was watching her trip, a common protocol internalized by many women in Mexico.

“For me, AmorrAs represents being able to do things that I couldn’t do before,” Cabrera said. “I love going to concerts. It shouldn’t be like that, but if it weren’t for them, I probably wouldn’t be able to do it.”

This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.