Global Courant 2023-05-17 17:53:51
San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Behind each number there is a life and each statistic represents a human story and real suffering in thousands of families.
Xiomara Chicas (36), who was dedicated to selling tortillas, was killed in the early hours of May 1 of this year while she was resting at her home in the Lomas del Carmen sector, one of the most troubled spots in San Pedro Sula.
In another episode of violence, on April 30, Nancy Lorena Anariba, a well-known lawyer in the world of law, was allegedly shot to the head by her husband in the Las Hadas neighborhood of Tegucigalpa.
records of the Security Secretary from January 1, 2022 to April 5, 2023 report that there were 413 homicides of women throughout the country, with the Central District (52), San Pedro Sula (34) and Choloma (19) being the municipalities with the highest reports.
Most of the victims were between 25 and 38 years old. A total of 184 of them were housewives, of 163 there is no recorded data and 23 worked as merchants, according to official data.
Authorities of the Violence Observatory from the National Autonomous University of Honduras (Unah) detailed that 77.6% of women have died from firearms. Regarding places, 41.4% occurred on public roads and 56.9% of the events happened in the urban area. Meanwhile, the Police account for 1,516 people arrested (62 women and 1,454 men) for their alleged participation in the deaths of multiples during the period of time in question.
Wildness
The violent deaths of women in Honduras have become an epidemic that has claimed the lives of many over the decades and impunity in these cases is one of the main obstacles to justice. According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the current impunity rate is 95%this means that only 5% of the cases of deaths of women result in a judicial conviction.
Of the more than 400 deaths recorded by the Honduran Police in almost a year and a half, 183 cases remain under investigation, in 102 events personal enmities are the main line and passion problems are placed in third place as the reason for the event. .
Authorities maintain that of the 1,516 accused, of 1,443 it is unknown if they belong to a particular criminal organization, but it is presumed that 32 suspects belong to the Pandilla 18, 38 to the Mara Salvatrucha and another three make up the gangs Mito Padilla, Los Pelones and The Hairy. The involvement of members of criminal associations makes the investigators assume that several of the female victims had some criminal connection.
“There is an obvious fault shared between the president, her cabinet and the secretaries”: Luis Maldonado, security specialist
louis maldonado, a security expert, emphasized that the Government has not taken sustainable measures and has lost multiple resources. “The woman is a victim because she has entered into dangerous spaces: drug distribution, hired killers, leadership roles and financial types within maras and gangs, in addition to having lost the ability to live together at the community and family level,” said the general in condition of retirement.
Maldonado is of the opinion that despite the fact that women have been integrated into important positions in the Secretary of Security, the results are not so visible. “It is not convenient to point to Xiomara Castro as the main person in charge, although she has a shared obligation with the cabinets and secretaries. It seems to me that there has not been good coordination between public policies on the part of the presidency and the execution of policies on the part of the State secretariats”, stressed the former member of the Honduran Armed Forces (FF.AA).
Without changes
The pattern of violence has not let up with the change of government administrations in the country and, although the trend of negative results has been declining, the comparative variable is minimal. For example, from 2015, a year after Juan Orlando Hernández took office, until 2021, the violent deaths of women remained between 478 and 330, despite the fact that the former ruler adopted a wave of measures to fight criminals, including the massive presence of military police in the streets, to support members of the National Police.
Related: The IACHR is concerned about the deaths and disappearances of women in Honduras
On January 27, 2022, Xiomara Castro He came to the seat of power with the promise of giving justice to all women victims of violence, but to date he has difficulties in fulfilling them. In his initial agenda, he highlighted his plan to combat the scourge of insecurity, a phenomenon that during his first year claimed the lives of 303 women (27 fewer deaths than during his predecessor’s term) and 110 almost four months into this year.
Castro de Zelaya promoted an alliance made up of multiple sectors considered vulnerable, including women, which unleashed an overwhelming victory against his then political adversary. During her first speech as president, she exclaimed that her government plan included protecting women, that included safeguarding her lives. “No more violence against women, I am going with all my might, Hondurans, I am not going to fail you! I will defend your rights! Until victory always! ”, She assured her before crowds. Weeks later, she created the Women’s Secretariat and a high budget was implemented in favor of comprehensive care for her, but the reduction of femicides or homicides against this sex continues to be a pending account.
On January 25 of this year, when the second Legislature was installed in the National Congress, the Executive Power, through the presidential designee Doris Gutiérrez, presented a report on achievements in favor of women, however, the same official acknowledged that there is still a long way to go to guarantee their rights. For example, the Comprehensive Law against Violence against Women is a project that women’s organizations worked on several years ago and presented it to Xiomara Castro on March 8, 2022, the day when the same president promised that she would send it to Congress for approval. but so far they haven’t even discussed it.
In the same way, since August 12, 2022, a proposal on shelter houses was delivered to the Secretariat for Women’s Affairs and to Congress to advance its approval. The draft seeks that these places serve as a temporary and safe shelter for women at risk.
Regarding this section, the National Human Rights Commissioner (conadeh) disagreed that there are only eight shelters in the country to care for victims, despite the fact that the Law against Domestic Violence establishes that they should be in the 298 municipalities.
The agency considers that they are necessary, since only between 2002 and April 2023 there were 7,600 deaths of women, of which 300 were registered in 2022 and 90 in three and a half months of 2023.
Between 2018 and April 20, 2023, the institution responded to at least 15,948 complaints from women considering that their physical integrity, life, and access to justice were at risk. A large part of the complaints were in Francisco Morazán, Cortés, Copán, Olancho, Yoro and Atlántida.
The defense coordinator Maria Jose Galvez, declared that the impact of these deaths must be analyzed by the authorities, mainly in cases of children who are orphaned, unprotected and often still suffer violence. He indicated that there are women who have died at the hands of his partner or those close to them, but they are also victims of organized crime and gangs.
“The Executive Branch must not forget women within its security policy”: Merly Eguigure, director of Visitación Padilla.
Merlin Eguiguredirector of Visitación Padilla, expressed her concern about the forms of violence suffered by women, the most visible being femicides.
“Violence is a cultural and historical problem that a government will not solve in a short time, deep measures are required, but there is little interest from decision makers to strengthen investigative units in the Public Ministry,” he questioned.
Eguigure reminded the rest of the women of the need to report any mistreatment, while the National Congress asked to approve the Refuge Houses Law, and finally, the Executive Branch, demanded not to forget women within the security policy and allocate more resources to eradicate the problem.
Different sectors of civil society agree that it is necessary to develop rigorous strategies aimed at protecting human life as such, including new approaches within their public policies and modifications to the current Penal Code, with stronger penalties so that victims receive justice.
