Bilingual Newsletter
Killings of Women in Guatemala Continue Unchallenged
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 the June 2005 publication of Amnesty International's report on killings of women, Guatemalan civil society has continued to press the authorities to deal effectively with the crimes. As of July 2005, there has been a draft law in Congress to create a National Forensic Institute; however, it does not appear Congress will approve it soon.
According to information received by Amnesty International, since the transfer of cases of murdered women to the Special Prosecutor's Office for Crimes Against Life in January 2005, there have been no convictions or sentences on any cases. Amnesty International welcomes the increase of resources assigned to these investigations within the Special Prosecutor's Office; however, the organization noted that as long as the vast majority of killings remain uninvestigated and unpunished, and until top leadership denounces the violence and instructs police and prosecutors to take the crimes seriously, these steps will remain inadequate.
In one recent case, Claudina Isabel Velázquez Paíz, a 19-year-old law student, left her home in Guatemala City on August 12 to go to university. It was the last time her family saw her alive.
Claudina's body was found on August 13. She had been raped and shot in the head.
As with the hundreds of other cases of women killed in Guatemala, preliminary investigations into Claudina's case were unsatisfactory. While forensic doctors carried out basic tests on Claudina's body, the authorities failed to pursue important leads. No forensic tests were carried out on her clothes. Instead, the clothing was returned to her family, potentially losing important evidence. No tests were carried out on the main suspects to determine whether they had fired a gun. Potential witnesses and valuable leads reportedly were not pursued.
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for Investigation into Murder of Guatemalan Women
Between 2001 and 2004, over 1,188 Guatemalan women and girls have been brutally
murdered. 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.