Post date: Jan 18, 2013 12:53:29 PM
Amnesty International calls on Guatemalan authorities to do more to end female murders after the grisly recent killings of four women, including two young girls, inGuatemala City.
GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA (FIREFIGHTERS) - The recent murder of two young girls has sent shockwaves through Guatemalaand triggered an outcry by human rights activists who say the Central American country needs to do more to protect its female citizens as authorities struggle to arrest a disturbing trend of murders of women across the violence-ravaged nation.
The bodies of two girls, aged six and 12, were found dumped on a street in Guatemala City on Wednesday (January 16) morning after reportedly being strangled, according to officials.News of the brutal murders came as authorities discovered the bodies of another two young women who were shot dead outside a school in the same neighbourhood. Police are trying to establish whether the killings are linked.
The murders of women have set off a media furore in the country with beleaguered citizens demanding perpetrators be brought to justice and authorities do more to lower the country's high murder rate.
At a news conference in the capital, Guatemalan President Otto Perez pledged greater action to stem the wave of killings across the country, saying authorities have run out of excuses for failing to tackle the problem.
"Incidents such as yesterday's have an impact across all of Guatemalan society. We are very sorry and we are obliged to put our best effort and give our best response so these incidents can stop. Part of this is to get those responsible for this and there is no impunity. Clearly, this obliges us this year to provide more and better results to Guatemalans. This year we will not have any excuses when we are finishing up the year and there is another report, there will be no excuse for not improving the rates of security for Guatemalans," said Perez.
In recent years, Guatemala has adopted a series of measures to address levels of violence against women. In 2008, officials passed a law formally punishing all forms of domestic violence and setting up a special unit to investigate femicides in the country.
Perez has also launched a national campaign to address attitudes towards violence against women.
But with the vast majority of cases of female homicides still unsolved in Guatemala, an official at the President Commission Against Femicide, Alba Trejo, said the country's justice system is powerless to enforce the law unless an effective investigation has taken place.
"There is 99% impunity in the incidents that occurred last year but I don't want to say that this it is the State, it is the Public Ministry. The Public Ministry is the entity, the motor for the application of justice. If there is no exhaustive and conclusive investigation, the justice system nor the police can do anything. We need to be very clear on this here, as a commission we monitor the Public Ministry showing 99% impunity. We can't do anything against this," said Trejo.
According to Amnesty International, despite tougher laws, more than one woman a day was killed in the Central American country of 14 million last year.
Amnesty International Director in Mexico, Daniel Zapico, welcomed recent commitments by Guatemala to end violence against women but said authorities must back their good intentions with actions.
"Last year, 560 women were killed in Guatemala without the president of the republic-- not the current president nor his predecessor-- going out onto the streets to say. 'We need to solve this, 'We need to generate new mechanisms. We need to put more resources into this.' So, they should not react just when there is a public scandal, rather they should react in the face of the drama that millions of people in Guatemala live through. And, in order to deal with this, commitments to the public are very useful and very good but they aren't sufficient. We need these public commitments to translate into actions, that police and the justice system in Guatemala realise adequate investigations and can bring those responsible to justice," he said.
Guatemala has been battling a worrying trend of violent crime for over a decade, with homicides peaking at 6,498 in 2009, giving the country one of the world's highest per capita murder rates, according to the United Nations.
With poverty affecting over half the population, encroaching Mexican drug cartels battling for territory in the tiny country and gangland crime rampant, Guatemala's women are often the caught in the middle of the country's wave of violence.