Bilingual Newsletter
Protect Women in Guatemala and Juárez from Violence
Day of the Dead is a major commemoration in Mexico and Guatemala during which families celebrate their ancestors by visiting and sprucing up grave sites, welcoming the souls of the dead into their homes with altars and offerings of flowers and food, and engaging in other festivities.
During the fall, thousands of Amnesty International activists helped commemorate the Day of the Dead by participating in a "cross petition" by creating and signing crosses protesting the murders of women in Juárez/Chihuahua and in Guatemala and calling on the Mexican and Guatemalan governments to take steps to end the femicides.
Amnesty activists from around the country took part, sending crosses from places as far apart as California, Massachusetts, Illinois, Missouri, New York, and Georgia. On November 2nd, activists held vigils and delivered the crosses to consulates and embassies of both countries, where they met with officials. Activists from highschools, to colleges, to individual members sent some 3000 crosses to the Washington, DC office alone on Day of the Dead, and more than a thousand have come in since. In most of the meetings, officials were welcoming, and acknowledged that femicides are a serious problem. However, Amnesty International wants to send a clear message that the issue is still a priority, and you can help make this action even more successful than it has already been by continuing to create and send crosses through Spring 2007. Take action (PDF): English » | Español »
Background
Between 2001 and 2004, over 1,188 Guatemalan women and girls have been brutally murdered. According to press reports, 531 women were killed between January and October 2005, surpassing the total figure of 527 in 2004. The police have reported that sexual violence against women has increased. Since 1993, almost 400 women and girls have been murdered and more than 70 remain missing in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua, Mexico.
Exceptional cruelty and sexual violence characterize many of the killings. Some of the victims had their throats cut, or were beaten, shot or stabbed to death. Many of their bodies show signs of rape, torture, mutilation or dismemberment. Many victims were abducted; some were held for hours or even days before being killed.Amnesty International believes that the pattern of brutality, the evidence of sexual violence, which can amount to torture in some cases, and the increasing number of women killed require the authorities pay immediate and urgent attention to the problem.
The idea for this powerfully symbolic action arose from the fact that many crosses surround the border town of Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua City, Mexico. The families of victims struggling for justice have chosen to use pink crosses to symbolize the over 400 killings of women and girls and as a sign of the ongoing femicide that plagues the region. In solidarity with these families, activists used pink crosses in the petition targeted to Mexican government officials. In Guatemala , crosses are usually white so white was used to represent solidarity with the victims and outrage at the almost total impunity for the perpetrators.
Take action (PDF): English » | Español »
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