The High Rate of Femicides in Latin America

“We should not Justify the high Rates of Femicides in Latin America”

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According to Analysis. In 2021, 11 Latin American countries registered a rate equal to or greater than one victim of femicide or femicides per 100,000 women (Argentina, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, and Uruguay).

The Global Burden of Armed Violence 2014 database shows that between 2007 and 2012, on average, 60,000 women were killed violently around the world. Globally, El Salvador and Honduras stand out with rates of more than 10 female homicides per 100,000 women. Whereby, the level of violence affecting women in El Salvador and Honduras exceeds the combined rate of male and female homicides in some of the 40 countries with the highest murder rates in the world, such as Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Tanzania.  https://theglobalamericans.org/reports/femicide-international-womens-rights/

Countries with the Highest rates of Femicide

The countries with high Femicide rates are suffering from narcotics trafficking and high rates of crime, such as El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico, also suffer from impunity and often a culture of “machismo”. For example, in Mexico, the Femicide Observatory, a coalition of 43 groups that document crimes affecting women, found that only 16 percent of female homicides in 2012 and 2013 were classified as femicides—and just 1.6 percent resulted in convictions.  Also, the Organization of Salvadoran Women for Peace (ORMUSA) in El Salvador found that in 12 percent of the cases of violence against women reported, the perpetrators were usually the judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and police officers in the communities in question.

One of the biggest problems is indifference, some women say. The woman at the Mexico City shelter, for example, sought help from the police in November to escape from her violent husband. She said the police told her they see a lot of women like her filing complaints against their husbands, and that the process was a waste of time. They encouraged her to return home to her husband.

And it’s not just the police. One nurse who works at the Women’s Hospital in Mexico City said hospital staff are often indifferent to violence against women. The nurse, who asked to withhold her name because she still works at the hospital, recalled one occasion in particular: a woman who had been dumped there by her boyfriend. The woman was in shock because a hairbrush had been inserted into her vagina.

“The vagina was shapeless, deformed,” the nurse said.  But instead of showing the woman compassion, the hospital staff talked about her with disgust, she said.  “It was comments like, well, ‘she must have been really drunk not to notice a hairbrush in her vagina’,” she said.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO LOWER FEMICIDES?

We at the Paz Foundation have already started a Women and Children Protection, Education, and Empowerment Center in El Alto Bolivia. Our Programs are being used as Pilot projects for other countries in Latin America.

What are the real issues related to Femicide in Latin America?    

1. Lax enforcement of Women and Children Protection Laws
2. Economic inequality and lack of resources for business startups
3. The “MACHO” Mentality of men toward women as equals
4. Lack of Accountability and lax jail sentences for the perpetrators    

Solutions:

1. 1. Protection Centers where the victims are removed from a violent and oppressive home
2. 2. Temporary Housing, Education, and awareness training for the Victims   
3. 3. Job training and Job Placements in our Foundation Programs
4. 4. Incubators and IT Learning for online commerce and trade
5. 5. Networking with local police and local courts that are responsible for enforcing the laws.
6. 6. Legal representation is provided by the Paz Foundation to enforce the Common law rights of the Victims and their children.
7. 7. Family Counseling for all members of the Family

In Conclusion, the answer is to “Break the Cycle of Violence” by protecting and Empowering the Victims and taking away control of the Perpetrators.

Written by

Luis Ortiz Aguilar Sr.

President of the Paz Foundation