While we’ve posted quite a bit on the ongoing corruption and murder of young women in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, Amnesty International has addressed a problem in Guatemala that hasn’t been recognized by many, although the devastation is far greater.

“The precise number of women who have been murdered is unknown and disputed but the Guatemalan authorities have confirmed that between 2001 and August 2004 they had registered the deaths of 1,188 women. Most of the killings have occurred in urban areas which have also witnessed a dramatic rise in violent crime in recent years often linked to organized crime, or to the activities of street youth gangs known as maras. Students, housewives and professional women are among those who have been killed in the wave of murders. Many were from poor sectors of society or particularly marginalized groups including members or former members of street gangs.

The extent of the violence perpetrated against women in Guatemala is extremely difficult to determine because of the lack of reliable official information. Official records of killings conceal the gender-based nature of the crimes so that rape and other sexually violent crimes are often almost invisible.

Many of the murders are categorized by the police as ‘crimes of passion’ or ‘due to personal problems’ and so are not investigated or are de-prioritized. Relatives of victims have complained to AI that they have to prove that their relative was ‘respectable’ before the authorities will investigate a murder seriously.”

Because if they were big sluts, they would have deserved it. Is it just me, or have the Juarez murders gotten a shitload more acknowledgment than the crimes in Guatemala? Is it because the Mexican government may have a part in the murders and there’s more of “a story” for the press, or because the activism is just stronger in Juarez? I don't get it.