El Refugio ( The Refuge )

Yesterday I visited El Refugio (The Refuge), a shelter for abused women and their children. Located on the outskirts of Guatemala City (artfully hidden in plain sight), the shelter serves women who have faced abuses that many people could not imagine; violence from spouses and family members to being passed around their own communities like property.

While this shelter is mission based, they promote what they refer to as a "personal relationship with God rather than relying on the church". This is in part due to the sad fact that often times when women seek help from their community or church, they are turned right back over to the same hands that have hurt them.

In Guatemala, domestic abuse and violence against women is widely accepted and rarely prosecuted. Shelters like El Refugio meet a critical need.

Mindy Rodas: Tragic End To A Heroic Life

January 21, 2011: Body of Mindy Rodas Found. The story of Mindy Rodas, 23, has become on of the most horrific examples of violence against women and impunity in Guatemala. After surviving an almost fatal attack at the hands of her partner, who cut off parts of her face with a machete, Mindy decided to press charges against her attacker. She also had the opportunity to receive plastic surgery in Mexico City. But what could have been a story of survival took a tragic turn. Depression brought Mindy back to Guatemala, where she tried to commit suicide multiple times. On Dec. 18, 2010, her body was found in Guatemala City. She had been tortured and strangled to death. The Survivor's Foundation has undertaken an investigation of the case. 

 

 

United Nations WomenWatch Information

Directory of UN Resources on Gender and Women's Issues

Commission on the Status of Women 2011
22 Feb 2011 - 08:00, United Nations Headquarters, New York The 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women will be held at UN Headquarters in New York from 22 February to 4 March 2011. The Review Theme: The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child. Emerging Issue: Gender equality and sustainable development. For more information, visit the website: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/55sess.htm

War Rape: excerpt from Stop Femicide!

During the 36-year armed civil conflict, war rape was a common tool of torture used against women, their families, and indigenous communities, in general. Because there is considerable attention being given to the Sudan, Congo, and other areas where war rape are commonly occuring in a conflict environment, it is important to look back at the history of this war crime and consider how it has impacted violence against women and femicide in Guatemala's post-conflict environment.
Undoubtedly, the use of rape against women and their families during the 36 year armed conflict has implications for the current reality of femicide. It must be understood that the symbolism of these crimes, the abuse of women's bodies, is a tool to terrrorize the people of Guatemala at the community-level. It creates a sense of fear and chaos in the social order. Because everyone in Guatemala knows that they are vulnerable, even men know that their mothers, sisters, and wives are targeted for violence. As a result these crimes create a sense of insecurity. Who benefits from this insecurity? Narco-traffickers? Gangs? The elite, top 2-3% of Guatemala? There are no easy answers...

The truth and reconciliation process in Guatemala found that war rape as a commonly occuring feature of the oppression of indigenous women, their families, and communities. Often rapes would be carried out in public viewing as a message to the entire group and women's bodies would be brutalized in this manner to instill fear and terror while demoralizing the "enemy." One must ask, how has this dynamic of war rape translated into the current problem of femicide?

To learn more visit the Stop Femicide! web site