Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA

FEMICIDES CONTINUE TO BE UNSTOPPABLE IN GUATEMALA

El Tiempo Libre, Ramón Jiménez, April 20, 2007

(Translated by Charlotte Colón)

The violent murders of women continue to be unstoppable in Guatemala and threats to the victims’ families have not ceased, while at the same time investigations to uncover the motive of the crimes are never successful and perpetrators remain in impunity, said María Elena Peralta, exiled activist and sister of one of the victims.

Peralta was in Washington, DC this week to advocate for victims’ rights and to look for the US to take a position on this tragedy. During an interview at the office of the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA in northeast Washington, DC, she said, “The number of women violently killed in Ciudad Juárez, México is small when compared to the number of victims in Guatemala.”

In Ciudad Juárez, 460 young women have perished under the same conditions, but over a period of 14 years, according to authorities of the city of more than 1.3 million inhabitants located in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas.

According to official statistics, from January of this year until mid-April, the number of women killed in Guatemala was 170 (42 per month), which totals 3,200 victims since 2000. Among the victims, is Nancy Peralta, sister of María Elena Peralta, a university student that in 2000* was stabbed 48 times, raped, and tortured and the motive remains unknown to this day. That is very common in these cases.

The number of victims is growing despite the creation of the National Commission to Address Femicide, which Vice Minister Marta Altoaguirre spoke with El Tiempo Latino about during her last visit to the Capital.

“It is one of the principal problems that is concerning the authorities in my country, specifically in relation to the topic of security,” said Altoaguirre.

However, Peralta maintains the contrary. She says that currently there has been a high increase in the murders of women in Guatemala, particularly with firearms and knives, and many of the victims are tortured.

“At this time, we continue to pressure for investigations but sadly in Guatemala I have been a victim of many threats at the level of the National Police as well as the Public Prosecutor’s Office. As a result, this Sunday (April 22), I will not return to Guatemala, instead I am going to Spain where I will seek political asylum,” said Peralta

She made this decision after suffering many threats.

“It will be a very difficult moment for me to leave my family, but I cannot continue in my country because I have been threatened and I have been a victim of two assaults that may have intended to kill me,” explained this professional nurse converted to human rights activist.

Peralta was received by the State Department, Senators, Congressional Representatives, and other sectors of power in the US capital.

“I have been fighting and insisting on demanding justice, but unfortunately in Guatemala, impunity reins,” she said.

Spokesmen of the Guatemalan government and other organizations working on the issue indicate that those who commit these crimes are gang members or that the victims are products of domestic violence. Peralta suggested that there are other guilty parties.

“There exists the possibility that paramilitary groups are behind this, since comments have been made about the National Police that some of them have been recruited to commit murder. The state seems to be an accomplice,” Peralta said.

In the face of all these things, Peralta would like for the international community to increase its pressure on Guatemala and possibly initiate some sort of sanction. In the meantime, she will be in exile.

“I will have to leave my country to protect my life, because they kill you for asking for justice, and I don’t want to die as an ‘enemy of the state’,” she remarked. She said that the Public Prosecutor’s Office of her country arranges meetings to allow the victim to forgive the aggressor, but “there is no justice.”

“I feel a great satisfaction in helping to transmit the message of other families through my own experience,” she said.

*Translator's note: Nancy Peralta was murdered in 2002

 

 

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