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The War on Women continues: Two young girls brutally strangled - and then dumped on to streets
By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
January 23rd, 2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
January 23rd, 2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
In
a nation where violence against women is common, the latest murder of
two girls has stunned the South American nation of Guatemala. Two
sisters -- one six, the other 11 - were found strangled, still wearing
their pajamas and dumped in a city street south of Guatemala City. Even
more horrifying is the fact that 90 percent of these types of cases are
not investigated here.
The victims have since been identified as 35-year-old Carmen Virginia Tuez Franco, daughters six-year-old Marbella del Rosario Raymundo Tuez, and 11-year-old Andy Briseida Guadalupe Raymundo Tuez, along with Carmen's 22-year-old niece Silvia Matilde Gaitan Franco.
Coffins were carried aloft by crying women before being brought before a mass as family and locals paid their last respects.
It's not yet known why the girls met their violent end, the pictures of today's emotional funeral serve as a poignant reminder of Guatemala's so called "war on women."
Some 707 women were killed in Guatemala in 2012, a significant increase from 431 in 2011. At the time of their killing, the murders of 32 women had already been reported so far this year in just 15 days, while 216 men have been killed in the same period, the human rights group said.
Cases are not effectively investigated, according to Amnesty International most and less than four per cent of all homicides in Guatemala result in perpetrators being convicted.
"There is no let-up in the cases of killings of women and girls recorded every month, despite the national scandal this has become for Guatemala," Sebastian Elgueta, Guatemala researcher at Amnesty International says.
"Thousands of cases of killings of women and girls dating from the last decade are still unresolved or end up being archived due to inefficiencies."
Jorge Cabrera, director of Guatemala's National Institute of Forensic Sciences he suspects that organized crime is behind the killing of the two girls, specifically drug trafficking groups who do not care about age or gender, he said.
In recent years, Guatemala has had one of the highest per capita murder rates in the world, according to the United Nations: 40 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2010.
© 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.