Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA

Violence Against Women Unchecked in Guatemala

International Women's Day
March 8, 2006

On February 8, the bodies of two young women were found on the outskirts of Guatemala City. They had been stoned to death. Their skulls were destroyed. In Guatemala, where genocide against the Mayan people occurred in the 1980s, femicide is now the order of the day. Based on last year’s monthly death toll, we can expect fifty more Guatemalan women to have suffered brutal deaths by March 8, International Women’s Day.

More than 2,000 women have been murdered in Guatemala in the last five years, and the annual death toll continues to grow: in 2001, 303 women were murdered; in 2005, the number reached 650. The brutality of the murders also increases each year. According to the statistics of the Guatemalan Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office, 66 percent of the murders between 2002 and mid-2005 were carried out with “sadism and extreme force.” Last year the murderers began using chain saws to hack women’s bodies apart. The United States, for the last half century a close ally of Guatemala’s, has a critical responsibility to help protect Guatemalan women and bring the violence to an end.

Although Members of Congress have expressed concern about the femicides, especially representatives Hilda Solis, Barbara Lee, and Juanita Millender-McDonald, the US State Department continues to parry blows for the Guatemalan government, informing visitors to the embassy that the emphasis on women is misplaced; more men than women are being murdered—the violence is generalized. Embassy officials miss three crucial points: the murder of women is increasing at a higher rate than the murder of men (between 2002 and 2004, murders of men increased by 36 percent, while murders of women rose by 56 percent); the murders of women are more brutal, often involving rape, torture, and mutilation; and Guatemala’s own laws encourage the violence.

Domestic violence is not a criminal offense unless the victim’s bruises last at least ten days. Criminal responsibility for sexual relations with a minor is assessed according to whether the victim was a virgin at the time. Furthermore, a rapist can be exonerated if he promises to marry his victim, unless she is under 12 years old. In a country where 60 percent of partnered women are believed to suffer domestic abuse and a third of the women murdered have been threatened first by their partners, there is only one domestic violence shelter.

The United States provides funding to Guatemala to strengthen the rule of law, but these are not the kinds of laws our government should support. The US government must push Guatemala to bring its laws into line with international standards on violence against women and provide measures to protect women.

The US supplies important support to Guatemala’s judiciary and police, but continued funding must depend on accountability. Relatives of femicide victims often are threatened when they try to prosecute, sometimes even by the police. Twenty-three police officers implicated by the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office in 10 femicide cases have not been so much as investigated. This lack of investigation is the norm. According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Crimes Against Women, reports of femicide are simply filed away in 40 percent of the cases. In the past six years, only 12 perpetrators have been sentenced.

The US should take specific punitive measures, including economic sanctions, against countries that continue to engage in or tolerate severe violations of women’s rights. The US should require Guatemala to provide specific statistics to the Department of State regarding the cause of death of victims of violence against women, as well as data about the investigation, prosecution, conviction, and sentencing of those responsible. During

Guatemala’s armed conflict, the US provided funding to the Guatemala’s security forces and looked the other way as atrocities mounted. Funding the rule of law is quite different from funding the death squads, as long as those laws are just and the system is required to function. To save the lives of the hundreds of women statistically marked for brutal murder by next International Women’s Day, the United States must act.

Carrie Stengel and Patricia Davis are Research and Communications Director and former Executive Director, respectively, of the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA.

 

Home | Site Map | Contact Us

3321 12th Street NE, Washington, DC 20017

This site is maintained by the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA
as a means of informing the general public of the Commission's work
on behalf of the people of Guatemala