We don't know for sure yet but September looks to continue the downward trend in overall murders in Guatemala. It also appears that the number of women murdered will decline in 2011 (340 so far) compared to 2010 (838). Even if murders in Guatemala have declined in recent years and the murder rates of neighboring Honduras and El Salvador have soared, Guatemala remains a dangerous place.
Two women were killed in an apparent robbery at a beauty parlor on Tuesday in Guatemala City. Cristina Siekavizza has been missing since July 7. The dismembered remains of four young women have been recovered in different parts of the country within the last month. And the remains of two young women were recently found after they disappeared in late August. The two teenagers were most likely killed by a man with whom one of them struck up a relationship on Facebook.
Activists have also warned that there has been a sharp increase in the sexual trafficking of indigenous girls and women from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador during the last three years.
Finally, the Public Ministry in Guatemala reports that sexual violence against women in Guatemala is increasing.
Meanwhile in El Salvador, the department of San Miguel is suffering an alarming increase in femicide. Forty-three women have been killed there so far this year, five in the last week. Several victims were young girls murdered while still wearing their school uniforms. Three hundred forty nine women were killed in El Salvador during the first six months of the year.
The number of women murdered in El Salvador and Guatemala in 2011 are about the same even though Guatemala’s population is nearly three times larger.
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