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Demonstrators demand that the disappearance of Cristina Siekavizza and her children be investigated. Photo: Danilo Valladares/IPS Demonstrators demand that the disappearance of Cristina Siekavizza and her children be investigated. Photo: Danilo Valladares/IPS

Guatemala Heeds the Cries of Femicide Victims

Source: IPS | Danilo Valladares

The relentless wave of femicides in Guatemala, which has one of the highest female murder rates in the world, has prompted actions by the government, civil society groups, and two Nobel Peace laureates to try to put a stop to this brutal violence against women, which has reached horrific proportions.

According to information from the Presidential Commission against Racism, 705 Guatemalan women lost their lives to gender-related violence in 2011, most of them by gunfire, up from 675 deaths the year before.

This alarming situation has spurred a range of reactions from both civil society and the government.

On Jan. 24, only days after his inauguration as president, right-wing retired general Otto Pérez Molina formed a "task force to combat femicide", which is the term used in Guatemala to denote gender- motivated killings. Women's organisations define femicide more precisely as the phenomenon whereby women are murdered because they are women.

This task force, created under the Interior Ministry, the body in charge of domestic security, will be headed by former Prosecutor Mirna Carrera and will focus on intelligence and investigative efforts with the aim of preventing more women from being murdered.

"Femicide is being addressed as a matter of state policy, and a message is being sent out to aggressors that their actions will not be tolerated and that they will be punished," Mayra Sandoval, a representative of the non-governmental Observatory against Femicide, told IPS.

The activist acknowledged that the Pérez Molina administration - which began its four-year term on Jan. 14 after winning the election on the promise of taking a "firm hand" against crime - "is concerned about violence in general."

But in the case of the femicide task force, "we need to examine whether its members are qualified to handle a crime scene where the victim is a woman," she said.

While Sandoval valued the government's reaction to these crimes, she said "preventive efforts are also needed, otherwise, we'll just be treating the symptoms without ever getting to the root of the problem."

This Central American nation of 14 million inhabitants is considered one of the countries with the highest rates of femicides in the world, equalled only by Mexico. From 2000 to 2010, 5,200 women were killed in Guatemala as a result of gender-related violence, according to police figures.

Gladys AcostaGladys Acosta UN Women Director for Latin America Gladys Acosta has called on the international community to take action against the femicide epidemic, not only because of the enormous number of women who are being murdered, but also because of the viciousness of the abuses, which heightens the brutality of this crime.

"Women repeatedly stabbed to death, victims with dismembered bodies... the savagery with which these women are attacked is heinous," Peruvian expert Acosta told IPS.

This has led the country's civil society to organise all sorts of demonstrations to demand justice for the victims and the implementation of measures to prevent more deaths.

In one of the most original of these demonstrations, more than 10,000 people scaled Volcán de Agua, an inactive volcano located some 50 kilometres southwest of Guatemala City, to protest against domestic violence, which claims most of its victims among women.

Sporting t-shirts with the march's "Climb for Life" slogan, participants held hands in one of the longest human chains ever in the world, stretching 11.5 kilometres from the foothills of the dormant volcano to its peak at 3,772 metres high. At the summit, they gathered on a heart shaped banner inside the volcano's crater to signal the beginning of a "generational change."

This activity - the first of its kind in Guatemala - was staged by numerous civil society organisations, youth movements, private-sector companies, and foreign embassies accredited in the country.

Dora Amalia Taracena, a member of the non-governmental women's organisation Convergencia Cívico Política de Mujeres, told IPS that these actions by civil society and the government are signalling that "there is no turning back" in the fight against femicide.

"Civil society organisations, like ours, which address this issue, have been at the forefront of the efforts to put the issue on the public agenda; and our patriarchal culture and the reigning machismo has made this a very difficult battle to wage," she said.

Taracena recalled that an ongoing campaign in the media and through marches and other public demonstrations organised by relatives of a recent victim, Cristina Siekavizza, "have (also) contributed to raise awareness on the issue of femicide" in Guatemala.

Siekavizza, a business administrator from an affluent family, disappeared mysteriously from her Guatemala City home in July 2011. A month later, a domestic worker employed by her family reported that the victim's husband, Roberto Barreda, had beaten her to death.

Barreda ran off with their two children and to this day neither him nor the children nor the victim's body have been found. The case caused great social uproar and revealed that femicide respects no social classes.

The outrage over the persistent violence against women in Guatemala has even moved two Nobel Peace prize winners to speak out.

On Jan. 27, a delegation of the Nobel Women's Initiative arrived in Guatemala to call for the investigation of femicide crimes in the country and for actions to combat the impunity surrounding these crimes.

The 1992 and 1997 Nobel Peace laureates Rigoberta Menchú (Guatemala) and Jody Williams (United States) travelled to the northwestern department of Sololá to meet with women in the region's communities and discuss the issue of violence.

The end goal of this mission, which also visited Mexico and Honduras, was to issue recommendations for governments and the international community to contribute to eradicate violence against women in these three countries.

"We think all the actions taken to combat violence against women are very important. And in these last few years we've been able to expose (femicide) for what it is: an aberrant and absolutely unacceptable crime," Alitza Navas, of the non-governmental organisation Tierra Viva, told IPS.

In the last governments "a number of laws favouring women have been passed, including the Family Planning Act and the Law against Femicide (2008), which contribute to eradicate this phenomenon," the activist said.

Evelyn Curruchiche, of the governmental Ombudsperson for Indigenous Women, told IPS that in order to wipe out the crime of femicide "we need to look at the root factors of this form of violence."

In her opinion, the state also needs to address the social conditions that affect women, including poverty, education and health.

Also, "this focus on femicides must become a matter of state concern and the government needs to allocate adequate funds to the bodies in charge of addressing the issue," she concluded.

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Mindy recounts the story of how her husband disfigured her face

Femicide: Guatemala's Growing Epidemic

During the past decade, over 5,000 women and young girls have been murdered throughout Guatemala: last year alone there were 685 targeted female killings. 

Source: NEWJURIST | ANNA-CLAIRE BEVAN

When you open a newspaper in Guatemala you are invariably greeted by a series of numbers:

  • How many people were killed the previous day
  • How many people have been arrested in conjunction with the crime.
  • The answers are typically: high and zero.

Numbers rapidly rising

Recently the number of females appearing in these articles has been rapidly increasing. So much so that human rights groups say Guatemala is currently witnessing epidemic levels of violence against women. Raped, murdered and mutilated, their bodies are dumped in rubbish bags and abandoned in public places.

Cristina Siekavizza Molina de BarredaCristina Siekavizza Molina de BarredaThe latest high profile missing person’s case is mother of two, Cristina Siekavizza Molina de Barreda, who disappeared last month.

Police are currently trying to locate the whereabouts of her husband who fled with their children soon after the incident gained national attention.

Cristina’s mother has since organised a number of marches throughout the capital, Guatemala City, to support victims of violence.

According to Amnesty International, Guatemalan women experience one of the highest levels of violence in the world; and while death rates continue to rise, convictions do not. Even Guatemala’s top law enforcer, attorney general Claudia Paz, admits most crimes against women go unpunished:

“The justice system hasn’t given violence cases the importance they deserve. And with violence against women, the problem is even worse,” says Paz.

During the past decade, over 5,000 women and young girls have been murdered throughout the Central American nation: last year alone there were 685 targeted female killings. So far, less than four per cent of these cases have resulted in a conviction.

Mindy Rodas

In December 2009, 22-year-old Mindy Rodas was violently attacked by her husband who tried to cut off parts of her face with a machete.

The man was subsequently charged and sentenced but not sent to jail. With the help of local organisations, Rodas was given assistance in Mexico to obtain extensive facial reconstruction surgery and later moved to a women’s shelter in Guatemala.

Seven months after her violent attack, Rodas left the shelter because she wanted to live closer to her community.

On 18 December 2010, Mindy Rodas was found dead in Guatemala City.

Since human rights defenders across the country regularly receive death threats demanding they drop cases, victims’ families are often too afraid for their own safety to demand a fair trial for their deceased. The state’s failure to exercise due diligence in preventing, investigating and punishing these crimes means the killers run free and the violence proliferates.

Femicide, defined as “the killing of females by males because they are female”, has long been a problem across Latin America and over time the media has grown numb to the violence. Often women from indigenous communities are targeted for rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture and killings specifically because of their indigenous identity. Little is done to counter it: attacks are rarely investigated and seldom brought to trial.

Back in March, international human rights groups joined together to urge Guatemala’s authorities to take action against the high number of women being murdered across the country and ensure perpetrators were brought to justice. However, so far little progress has been made.

“Women in Guatemala are dying as a consequence of the State’s failure to protect them,” says Sebastian Elgueta, Guatemala researcher at Amnesty International.

Female passengers are also regularly assaulted on public transport throughout the capital. To combat these attacks, public buses exclusively for women have just been introduced – covering routes throughout the city during peak hours. The line of Transurbano buses, which are decorated with pink ribbons and marked: “For Women Only”, have won over a lot of Guatemalan women. They say they feel safer on board them and hope the system will soon extend its hours. Congresswoman Zury Rios Montt, who spearheaded the campaign, is now pushing to implement a female only taxi service so that women can move around the city free of sexual harassment.

NGOs such as Madre and Fundacion Sobrevivientes are also fighting back: providing women, who often lack access to basic human rights, with ways to avoid the violence. By educating them, equipping them with flashlights, enhancing their security and explaining their legal rights they aim to reduce the number of women who fall victim to femicide in Guatemala each year.

Yet, while NGOs and human rights groups can campaign for adequate policies, it is up to those who hold the power to implement effective programmes that tackle the core of the problem – pervasive poverty and legal exclusion.

~

About the Author

Anna-Claire Bevan is a freelance journalist currently based in Guatemala City. She writes about political, environmental and social issues for magazines both in Guatemala and back home in the UK.

Anna originally set up her first blog Vida Latina as a result of her travels in Latin America and frustrations at the lack of international media coverage that this area of the world receives.

Visit Anna's blog, Vida Latina, at: http://annaclairebevan.wordpress.com/

Also from Vida Latina

By Isabel Farfan

On July 7, 2011, was reported missing Cristina Siekavizza, a 34yr old lady, married to Eduardo Barreda Roberto De Leon, a mother of two children (Robert Jose and Ma. Mercedes 7 years, 3 years). First we thought of a kidnapping, the security situation in Guatemala is quite shabby. Immediately after having made the complaint to the Public Ministry (corresponding entity), 20 days passed before they began a serious investigation, after not receiving any true call requesting ransom to free Cristina. Finally 25 days after her disappearance (August 2nd) the Public Ministry turns a restriction order for Robert (Cristina’s husband) because he was the only one who claimed to have seen her on July 7, likewise found bloodstains through tests of luminol in the bedroom of the couple and in her car, which pointed him as the prime suspect in the disappearance, and from that moment possible murder of Cristina. On August 4, Roberto runaway, taking with him Robert Jose and Ma. Mercedes.

Research shows Robert as a machist man, who did not allow Cristina to interact with their friends or family, who only gave her Q500.00 (approx $ 55) monthly for grocery shopping for the home, and all her movements were restricted by him to not allowed her to leave home.

Roberto is the son of two judges of the Supreme Court of Justice in Guatemala (Ofelia Beatriz De Leon and Roberto Barreda), through the traffic of influences from their parents is believed that Robert left the country (despite having the restriction order turned against him to not do so), raised the implemented alert Alba-Kenneth to take the kids out (which prevents children at risk or kidnapped, being taken out of the country) and just yesterday obtained the dismissal of the judge who was hearing the case of the disappearance, after she issued an arrest warrant against Roberto and 5 other possible accomplices.

Cristina’s family and friends, have held rallies in protest, campaigned on social networks, turned to organizations such as the Survivor Foundation, led by Norma Cruz, who is a leading advocate of women in violent situations, tv, radio and press is also involved in the case. Yet every day it seems that corruption wins over justice, and the only thing we want is to CLAIM FOR JUSTICE, but it seems that our efforts are in vain. The pressure of the media is not enough for the authorities to investigate promptly and finde where Cristina and her children are, and prosecute those responsible for these acts.

Our only hope now is to go to international institutions that combat violence against women that may help to clarify this case. Today is Cristina, but the people must learn that her case and many others can not remain silent.

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