Human rights advocate speaks out against femicide

Mike Baker

Contributing Writer

She held her lacerated jaw closed with a blood-soaked towel in a desperate effort to cry for help as her children were being stabbed to death by their own father. Her name was Rosa Maria, and she and her children fell victim to the rampant femicide and violence that is occurring in Guatemala today.

Norma Cruz, an internationally recognized advocate for victims of domestic and sexual violence, human trafficking and illegal adoption, spoke at the Pace Campus Ministry on Tuesday, March 2. Rosa Maria’s story is one of the testimonials that Norma Cruz used in her speech to portray the horrifying reality of femicide in Guatemala.

Guatemalan society is that of a highly patriarchal stature, Cruz said, where women are regarded as property and virtually have no rights.

“When a woman is pregnant, way say, if it’s a boy, ‘We’re going to kill the hen.’ And that means that we are going to have a party to celebrate the welcoming of the little boy. But if it’s a girl, there is no party,” Cruz said. “Why? Because if a girl is born, it means that the parents are going to have to make an investment, so that she can get married and leave.”

This societal view makes it possible for men to commit violence on and murder women with no consequence. According to Cruz, Guatemalan authorities are of no help either.
“(A man) feels the right to, if he sees a woman that he likes, hold a gun to her and get her into the car and rape her. And if she tries to fight back, he kills her. And nothing happens,” Cruz said. “The police will never catch him because they don’t know how to do an investigation and they’re not interested in investigating.”

In 2009 alone, there were 708 reported cases of femicide in Guatemala, and many of the cases are not reported, said Karen Rotabi, an assistant professor in the VCU School of Social Work. The number of cases has been significantly increasing over the years, and it has nearly doubled since 2001.

With no signs of femicide in Guatemala dwindling, Cruz’ nongovernmental organization, Survivors Foundation, is taking to Capitol Hill to push for U.S. government support in aiding women’s rights groups around the world.

“U.S. policy in Guatemala and throughout Central America has been focused on supporting military regimes and supporting the rights of corporations to extract minerals from an extremely (resource) rich country, to benefit the corporations and not the people,” said Amanda Martin, a human rights activist and Guatemala Human Rights Commission member.
“We should not allow that any country in the world be converted into what Guatemala is today,” Cruz said. “Por favor, por favor.”

For more information visit the following Web sites:
Executive summary and report on femicide:
www.ghrc-usa.org/Programs/ForWomensRighttoLive/2009VAWReport_execsum.htm
Guatemala Human Rights Commission: www.ghrc-usa.org
The Survivors Foundation: www.sobrevivientes.org