LOVE WAXING COLD:Horrific pattern of brutality against women in Guatemala

Ever since I was a little girl I remember my father telling me about Guatemala with an almost mythic reverence.He had traveled to Lake Atitlan in the 1950's as a young man with a group of archeologists to explore the rich waters filled with treasures from the ancient Mayan civilizations.He spoke not only of this beautiful country,rich and green,filled with ancient Mayan cities,but of a culture of people like no other he had ever met;warm and gracious,an intellectual culture that loved life,and loved and valued their fellow man.In 1960 Guatemala became mired in a bloody internal armed conflict that lasted 36 years.Over 200,000 people were massacred, victims of genocide.That conflict ended in 1996,and my father decided to go back to the country he had held in his heart to see what had become of it.Last year I had the good fortune of being able to visit my father's adopted country, to see the ancient cities of Tikal and Antigua, two of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited. I also met many women living there, students, business women, domestic employees and other friends of my father.I soon learned of a horrific pattern of brutality:women were-and still are-being violently murdered, often tortured before they were killed. As news of this femicide started making the front page of Guatemalan and international publications,I began to ask the women, "Are you afraid here? Do you feel unsafe?" I was met with a resounding "Yes. We are all afraid. We are all unsafe".The femicides in Guatemala are happening at a shockingly high rate. According to the Guatemalan National Civilian Police, the number of women killed has risen steeply from 303 in 2001 to 665 in 2005. So far this year, the lives of over 400 women have been claimed by this brutality. To date, over 2500 women have been killed since 2001. Exceptional cruelty and sexual violence are quite common in the killings, women's throats are cut, they are bound, beaten, shot, and stabbed to death. Many of their bodies show signs of rape, torture, mutilation, and dismemberment. And although we often use the term women to simplify the discussion, girls as young as eight or nine have been targeted, sometimes with warnings or messages carved into their skin...
To read more go to:
http://wpherald.com/articles/5492/1/Commentary-Stop-the-killing-of-women-in-Guatemala/Horrific-pattern-of-brutality-against-women.html
As in the days of Noah...