THE AUTHOR
Anna-Claire Bevan
Femicide: Guatemala's Growing Epidemic
During the past decade, over 5,000 women and young girls have been murdered throughout Guatemala: last year alone there were 685 targeted female killings. BY ANNA-CLAIRE BEVAN
When you open a newspaper in Guatemala you are invariably greeted
by a series of numbers:
How many people were killed the previous day,
How many people have been arrested in conjunction with the crime.
The answers are typically: high and zero.
Recently the number of females appearing in these articles has been
rapidly increasing. So much so that human rights groups say
Guatemala is currently witnessing epidemic levels of violence
against women. Raped, murdered and mutilated, their bodies are
dumped in rubbish bags and abandoned in public places.
The latest high profile missing person’s case is mother of two,
Cristina Siekavizza Molina de Barreda, who disappeared last month.
Police are currently trying to locate the whereabouts of her husband
who fled with their children soon after the incident gained national
attention. Cristina’s mother has since organised a number of marches
throughout the capital, Guatemala City, to support victims of
violence.
According to Amnesty International, Guatemalan women experience one
of the highest levels of violence in the world; and while death
rates continue to rise, convictions do not. Even Guatemala’s top law
enforcer, attorney general Claudia Paz, admits most crimes against
women go unpunished:
“The justice system hasn’t given violence cases the importance they
deserve. And with violence against women, the problem is even
worse,” says Paz.
During the past decade, over 5,000 women and young girls have been
murdered throughout the Central American nation: last year alone
there were 685 targeted female killings. So far, less than four per
cent of these cases have resulted in a conviction.
In December 2009, 22-year-old Mindy Rodas was violently attacked by
her husband who tried to cut off parts of her face with a machete.
The man was subsequently charged and sentenced but not sent to jail.
With the help of local organisations, Rodas was given assistance in
Mexico to obtain extensive facial reconstruction surgery and later
moved to a women’s shelter in Guatemala.
Seven months after her violent attack, Rodas left the shelter
because she wanted to live closer to her community. On 18 December
2010, she was found dead in Guatemala City.
Since human rights defenders across the country regularly receive
death threats demanding they drop cases, victims’ families are often
too afraid for their own safety to demand a fair trial for their
deceased. The state’s failure to exercise due diligence in
preventing, investigating and punishing these crimes means the
killers run free and the violence proliferates.
Femicide, defined as “the killing of females by males because they
are female”, has long been a problem across Latin America and over
time the media has grown numb to the violence. Often women from
indigenous communities are targeted for rape and other forms of
sexual violence, torture and killings specifically because of their
indigenous identity. Little is done to counter it: attacks are
rarely investigated and seldom brought to trial.
Back in March, international human rights groups joined together to
urge Guatemala’s authorities to take action against the high number
of women being murdered across the country and ensure perpetrators
were brought to justice. However, so far little progress has been
made.
“Women in Guatemala are dying as a consequence of the State’s
failure to protect them,” says Sebastian Elgueta, Guatemala
researcher at Amnesty International.
Female passengers are also regularly assaulted on public transport
throughout the capital. To combat these attacks, public buses
exclusively for women have just been introduced – covering routes
throughout the city during peak hours. The line of Transurbano
buses, which are decorated with pink ribbons and marked: “For Women
Only”, have won over a lot of Guatemalan women. They say they feel
safer on board them and hope the system will soon extend its hours.
Congresswoman Zury Rios Montt, who spearheaded the campaign, is now
pushing to implement a female only taxi service so that women can
move around the city free of sexual harassment.
NGOs such as Madre and Fundacion Sobrevivientes are also fighting
back: providing women, who often lack access to basic human rights,
with ways to avoid the violence. By educating them, equipping them
with flashlights, enhancing their security and explaining their
legal rights they aim to reduce the number of women who fall victim
to femicide in Guatemala each year.
Yet, while NGOs and human rights groups can campaign for adequate
policies, it is up to those who hold the power to implement
effective programmes that tackle the core of the problem – pervasive
poverty and legal exclusion.
About the Author
Anna-Claire Bevan is a freelance journalist and travel writer
based in Guatemala City. In the past she has worked for a number of
news agencies including Reuters and Press Association.
Her travels in Latin America, and frustrations at the lack of media
coverage that this area of the world receives, provides the backdrop
for the majority of the discussions on her blog. The opinions
expressed here are entirely her own.
Visit Anna's blog at: http://annaclairebevan.wordpress.com/
The article has been reprinted with the permission of the author.
