Guatemala:
"What I treasure most in life is being able to dream. During my most difficult moments and complex situations I have been able to dream of a more beautiful future."
Ois Botik http://www.indians.org/welker/menchu.htm
1,800 women killed/
Guatemala/ since 2001
amnestyusa.org
Demand justice and say 'No Mas!'
"In 1996, Guatemala had a UN-brokered peace accord to end the civil war, and to stop the military brutality. However, the country is still suffering from violence against women. Over 1,800 women have been killed in Guatemala since 2001. In the past five years, only 14 of these murder cases have been resolved. There may be hundreds more murders that have gone unreported.
Juana Batzibal, a human rights lawyer with the Center for Legal Action on Human Rights (CALDH) in Guatemala City reported that the government had made some attempts to introduce the rule of law, but she told the U.N. committee that implementation and follow-through were lacking.
This summer, the Washington-based Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA is organizing a delegation of U.S. professional rights advocates and other concerned individuals to visit the country, meet with women's rights leaders and government officials and look into efforts to curb violence against women."
See Guatemala pressed to investigate surge in killings
Stop the killings of women in Guatemala
Learn more about AIUSA's work on Guatemala
"But the violence in Guatemala continues. And the biggest crime wave seems to be the one against women. From May of 2002 to May of this year, 1,366 women were killed in Guatemala. This year alone, 360 women have been murdered. It is known as femicidio, the mass slaughter of women.
The majority of the murders are ic and show signs of overkill, according to law enforcement officers. While the majority of men who are killed in Guatemala die of gunshot wounds, two-thirds of the women are d and stabbed or strangled. Most of the murdered women are young and poor. And it is estimated that about a third of the killings of women are related to domestic violence.
The Associated Press has reported that in 2002, 184 women were killed, in 2003, 250 women, and last year more than 300 women. Other estimates are higher.
The killings send a message of intimidation and fear to s and women."
http://www.amanjordan.org/english/e-news/wmview.php?ArtID=320
"For the last five years, Guatemala has suffered an epidemic of gruesome killings of women that are as mysterious as they are brutal. Typically a young woman in Guatemala City vanishes, and her body turns up a few days later in a garbage bag or in an open field. Many of the women's faces and bodies have been mutilated, and many have been d ually or otherwise. Some of the bodies have messages, like "death to bitches," scrawled on them."
Guatemala's Murdered Women
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/guatemala/3519.html
Guatemala: Another Juarez, Mexico?
09:33 H Topics: Guatemala - Women
Over the last five years at least 2,000 mujeres have been murdered in Guatemala. The majority of these women have been poor young women found with body parts missing including their breasts. So is Guatemala becoming another Ciudad Juarez, Mexico? And why is the mainstream media not covering this story? The answer is that obviously the mainstream media doesn't consider the murders of Latina women important but a delegation of U.S. advocates does and will be travelling to Guatemala to call attention to the crimes against women there and to the fact that over the past five years only 14 of these murder cases have been solved. Juana Batzibal, a human rights lawyer with the Center for Legal Action on Human Rights (CALDH) in Guatemala City said:
The gall with which these women are killed is telling women that they shouldn't be on the street, that they should go back home.
While the government in Guatemala is blaming the murders on the growing drug and gang problem in the country, there may be a political side to the killings as well.
The conflict between the military government and leftist guerillas--which ended 10 years ago--left 200,000 dead, the majority of them unarmed civilians from the country's indigenous Maya population. Rape and sexual violence were central to the military's counter-insurgency strategy, and about one-fourth of those killed during the conflict were women. Batzibal said the failure to hold accountable those responsible for the wartime human rights abuses has created a culture of impunity and helped perpetuate extreme forms of violence against women.The fact that the women found murdered have been mutilated and possibly raped points to the targetting of women specifically. This is why the Washington-based Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA is organizing a delegation of U.S. professional rights advocates and other concerned individuals to visit the country, meet with women's rights leaders and government officials and look into efforts to curb violence against women.
Via / Women's e News
http://vivirlatino.com/2006/06/14/guatemala-another-juarez-mexico.php
bravenet.com