Central American Women Suffer Crisis of Violence

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Subhead: Nobel Laureates Jody Williams and Rigoberta Menchú Tum spotlight the violence that is perpetrated with impunity on women in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala in a June 5 report. Byline: Sadiya Ansari Women in Honduras Credit: Waterdotorg on Flickr, under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) (WOMENSENEWS)--Violence against women is reaching crisis proportions in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala, finds a June 5 report by the Nobel Women's Initiative and Just Associates, an advocacy group supporting grassroots organization working in 13 countries. The finding is based on over 200 testimonies from human rights activists. "From Survivors to Defenders, Women Confronting Violence in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala," was based on a fact-finding mission in January 2012 led by Nobel laureates Jody Williams and Rigoberta Menchú Tum. The authors said that both government and organized crime have perpetrated rape, torture and murder. The drug wars in Mexico have left 50,000 dead since 2007 and women seeking justice have become targets of drug cartels as well as a government and military that is receiving U.S. aid, authors find. In Honduras, the rate of femicide has gone up more than three-fold by 2010 since 2002, a period that saw U.S. police and military aid double. In Guatemala, military and private security forces were found committing violence against indigenous female community activists while protecting foreign interests in resource extraction projects. Justice systems were found failing women, with more than 95 percent of crimes going unpunished in all three countries. Authors provide a series of recommendations for each of the three countries and call on the United States to suspend military aid to Mexico and Guatemala, emphasize human rights over police and military in its development agenda and ensure multinational companies can be held to account on human rights standards.