Too Many Latinas Are Victims of Domestic Violence

Filed in archive Latin Issues on July 13, 2007

Every 15 minutes a Mexican woman is attacked in her own home, and every year more than 800.000 Mexican women die a violent death, with a daily average of five deceases. Those are the creepy numbers revealed by Prensa Latina, taken from statistics from the Mexican Prosecutor's Office.

According to the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH), Mexico is among the 15 nations of the world with more female victims of violent homicides, and the territories with the greatest indices are the states of Mexico, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chihuahua and Quintana Roo.

In fact, in Mexico, during 2005, 6.000 women died because of domestic aggressions, according to the data of the Special Office that takes care of this problem. In Guatemala, more than 2.800 women have been murdered since 2001.

According to Rebeca Grynspan, regional director of the United Nations Development Programme (the UNDP), the amount of homicides and acts of violence against the women is "alarming" and it's essential that the governments commit to establish strategies that allow to reduce those numbers.

"In Latin America, between 30% and 45% of the women have been victims of violence, either physical, sexual or psychological", affirmed the specialist.

In Santo Domingo, on the other hand, statistics reveal that during the first trimester of this year, the homicides of women were reduced in a 22,5%, in comparison with the first trimester of the last year. According to Roxanna Kings, director of the department of Criminal Policy, these results show the effectiveness of Santo Domingo's strategy, which has been developed and based on a coordinated work of prevention and control that involves the law enforcement, ministries, diverse governmental offices and, actively, the people.

"The numbers that we achieved are encouraging but, even so, the efforts must increase, because this is a public health matter, which affects all the country and, even further, the entire region", she added.

There's hope. But it's necessary to actively fight against domestic violence, in all countries. What are the other countries waiting for, to follow Santo Domingo's strategy?

Sources (Spanish):

Violencia machista a la mexicana: El peligro de ser mujer
Violencia contra la mujer reducida en un 22.5%