PBS NewsHour and Women in Central America

Femicide continues in Guatemala with the killing of eight women on Saturday. As I mentioned not too long ago, the murder of women increased in Guatemala last year at the same time that the overall murder rate decline a bit. On Monday, the day before International Women's Day, Amnesty International called on the Guatemalan government to take stronger measures to prevent the murder of women.

Voices from the Border also has a recent post on femicide in El Salvador that is worth checking out as usual.

Targeted violence against women claimed over 500 lives in El Salvador last year, and the death toll continues to rise. The rate of these femicides, as they’ve been termed, has risen 197% in El Salvador over the past decade.

Finally, PBS NewsHour begins its two-part series on Guatemala tonight.

Learn more about the country and the daily experiences of Guatemalans striving to making ends meet in a country hard hit by poverty and violence below. For more on our series, view a preview from Ray Suarez here.

Read more from our Guatemala reporting trip on our Global Health Watch page. Ray has a reporter's notebook on the complexities of preaching family planning in a traditional and religious society. Two reports from the field look at the the high levels of violence against women and efforts to provide young girls with education on how to protect themselves against violence. There is also a piece on the high rates of malnutrition among Guatemala's children and the health implications of the condition later in life.

In addition to tonight's show, go to the website to check out the Photo Essay that accompanies the link. Some cool pics.