(My new American Thinker post)
Over the last few years, we've heard about the war on
women. Up here, it's a phony issue generated by Democrats looking for a
distraction from the Obama record.
Unfortunately, we are not hearing about the place south of
the border where women are actually being killed. It's a real war in
Mexico!
"In response to the increasing murders and
kidnappings of women in the state of Mexico, the federal government of
Mexico issued a “gender based alert.” The alert went out for 11 cities in that
state and urges authorities to look into those crimes."
By the way, the state of Mexico is outside Mexico DF, or the federal
district that we know as Mexico City. The area has a population of over 20
million people, or slightly less than Texas.
I spoke with a couple of friends in Mexico and they gave me a little
context.
They see the violence in the context of the growing insecurity related to
the cartel gangs. In other words, we hear about women but not the men. My
friends reminded me that over 100,000 Mexicans have died in these cartel wars
since President Calderon confronted the criminal elements with the Mexican Army
in 2006.
Also, violence against women is not a new problem in Mexico or Central
America as Reuters
reported last year:
"Violence against women isn't an epidemic, it's a
pandemic in Mexico," said Ana Guezmez,
Mexico's representative for United Nations Women, the U.N. entity for
gender equality."We still don't see it as a central theme of the
current administration. You have to send a much stronger message."Experts say the spike in violence against
women is worst in areas hit hard by the drugs war,
similar to what happens during civil wars like those in Colombia, Guatemala and
El Salvador.Women in conflict zones are often seen as "territory"
to be conquered, and raping and murdering women a way to intimidate rival gangs
and the local population. Authorities say victims are getting younger and the
attacks more violent.In northeastern Mexico, a major drugs battleground, the
number of women slain jumped over 500 percent between 2001 and 2010, according
to a study by Mexico's National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence
against Women.Guezmez says public violence against women intensifies
when crime gangs take control. "It's associated with rape and displaying the
body in public places. A lot more brutal."The U.S.-Mexico border has long been a dangerous place
for women. More than one-fifth of the women killed in Mexico in 2012 were slain in three of the four
states neighboring Texas, according to the national statistics
agency.Most infamous is Chihuahua, home to Ciudad Juarez,
where hundreds of women were murdered or kidnapped in the 1990s.With 22.7 murders for every 100,000 women in 2012,
Chihuahua is still Mexico's most dangerous state for women.None of the figures include the many women who have
gone missing or those corpses that are so badly mutilated that authorities
cannot even identify their gender."
Here is the sad story. Women have always been more vulnerable to violence
in a "machista" society. Domestic violence is a problem. Add to this the
territorial fights among cartels and you have a deadly place for women.
Do you understand now why so many young women show up on the US-Mexico
border with their children? They are looking for a safe place for themselves
and their children!
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