CHAPTER 12 WOMEN AND GENDER IN MESOAMERICA 467The term femicide, like genocide, refers to systematic targeting of a specific pop-
ulation, in this case women. Researchers in Costa Rica, for example, found that in
1999, about 56 percent of the women murdered were victims of domestic violence
and “passional problems,” a euphemism that explains away femicides and lessens
the severity of the crimes (Carcedo and Sagot 2001). Only 11 percent of the homi-
cides of men fall into these categories. Many murders of women take place when the
women attempt to leave their partners, when they reject men’s sexual advances, or
when they are sexually assaulted. Femicide thus occurs as a consequence of the ag-
gressor trying to control the woman’s body and/or her behavior.
The causes of femicide are complex. The underpinnings of the phenomenon are
to be found in persistent gender inequality in Mesoamerica. Women continue to be
regarded as objects that men have a right to control. Violence toward women is ex-
acerbated by the armed conflicts in the region (see Chapter 8). Military and para-
military groups used rape and sexual violence as a strategy of war; women were
tortured, terrorized, brutally murdered, and “disappeared” (Green 1999).
In the aftermath of the armed conflicts, violence remains strong in these societies.
It is accentuated by access of the civilian population to weapons; by the fact that
thousands were trained to murder, torture, and rape; by the displacement of entire
populations; and by the torn social fabrics of communities, with the attendant in-
ternal factionalism. Fractured and fragile communities, particularly in impoverished
urban areas, have become fertile soil for the proliferation of youth gangs. Gangs ter-
rorize the populations of the region. Among their tactics, they use rape and sexual
violence.
Researchers have also noted a relationship between violence and ongoing
changes in the region due to globalization processes. In the past twenty years, ne-
oliberal policies have resulted in widespread unemployment, underemployment, an
increase in the informalization of the economy, an overall increase in poverty, and
marked pauperization of women and children. These conditions coupled with cuts
in government programs to assist poor families generate marginality, tension, and de-
spair in families and communities, and they fuel the cycle of violence. The most vi-
olent areas in the region, in terms both of femicides and of general violence, are the
most economically depressed and marginalized, that is, the misery belts around cities
(Goldin and Rosenbaum, forthcoming). These areas are settled by migrants from
rural areas desperate to find jobs or by extremely poor urban people working in the
informal sector.
Women’s groups in the region demand reforms to the antiquated legal and ju-
dicial systems in these countries. They call for domestic violence to be considered a
crime and for all crimes against women to be prosecuted and punished severely (De
la Fuente and Chachón 2001). Nevertheless, impunity continues to be a serious prob-
lem as most often criminals literally get away with murder. When the 1996 Law Against
Intrafamilial Violence was being discussed in Guatemala, many congressmen
protested losing their rights to chastise their wives and argued that the proposed law
represented a state violation of family privacy. Some Guatemalan leaders involved
in both the women’s rights movement and the Peace Accords suggest that some of
the violence against women may be due to a backlash against the gains that the