In Guatemala, women are disappearing and being killed at an elevated degree. The rates of sexual assault in 2013 were 70 percent higher than in 2009 and are only continuing to increase (OSAC,2015). Women are not safe. The police and justice system are unequipped and disinclined to intervene (OSAC, 2015). The people of Guatemala are heavily armed “60 percent of the population owns a firearm” contributing to impunity because the criminals are less likely to be perused (OSAC,2015).
The Women of Guatemala are in grave danger; their lives are constantly being threatened. In 2011, 424 cases of violence against women were reported, but only 150 arrests were issued (Duncan, Brandt, Fontaine, Briones & Won Kim, 2013). The police force in Guatemala does not have trained officers who can help with instances of sexual abuse. The Police are unable to arrest formally due to lack of the essentials such as transportation, fuel, and laboratories making them virtually powerless. (OSAC, 2015).
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights states “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood” (1948). The women in Guatemala are treated as property and viewed as easily replaced, Guatemalan government and the justice system have accepted the violence against women as a norm (Goldin,2012). On average, one to two women are killed in Guatemala every day (MuJER,2011). Impunity is widespread throughout Guatemala, the justice system will not help, the media holds biases toward the option of men, and women have no place to take shelter (Madre,2012), leaving the women unwilling to speak up (muJER,2011).
The women of Guatemala are being denied fundamental human rights they are being killed and are disappearing at alarming rates. The corpses of women riddle the cities of Guatemala, mutilated, raped and left to rot (Duncan, Brandt, Fontaine, Briones & Won Kim, 2013). Guatemala is being held hostage with fear; if civilians speak up they will be murdered, the government is filled with collusion and stands in the shadows. (Doctors without Borders, 2009.) Guatemala is still recovering from a 36-year civil war that has had no resolution, and in times of war to gain power men will take women and kill children (DWB, 2009). Women are treated as less than human, as objects to be taken, sold, raped and killed (Doctors without Borders, 2009). In Guatemala, women have no voice, no rights. Abortion is illegal even in cases of rape and due to the corruption of the state women have, and will remain silent to survive (“World Report”, 2014).
The women who are being targeted are typically part of the Sex trade industry in Guatemala some by choice most by force (MuJER,2011). Women are a commodity in the sex trade, and if one is to die, they are thrown away like garbage (Doctors without Borders, 2009). Sex will always sell, and people will always need money, and in Guatemala for many women, there only way to make a living is through prostitution (MuJER, 2011). Following sex trafficking, there are high STD rates. 10,000 Guatemalan’s die of HIV/AIDS every year, and there is no medical system in place to provide necessary treatment to prolong life (“World Report”, 2014).
Guatemala has some of the strictest policies on opioid medications in the world, making them almost impossible to obtain. This results in thousands of painful deaths leaving the women in Guatemala to die because it is easier to let them die than to seek a remedy (“World Report”,2014). Because treatment through the medical system is unavailable, women have to seek their medication through others means, such as drug dealers, in turn fueling the underground drug industry (Goldin, 2012).
The government in Guatemala has turned a blind eye to their community (MeJUR,2011). In 2014 the U.S states department went to investigate why the women were suddenly ending up dead and missing, their report came back with little information on the situation but copious evidence that the government had lost control of Guatemala (Taft-Morales, 2014). According to principle human rights “widespread intuitional corruption” is abuse to human rights, and Guatemala’s government is, needless to say, corrupt (Goldin,2012).
Information cannot get out to the public and without proper knowledge, no changes can occur, at this time there is no change happening in the government and the economy. The world community needs to provide the women of Guatemala with a voice, or thousands more will be murdered (“World Report”, 2014).
