Honduras
We live in a country that murders women
The National Autonomous University¡¦s Observatory of Violence
shows Honduras to be the most violent country in the world
with 86 homicides for every 100,000 inhabitants. Official statistics show that a woman is murdered every 18 hours,
with most of the victims young women simply walking in the streets.
Alicia Reyes
Honduras is the most violent country in the world. Life, like a multitude of daily realities, has become disposable for a population that is the victim of a culture of fear.
According to the National Autonomous University of Honduras¡¦s Observatory of Violence, the country¡¦s homicide rate at the end of 2011 was 86 per 100,000 inhabitants, which is higher than that of some countries currently at war. Attacks against women stand out within this statistic. Official statistics reveal that one Honduran woman is murdered every 18 hours, with the Observatory registering 392 femicides up to November 2011. This same report shows the age group most affected as woman between 15 and 34 (70%, or 273 cases). Within this the most frequent age range is between 25 and 29 (19.5%, or 76 victims).
Those who walk in the streetsIt is not by chance that the majority of murdered women are so young. They are the most economically active, the ones who for work, study and entertainment reasons are most likely to go out into the public sphere. They are the ones in the streets, a place the patriarchal culture reserves for men, leaving the domestic environment for women. With this ¡§cultural mandate¡¨ in mind, we can assume that many men feel they have the authority to do as they wish not only with women¡¦s bodies but with their lives, as if they were dealing with disposable objects they owned.
The Observatory report reveals that the crimes are most frequently committed in open spaces such as streets, bridges, open lots, along rivers (66.6%, or 260 deaths). Those committed in closed spaces (homes, work places, bars, vehicles, etc) are the rarest (8.5%, or 33 deaths). Only 4 deaths (1%) were reported on public transportation.
What is most revealing is the report¡¦s data on whether the perpetrator had a relationship with the victim or not. Over the generations men have learned that women are supposed to stay at home and ¡§must be up to something¡¨ if they¡¦re in the street. This thinking was present in the police force during the time of the coup. They beat and raped women who took part in the demonstrations, telling them that ¡§this is what happens to you if you¡¦re in the street.¡¨
We¡¦re getting used to itEven though there¡¦s an explanation for femicides rooted in the patriarchal system, which has built unequal power relationships between men and women that overestimate the former and make the latter internalize these beliefs, we can¡¦t lose sight of the enormous degree of impunity for all crimes committed in Honduras. This makes it fertile ground for crimes against women.
The coup in 2009 further revealed problems that had been there before: allowing crimes to go unpunished, corruption within the police force, limited enforcement of true justice. In addition, the coup ended whatever institutionality was left and overnight threw out the few rights to security we had won. The result today is chaos in the human rights field. The police force, Public Ministry and other ¡§security¡¨ bodies created to defend and protect the citizenry, have largely earned the distrust and repudiation of people who know they are linked with corruption and organized crime.
In this already negative context, the system is stirring up confusion, a sense of everyone for themselves and a culture of fear in order to silence and paralyze the population, which is affected by poverty, insecurity, violence, unemployment and scant access to good health and nutritious food, all of which women suffer the most.
Headlines like ¡§A 15-year-old girl found murdered¡¨ or ¡§University student killed because she didn¡¦t have a cell phone¡¨ or ¡§Man kills wife because of compromising messages¡¨ or ¡§An executive murdered to steal her car¡¨ or ¡§A woman machine operator killed upon leaving a party¡¨ or ¡§Woman found dead in the garbage...¡¨ get us used to the idea that a woman¡¦s life is expendable. They also show us how little is being done to secure justice in a country where women¡¦s rights have never been a priority.
No one is punishedThe Observatory of Violence report indicates the need for investigation into the fact that 79.7% of these murder cases of women are recorded with no data. Perhaps nothing is known about the perpetrators because the authorities don¡¦t want to know anything.
The families of the murdered women think it happens because the police are involved in many of the crimes, as has been true in other murders and massacres in the last few years. The police have tried to link the death of many of these women to the drug trade, but such cases are few. The murder of women is handled lightly and even though one can assume they were sexually abused before being murdered, there¡¦s no reliable information on that either.
The State appears to have no interest in the issue, and in fact seems to be an accomplice, since there¡¦s no government department to deal with these deaths and one always hears the same story: there are no leads, those responsible have fled and their whereabouts are unknown, we¡¦re continuing with the investigation, we¡¦re following up leads, it¡¦s the work of organized crime.... But weeks, months and years pass and no one is punished.
Both women¡¦s problems and their contributions have always been invisible for the majority of the media, whose agendas almost never include their dreams, struggles, problems and successes. Now, however, femicides occupy the front pages and events sections of the daily newspapers and the radio and television headlines.
Why are they killing us?Unfortunately, some media, authorities and even part of public opinion justify these cruel murders by blaming the women, using arguments that surface in general society but are never asked about men when they are the victims of a crime: Why were they on the streets? Why were they out at that hour of the night? Why do they dress so provocatively? Why are they alone?
Listening to some men¡¦s comments reveals a sick hatred of women. Many insist that women are supposed to be at home and not on the street. But it¡¦s not true that they are killing us for going out at night, or doing work viewed as only for men, or for love problems, infidelity, jealousy, vengeance, retribution or drug trafficking. Honduran songwriter Jose Yeco explains it in his song performed by Karla Lara, ¡§They kill us for being women. They kill us because they want to tether us. They kill us because they can¡¦t bend or break us or tie us up. They kill us because they can¡¦t silence us.¡¨
Clearly one of Honduras¡¦ many huge challenges for 2012 will be to continue demanding a stop to the violence that¡¦s killing people, to a violence that increasingly has a woman¡¦s face. n
Alicia Reyes is a journalist and sociologist.
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