Empowering Women in Central America

Here are two recent stories that might be of interest to you. They are both about improving the lives of women in Central America.

In the first article, Pha Lo details how Nicaraguan women are challenging unemployment and poverty . Specifically, she tells the story of the women of El Carizal and how their lives were impacted by the reality show Survivor which was filmed in a nearby location.

As their backyard became the setting for an entertainment-based idea of reality, the women say their actual reality was disrupted. The show brought mixed blessings —an unprecedented six months of gainful employment at wages that have since been unmatched, but also a moratorium on fishing in certain areas, which hurt a community whose livelihood comes from the sea. Filming also prohibited foot traffic through familiar places.

These women are looking for a way out of poverty though selling jelly made from local fruit.

In El Salvador, the Ciudad Mujer (Women City) Program will be receiving a $20 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to improve the lives of low-income women in twelve communities throughout the country.

The program seeks to offer essential services, such as health services with an emphasis on sexual and reproductive health, treatment and prevention of gender-based violence, vocational and business skills training, promotion of women´s rights, and childcare.

There are lots of individual examples of success by women's and indigenous groups throughout Central America. Unfortunately at each country's national level, the social, economic, and political situations remain rather bleak.

In Guatemala, Amnesty International continues to to denounce "generalized violence" against women and the indigenous.

Violence against women remained widespread. The authorities failed to uphold the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Justice remained elusive for the vast majority of the 200,000 victims of the 1960-1996 internal armed conflict. Human rights defenders continued to be intimidated.

And don't forget about violence against organized labor.

Former Bolivia President Gueiler Dies

Boliviabella

I can't say that I follow Bolivian politics all that much, but I did find this story about Lidia Gueiler interesting.

Lidia Gueiler, the only woman ever to have been Bolivia's president, died Monday at age 89...

Gueiler was only the second woman to lead a Latin American nation as president when she held the post for about eight months in 1979-80 between coup d'etats...

As president of Congress, Gueiler followed Bolivia's constitutional line of succession and assumed the presidency in 1979 after a deadly popular revolt ousted coup leader Gen. Alberto Natusch Busch.

Gueiler called elections but no candidate won a majority to immediately become president as required by Bolivian law. Her cousin Gen. Luis Garcia Meza overthrew her 18 days after the vote, before a runoff could be held.

Garcia Meza's government lasted two years, in which it killed and imprisoned dozens of political opponents and cooperated with drug traffickers. Garcia Meza is imprisoned in Bolivia for human rights crimes.

Gueiler fled into exile after her ouster but returned from Chile in 1983.

Recent Guatemala Videos

Al Jazeera recently posted two videos related to Guatemala. The first deals with the issue of illegal abortions. Here's the description.

Today, illegal abortions are the leading cause of death among young women in Latin America. Whether they are performed in major cities or in the isolated countryside, these 'back room' abortions are leaving thousands of young women dead each year. Guatemala has the highest fertility rate among women and yet it remains the poorest country in the region where women can ill afford large families. Unwanted pregnancies, couple with the forces of tradition and politics, leave few options for these families. Through the work of an activist and the medical team she leads, this film explores the questions of family planning, which many see as the right to life.

I couldn't help but think of comparisons between drugs and abortion throughout the video. Everyone wants to see the number of abortions and drug users reduced to zero. The criminalization of abortions and recreational drugs doesn't seem to have reduced the number of people seeking abortions or using illegal drugs.

At the same time, criminalization has increased the violence associated with both - illegal abortions that kill too many women in both Guatemala and the world and cartel violence that Guatemalans and Central Americans know all too well.

The second video is a much shorter one and covers a bit of the Colom divorce. However, I don't know who was shocked by the divorce. Disappointed. Disillusioned. Angered. Sure. Surprised or shocked? Probably not so much. Not in this country where anything is possible.

Guatemalan Women Running for the Highest Office

Guatemala has had women compete for the presidency in three of the last four elections. In 1995, Flor de María Alvarado was the presidential candidate for Popular Democratic Force (FDP). In 1999, the New Guatemala Democratic Front (FDNG) supported Catalina Soberanis Reyes. And Rigoberta Menchu Tum was the candidate for the Winaq Political Movement in 2007. None of the women fared exceptionally well on election day.

This year, while most of the world's attention is on Sandra Torres' sacrifice, several other women competing for the highest office.

Former Minister of the Interior Adela Torrebiarte leads the Accion de Dessarrollo Nacional (ADN). Rigoberta Menchú is again likely to be a candidate for Winaq, a political party as of a few weeks ago. Patricia Arzú will represent the Unionist Party. She is the wife of the current mayor of Guatemala City and former president of the country, Álvaro Arzú. Finally, Zury Ríos is the daughter of former dictator Efraín Ríos. Like her father before, she will represent the Guatemala Republican Front (FRG).

Flor de María Alvarado is supposedly running again, but I can't find details. Perhaps she is running with the FDP again. Nineth Montenegro of the Encounter for Guatemala was sought after for the VP slot, but I think that she has settled on going back to congress.

The scholars interviewed in the El Periodico article seem to agree that Guatemala is ready for a female president but would like to see the women develop a platform that includes the empowerment of women.

Virgilio Alvarez from FLACSO divides the women into two divisions. Those who have used their personality and work ethic to make a name for themselves (Menchu, Torrebiarte, Montenegro and Torres) and those who are riding the coattails of men (Baldetti, Rios, and Arzú).

As of today, Torres appears to be the only woman likely to have a fighting chance at the presidency. However, given that Roxana Baldetti is Otto Perez Molina's vice presidential runningmate for the Patriotic Party, Guatemala is almost guaranteed to have a woman occupy the presidency or vice presidency after September's election. 

(See also Eduardo Villatoro)

PBS NewsHour and Women in Central America

Femicide continues in Guatemala with the killing of eight women on Saturday. As I mentioned not too long ago, the murder of women increased in Guatemala last year at the same time that the overall murder rate decline a bit. On Monday, the day before International Women's Day, Amnesty International called on the Guatemalan government to take stronger measures to prevent the murder of women.

Voices from the Border also has a recent post on femicide in El Salvador that is worth checking out as usual.

Targeted violence against women claimed over 500 lives in El Salvador last year, and the death toll continues to rise. The rate of these femicides, as they’ve been termed, has risen 197% in El Salvador over the past decade.

Finally, PBS NewsHour begins its two-part series on Guatemala tonight.

Learn more about the country and the daily experiences of Guatemalans striving to making ends meet in a country hard hit by poverty and violence below. For more on our series, view a preview from Ray Suarez here.

Read more from our Guatemala reporting trip on our Global Health Watch page. Ray has a reporter's notebook on the complexities of preaching family planning in a traditional and religious society. Two reports from the field look at the the high levels of violence against women and efforts to provide young girls with education on how to protect themselves against violence. There is also a piece on the high rates of malnutrition among Guatemala's children and the health implications of the condition later in life.

In addition to tonight's show, go to the website to check out the Photo Essay that accompanies the link. Some cool pics.