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2006

GUATEMALA: Civil Society - Look How It Has Grown
June 13, 2006 - (IPS) Civil society in Guatemala is coming of age, as non-governmental organisations seek to overcome the country's troubled history of armed conflict. Ten years have passed since the peace accords were signed, and social organisations have cut down on the rebellious lashing out in favour of cooperating with the State and setting forth proposals.

Guatemala Pressed to Investigate Surge in Killings
June 12, 2006 - (WOMENSENEWS) A U.S delegation is traveling to Guatemala this summer to raise awareness of the murders of 2,000 women since 2001. Rights advocates draw parallels to the widespread killings of women in Juarez, Mexico.

2005

Guatemala: Ni protección ni justicia. Homicidios de mujeres y niñas en Guatemala
Datos y cifras
June 9, 2005 - (AMNISTÍA INTERNACIONAL) Casos: Nancy Karina Peralta Oroxon- El 1 de febrero de 2002, Nancy Karina Peralta Oroxon, de 30 años, salió de su casa a las seis de la mañana para ir al trabajo y, luego, a la Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, donde cursaba estudios. Ese día no regresó a casa. Sin haber dormido en toda la noche, por la mañana su angustiada familia comenzó a buscarla por los hospitales y estaciones de la ciudad.

Guatemala: No protection, no justice : killings of women and girls - Facts and Figures
June 9, 2005 - (Amnesty International) Cases: Nancy Karina Peralta Oroxon- On 1 February 2002, 30 year old Nancy Karina Peralta Oroxon, left home at 6 in the morning. She was going to work and then on to the University of San Carlos in Guatemala City where she was studying. She failed to return home that evening. After a sleepless night, her anxious family began searching for her at local hospitals and stations.

Guatemala's epidemic of killing
June 9, 2005 – (BBC News) In Guatemala, a small country not long emerged from three decades of civil war, women and girls are being murdered faster than anyone in authority can cope.

Ejecutadas en Guatemala
June 9, 2005 - (BBC Mundo) "María Isabel fue secuestrada el 15 de diciembre de 2001 en ciudad de Guatemala. Su cuerpo apareció poco antes de Navidad. Según su familia, había signos de violación, le habían atado manos y pies con alambre de púas, la habían apuñalado y estrangulado. Tenía el cuerpo lleno de pequeños agujeros y las uñas dobladas hacia atrás".

Surviving pregnancy and childbirth: the case of Guatemalan refugees
March 11, 2005 - (id21) Having returned from Mexico, Guatemalan refugees can find themselves in communities with minimal access to basic health services, including maternal and child health care. Mobile sexual and reproductive health units can raise awareness and use of antenatal and family planning services in remote areas. However, these services alone are insufficient to ensure a dramatic, sustained reduction in maternal mortality.

Sex Workers and Human Rights: Prostitution in Guatemala City
March 11, 2005 - (Terre Libere) In Guatemala 'The Stars of the Tracks', a futboll team formed by sex workers to advocate for their rights, demand recognition of prostitution as a legitimate work decision for an adult person and to stop all kinds of violence against them.

International Women’s Day: ‘Control of our lives’
March 9, 2005 - (Green Left Weekly) Long-time abortion rights campaigner Katrina Barben condemned the state Labor government for refusing to remove abortion from the state’s criminal code. Beryl Holmes from the Women’s Electoral Lobby was met with strong applause when she said there were “a gutless bunch of politicians in the Queensland parliament — women and men! Not one pro-choice bill has ever been presented to the state parliament.”

2004

Women's Lives Are Worth Nothing, Say Anti-Violence Activists
December 23, 2004 - (IPS) Luz Marina Aragón, a 44-year-old Nicaraguan woman, was murdered and chopped into pieces, which were put into plastic bags and cardboard boxes and scattered around Guatemala City. While her case is especially gruesome, it is just one of the 489 murders of women reported in Guatemala this year.

Remembering the Future in Guatemala
November 2004 - (Inter Pares) November 2003 was election time in Guatemala, and the country was at a crossroads. Running for President was former General Ríos Montt, whose dictatorship in the early 1980s was one of the darkest periods in the 36-year long war that devastated the country. The army's scorched earth policy forced hundreds of thousands to flee, as their villages were burned to the ground, and their family members, friends and neighbours massacred. Genocide was perpetrated against the indigenous population, and women were the targets of specific forms of violence, including rape.

GUATEMALA FARM RAPE CLOUDS FREE TRADE DEBATE
July 29, 2004 - (Reuters) The rape of a teen-age girl on a Guatemalan coffee farm is raising doubts about the Central American country's ability to clean up its labor record and win U.S congressional support for a free trade agreement.

GUATEMALA CALLS IN TROOPS TO FIGHT CRIME WAVE
July 26, 2004 - (Reuters) Guatemalan President Oscar Berger ordered 1,600 soldiers onto the streets of the capital on Monday to try to rein in the "terrible cancer'' of violent crime.

GUATEMALAN WOMEN 'HIT BY VIOLENCE'
May 13, 2004 – (BBC) A human rights group says at least 46 Guatemalan women have been killed after being tortured and raped this year.

UNCOVERING GUATEMALA'S SECRETS: FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY FINDS CIVIL WAR VICTIMS, TELLS THEIR STORIES
March 18, 2004 – (The Dallas Morning News) Juan Carlos Gática has spent the last four years of his life digging around cornfields in rural Guatemala for human bones.


2003

JANE FONDA VISITS GUATEMALA TO PUT SPOTLIGHT ON MURDERS OF WOMEN IN GUATEMALA
December 8, 2003 – (V-Day News alert) V-Day activist and V-Counsel member, Actress Jane Fonda visits Guatemala to put spotlight on murders of women in Guatemala

MURDERERS PREY ON GUATEMALAN WOMEN
December 6, 2003 – (BBC) A huge bundle of official papers sits on the desk of Sandra Zayas, a criminal investigator in Guatemala City.

JANE FONDA TO BRING ACTIVISTS TO GUATEMALA TO DENOUNCE KILLINGS
December 2, 2003 – (AP in The Guelph Mercury – Canada) Jane Fonda promised Monday to bring a small "army" of women to Guatemala to denounce the murders of about 700 women in the past three years in this crime-plagued Central American nation.

WOMEN DIE IN POLLING DAY CLASH
November 10, 2003 – (The Guardian) Two women were reportedly trampled to death yesterday and a political aide was shot and injured as Guatemalans voted in presidential elections after a campaign steeped in violence and tension.

EX-GUATEMALAN REBEL TRIES HER HAND AT DEMOCRACY
November 2, 2003 – (NYT) Makrina Gudiel gave up her identity to survive.

WOMEN RUNNING FOR CONGRESS
October 24, 2003 - (MS Central America) For the upcoming elections in Guatemala, the following ‘seats’ will be filled: Presidency; Vice-Presidency; 158 Members of Congress (rising from a current 113); 20 seats in PARLACEN, the Central American Parliament; and Mayors for the country’s 331 municipalities. No less than 20 political parties and citizen committees are contending for public office; unsurprisingly, few of the candidates are women. There is just one female candidate for the Vice-Presidency (of Authentic Integral Development / DIA) and a small number of women candidates running for Congress. Most of these are low down on the ballot and therefore unlikely to get a seat in Congress.

MADRE CONDEMNS VIOLENCE SURROUNDING NOVEMBER 2003 ELECTIONS IN GUATEMALA
October 21, 2003 - (FIRE) MADRE, an international women’s human rights organization, condemns the political violence that has seized Guatemala during this critical election year. In anticipation of the general elections on November 9, 2003, Guatemala has been submerged in overwhelming political violence characterized by persecution of and threats against journalists and members of social and human rights organizations.

MUJERES DEMANDAN IGUALIDAD DE OPORTUNIDADES
October 2, 2003 - (Prensalibre) Women constitute the majority of the population in Guatemala. They have little access to health, education, employment and a dignified life.

FEMICIDIO IN GUATEMALA (in Spanish)
September 29, 2003 - (Alai Mujeres) Generalized violence, citizens' insecurity and organized crime that have settled in Guatemala have particularly affected highly vulnerable sectors, among them women.

THOUSANDS OF MINORS SEXUALLY EXPLOITED IN GUATEMALA, ILO SAYS
August 22, 2003 – (UN Wire) An International Labor Organization study released yesterday estimates that 15,000 Central American minors — mostly girls between the ages of 15 and 17 — are victims of sexual exploitation and abuse in Guatemala.

ASYLUM FOR ABUSED WOMEN IN USA
March 19, 2003 – (UNHCR) In 1995, Rodi Alvarado Pena came to the United States from Guatemala and asked for asylum. Her request was based on a controversial claim – that returning home would put her in danger from her husband, who had brutalized her for a decade. Mrs. Alvarado won asylum, but an appeals panel reversed the decision. Janet Reno, then attorney general, vacated the panel's decision in 2001 and issued rules that made refuge possible on a very limited basis for women in similar situations.

UNFPA HEAD BEGINS THREE-DAY VISIT TO PROMOTE DEVELOPMENT IN GUATEMALA
March 14, 2003 – (UN Wire) U.N. Population Fund Executive Director Thoraya Obaid yesterday began a three-day visit to Guatemala, saying she aims to verify progress made in cooperation between her agency and government officials and to encourage them to continue to develop policies to improve conditions for women and the population.

A WOMAN'S WORK
March 7, 2003 -(LATINAMERICAPRESS) Women in Mesoamerica are playing a strong role in the defense of bio-diversity and food security and the protection of native lands and culture. However, in Guatemala, their struggle dates back to long before Plan Puebla-Panama, the Free Trade Area of the Americas and other regional development schemes sounded the alarm bell about the effect of such schemes on the environment, traditional ways of life and sustainability.

2002

CHALLANGING SEX DISCRIMINATION IN THE WORKPLACE
December 16, 2002 - (Central American Women Network - CAWN) Elizabeth Gonzales, of k'iche origin, having migrated to Guatemala City at the age of 15, has worked as a domestic worker in many private homes. In one job, she had to get up at 3 or 4.00am to clean and prepare breakfast. Her day ended at 10 or 11.00 at night. She earned 400 quetzales ($53) a month for these 19-hour days. Miriam de Rosario, aged 27, was sacked from “ Modas One” a Korean maquila at the end of May, 2000. The personnel director told her she could not continue working there because she was pregnant. A high proportion of women in Guatemala are employed, either as domestic workers, or in the burgeoning maquila sector. The above two cases are typical of the discrimination and abuse faced by many of these women by virtue of their gender and a lack of commitment by the Guatemalan government to uphold their rights in line with the constitution and international conventions.

WOMEN POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN POLITICAL PROCESSES
November 25, 2002 - (UNDP) Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of Guatemala) Efforts were made to promote concrete actions in the administrative and logistical sectors of the (TSE) of, including work to promote women’s involvement in politics and elections in Guatemala, and prepare reference materials to support those steps.

GUATEMALA WOMEN 'ABUSED'
February 12, 2002 – (BBC) Women working in Guatemala's two largest female-dominated sectors of industry - sewing and household services - suffer from persistent sex discrimination and abuse, human rights campaigners say.

GUATEMALA: WOMEN AND GIRLS FACE JOB DISCRIMINATION  [español]
February 12, 2002 – (HRW) Women in Guatemala's largest female-dominated labor sectors face persistent sex discrimination and abuse, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released today.

EXPLOITATION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN GUATEMALA
February 12, 2002 (HRW) -- Tens of thousands of Guatemalan women working as domestic workers and in the maquila sector (apparel factories) face widespread discrimination that is sponsored or tolerated by the government. The government denies domestic workers basic labor rights, including the otherwise recognized right to an eight-hour workday and the minimum wage. These workers also suffer significant levels of sexual harassment. Employers in the maquila sector often require women seeking jobs to declare whether they are pregnant, and often deny pregnant workers full maternity benefits. Workers in both spheres encounter obstacles accessing reproductive health care.

2001

GUATEMALA'S NEW LAW OVERRIDES CHURCH OBJECTIONS
October 26, 2001 - (Christian Science Monitor) In a family-planning clinic in downtown Guatemala City, Ana Coj awaits an injection she hopes will give her a radically different life from the one her mother has. With regular contraceptive injections, Ms. Coj says she plans to have just three children and space them two years apart. Her mother had eight.

BATTERED GUATEMALAN FACING DEPORTATION
January 17, 2001 - (WOMENSENEWS) The landmark case of a Guatemalan refugee who was battered and threatened with death by her soldier-husband produced proposed changes in U.S. asylum law that may benefit thousands of immigrant women. Yet, the new rules may not come in time to protect her from being deported to face her spouse once again.

1997

GUATEMALAN WOMAN TAKES ON MACHO CULTURE
October 2, 1997 - (Reuters’ article in The Toronto Star) In the maze of smudged walls at Guatemala city's Social Security Institute, it is not unusual to encounter a slack-faced clerk behind a rarely used typewriter whose job description seems to be "ogler of women."

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