" Patriarchal ideology plays a crucial role in
the appalling impunity that surrounds feminicides, because it is founded
on a conception of women as ”naturally inferior, as expendable social
subjects"
Muñoz p.39
Femicide is not a new phenomenon in the Latin American region but it is one that has seen a dramatic increase in the past decade. The first cases of what has become known in Mexico and Central America as femicide (femicidio/ feminicidio in Spanish) emerged in 1993 in Ciudad Juárez in Mexico. Reports began to appear in the press of an increasing numbers of women’s mutilated bodies being discovered and of many women disappearing in the city. Today femicide is reaching alarming proportions throughout the continent. The murders are carried out deliberately and with extreme cruelty, frequently by partners or relatives of the victim (particularly in Nicaragua). However, in a high proportion of cases, it appears that the murderers are men connected with criminal gangs and drug trafficking activities. The extent to which these crimes represent acts of hatred towards women can be seen in the descriptions provided by women’s organisations working around femicide.
In Central America, faced with lack of action by the authorities, members of the Red Feminista (Feminist Network) came together to carry out research and monitor the situation in Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Costa Rica. Their aim was to generate research findings to create public awareness and advocate for official action to prevent and punish violent crimes against women.
In this case study we present the work of one of these organisation working specifically to address the issue of femicide in its work on violence.
Sources
2002-2009: taken from CAWN's Intersecting Violences reports
Honduras 2010 source: CEM-H femicidio analysis
El
Salvador 2010 source: ORMUSA vaw observatory using statistics from Policía
Nacional Civil
Guatemala
2010 source: SEMLAC
Religion, Violence and Justice |
ORMUSA
El Salvador  |
