Central America - News

Quietly and against the odds, women are stepping up the political ladder in Latin America, moving ahead of the United States when it comes to political empowerment and closely matching much of Western Europe.

The involvement of women in anti-war actions and in support of peace activism worldwide is a critical part of modern history, yet the vulnerability of women in conflict situations to violence of all forms is perhaps the most brutal manifestation of patriarchy in modern times. We must probe the areas of ambivalence in women's activism for peace and human rights, argues Sunila Abeysekera. Militarism, Violence and Conflict is one of the themes of the AWID Forum 2012 ↑ which opens tomorrow in Istanbul with 2000 women from around the world meeting to discuss processes of ‘Transforming Economic Power to advance women's rights and justice'.

“Violence associated with the ‘war on drugs' and organized crime, which includes government corruption in some countries have specific consequences for women in Latin America”, said the Chilean lawyer Patsili Toledo, member of ‘Antígona' a research group of the Autonomous University of Barcelona and a specialist in the subject of femicide in the continent.

The 36 year long civil war (1960-1996) that ravaged Guatemala, left more than 200,000 people dead and at least 100,000 women raped: most of the victims were Mayan. Only recently have women started speaking out about the violence they suffered in hands of the Army and paramilitaries, and finally, the sexual violence perpetrated against Mayan women is being investigated as part of the genocide proceedings taking place in Spanish tribunals.

Yesterday, at the International Poetry Festival in Granada, there was a parade, with dancing and singing and cheers. There was also a protest by Nicaraguan women. Nicaraguan feminists.

In 2008, the Guatemalan parliament passed a law against ‘femicide' (even though it's a word you won't find in a dictionary) as well as against other forms of violence towards women.

Flores is among more than 2,000 women who issued formal complaints about being forcibly sterilized under a program created by then-President Alberto Fujimori to dramatically lower Peru's birth rate.

A forum on violence against women will be held in Nicaragua on Friday, after the recent approval of a comprehensive legislation on the issue that combines preventive policies and tougher sentences.

What is contained in a sprawling building somehow hidden until 2005, reveals how the government of Guatemala committed grave human rights abuses from the 1970s through the 1990s in a war that left more than 200,000 dead and 100,000 women raped.

Would the world be more peaceful if women were in charge? A challenging new book by the Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker says that the answer is yes.