Gendered Relations of Violence

Direct Violence Structural Violence Cultural Violence Violence - the intentional causing of physical harm and/or psychological injury by one or more persons against other person(s) through the application of vigorous or extreme force. Murder as the extreme point of violence Rape as an especially brutal and tramatic form of violence e.g. beating, kicking, slapping, punching, stabbing, pouncing, breaking, smashing, crushing, etc. Note the active application of force within the ways we describe acts of violence. Education of girls & boys Acts of terror generating fear and panic through violence Direct violence against women in Guatemala Civil War (1960-1996) & Genocide (1981-83) Sexual attacks Torture Kidnapping Murder "Often, when girls hit puberty, fathers order them to stay home to protect them from sexual attacks they might encounter walking to and from school." -Alejandra Colom Economic autonomy As recognized in the 1999 United Nations-sponsored Commission for Clarification Report, “Guatemala: Memory of Silence,” an entire generation of Guatemalan men came of age during the bloody conflict, and were taught to view rape as a “generalized and systematic practice carried out by State agents as a counterinsurgency strategy” and “a true weapon of terror.” During the conflict, thousands of men were trained to commit acts of gender-based violence. When peace was established in 1996, those same men effortlessly rejoined society. Today, violence against women in Guatemala continues to bear the mark of the civil war: common methods include rape, dismemberment, torture, and mutilation, acts reminiscent of tactics used during the war. Consider harms and injuries resulting from patterns of activity without intentional and direct actions of perpetrators. Property & Land ownership Basic subsistence needs Scarcity of living-wage jobs Insufficient infrastructure for worker protections and benefits; accountability of corporations to communities Domination of unskilled, large-scale industrial jobs in the labor market in urban and coastal areas Predominance of domestic labor responsibilities Roles of girls in indigenous communities Sexual division of labor Conceptions of natural capacities Food (e.g. grinding maize and making tortillas) Fuel (e.g. harvesting and gathering wood) Water (e.g. transporting, rationing, purifying) Clothing Language When relations of direct and structural violence continues to be unquestioned as a part of life - in a sense, it ends up just "feeling right" (Johan Galtung, 1990) Ideological conditioning: Poverty is a personal problem Women are simply born into certain kinds of labor Violence is a necessary evil Embedded values & the place of violence in society: War unifies a nation and reveals the strength of the human spirit "Boys will be boys" (i.e. aggression and domination are natural parts of masculinity) Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH 1999): 626 villages massacred 1.5 million people displaced 150,000 people fled to refuge in Mexico More than 200,000 dead or disappeared During the Post-War period 2001-2006: 20,943 registered murders in Guatemala The majority of the women who are murdered are between 16 and 30 years of age (PDH 2005: 11) Prosecution rate of perpetrators is 2% When violence reaches this scale, this centrality to a culture, what is to be done? Does peace for women simply entail the absence of direct violence? Do these phrases invoke different images, diverging statistics and distinct lasting effects? Violence against women Violence against men How does 'violence' against women relate to all injustices faced by women? Three out of four Guatemalans live below the poverty line Access to water, basic healthcare, proper sanitation and sources of sustainable energy Legal vs. socio-cultural entitlements Private vs. communal ownership General Overview (1960-1996) 1954 overthrow of Arbenz Guzmán (CIA & UF) 1960's army combat with guerrillas and targeted peasants in the East (e.g. 1966 death squads) 1970's targeted social-political movements and their leaders in the cities as well as guerrilla infrastructure in the Mayan highlands (Manz 295) 1980's – clear shift in the tactics of the state, particularly underGeneral Overview (1960-1996) 1954 overthrow of Arbenz Guzmán (CIA & UF) 1960's army combat with guerrillas and targeted peasants in the East (e.g. 1966 death squads) 1970's targeted social-political movements and their leaders in the cities as well as guerrilla infrastructure in the Mayan highlands (Manz 295) 1980's clear shift in the tactics of the state, particularly under Romeo Lucas García (July 1 1978-March 23, 1982), General Rios Montt (March 23 1982-Aug 8 1983), and Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores (Aug 8-Jan 14 1986) Romeo Lucas García (July 1 1978-March 23, 1982), General Rios Montt (March 23 1982-Aug 8 1983), and Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores (Aug 8-Jan 14 1986) General Overview (1960-1996) 1954 overthrow of Arbenz Guzmán (CIA & UF) 1960's army combat with guerrillas and targeted peasants in the East (e.g. 1966 death squads) 1970's targeted social-political movements and their leaders in the cities as well as guerrilla infrastructure in the Mayan highlands (Manz 295) 1980's – clear shift in the tactics of the state, particularly under: Romeo Lucas García (July 1 1978-March 23, 1982), General Rios Montt (March 23 1982-Aug 8 1983), and Óscar Humberto Mejía Victores (Aug 8-Jan 14 1986) CEH - Commission for Historical Clarification 669 massacres Río Negro Massacres (1978-1982) – Chixoy dam and relocation, all told 5,000 killed Panzós Massacre (29 May 1978) – between 30 and 60 local inhabitants Spanish Embassy Massacre (31 Jan 1980) – 36 killed after occupation of embassy Plan de Sánchez massacre (18 July 1982) – 250 civilians killed, mostly Achi Maya