Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA
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708 Women Die Violent Deaths in 2009
31 December 2009
elPeriodico
By Rosmery GonzálezAccording to statistics from the Guatemalan Secretary of State, from January to December 27, 708 women died violent deaths, an average of 60 victims per month, in comparison with last year which ended with 773.
Among the types of weapons and methods used by aggressors were firearms, knives, blunt objects and strangulation.
In spite of the passage of the Law Against Femicide on April 9, a reduction in rates of deaths hasn’t been achieved. According to Norma Cruz of the Survivor’s Foundation, there are no informative mechanisms for protection measures that women can count on.
“There is no coordination of security planes, above all in the areas with the highest rates of violent deaths of women: the neighborhoods that have become the most violent, such as Zone 6, 18 and the suburbs of Mixco and Villa Nueva. There aren’t enough security measures to cover the needs of the female population,” she indicated.
Added to this, according to Cruz, is the judicial system that, in spite of the fact that the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) and the National Civilian Police (PNC) have managed to improve, the Judicial Organism (OJ) let aggressors go free. “Many of them, including potential assassins, leave under alternative [justice] measures and this provokes them to seek out women and pursue them in order to finish their objective,” she added.
Such is the case of Mindy Rodas Donis, a young women of 21 years of age from Santa Rosa, whose husband disfigured her face with a knife in June and then tried to suffocate her. Nevertheless, he went free to serve an alternative sentence and was later accused of attempted femicide.
The Most Recent Incident
On the 8 th of December, Mariana Estefany Figeroa Leiva, 17, died from blood loss after, who according to family members and friends, an argument with her ex boyfriend who cut her neck with a sharp object in the community of Ferrocarrilera of Mazatenango’s Zone 4.
Two months prior she was crowned as the Youth Princess in that town. “we couldn’t save her,” said two doctors from the National Hospital of Mazatenango. Neighbors explained that he had argued with her on various occasions. The security forces still haven’t given the whereabouts of the supposed assassin of the young girl.
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