Tag Archives: El Salvador

Gender

Central America Feature | Women & Girls

Young Central American Women’s Fight to Flee

The situation for girls and young women in the “Northern Triangle” of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras has perhaps never been more dire. The persistence of organized crime, with its emphasis on patriarchy and the subjugation of women, has forced many women and girls from their homes, fueling a migration crisis in Mexico and the U.S. From education disruption to sexual slavery, young women have found their prospects circumscribed by a culture of entitlement, intimidation, and violence that severely limits women’s agency in the region. The Guardian investigates the conditions young women face in the region and

Read:
“‘It’s a crime to be young and pretty’: girls flee predatory Central America gangs” (The Guardian)

Additional:
“Central America’s rampant violence fuels an invisible refugee crisis” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: via The Guardian)

Gender, Nationality + Migration

Central America & U.S. News | Central American Women

UN: Ongoing gender-based violence in Central America threatening to create another refugee crisis
  • The UN has warned in a recent report that as femicide and sexual and domestic violence showing no signs of abating in parts of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, the region (and the U.S.) needs to prepare another refugee surge.
  • Gang violence has exploited women in the region as governments have failed to address the region’s drug cartel problem, while escaping women become vulnerable to trafficking.
  • Advocates for women refugees have argued that the Mexico’s crackdown on migrants–with U.S. backing–has heightened insecurity for women escaping violence.

Read more:
“UN agency warns of ‘looming’ refugee crisis as women flee Central America and Mexico” (UN News Service)
“Women Refugees Are ‘Running For Their Lives’ In Central America” (BuzzFeed News)
“Mexico’s migration crackdown escalates dangers for Central Americans” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: Amy Stillman/IRIN, via the UN News Agency)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

El Salvador News | LGBT

El Salvador toughens punishments for hate crimes against LGBT individuals
  • The country’s lower chamber approved changes that will see those convicted of identity-based homicide against LGBT individuals facing up to 50 years in prison.
  • The changes increase the maximum penalty for hate crimes–which also include racially, ethnically, and religiously based targeting–by 20 years.
  • Gender continues to lag behind other protected classes, however, with those convicted of homicides against women facing 20 to 30 years of imprisonment.

“We have made a lot of progress in the democracy (of the country). This is a significant step toward the recognition of rights in the LGBT community.”

Read the full story at teleSUR.

(Image Credit: EFE, via teleSUR)