Women murdered with impugnity
All over the world, women are brutalized and killed without any hope for justice nor deterrent against further violence. It's such an overwhelming problem that our news organizations can't or won't make sense of the problem. If it's one missing rich American girl, everyone worries and talks about her for weeks. If it's thousands of poor women in Bosnia, China, India, Iraq, or Kenya, no one cares.
Matthew Yglesias hips us to an accutely bad situation in Guatemala. According to Amnesty International:
More than 2,200 women and girls have been brutally murdered in Guatemala since 2001. Up to 665 cases were registered in 2005; 527 in 2004; 383 in 2003 and 163 in 2002. In 2006, 299 cases have been reported between January and May -- a faster pace than in 2005. . . .
According to Guatemala's Human Rights Ombudsman, up to 70 percent of murders of women were not investigated and no arrests were made in 97 percent of cases. In the few cases that are investigated, the process is usually flawed -- forensic evidence is not properly gathered and preserved, few resources are allocated to each case and witnesses are denied protection.
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