03/11/2022
CISPES Solidarity with El Salvador
Weekly analysis from popular education organization and publisher, Libros Equipo Maíz:
Women's living conditions worsen
International Women's Day was commemorated on March 8, with marches that began on Sunday the 6th and ended on the 8th in El Salvador to protest the increase in violence against women and the setbacks in public policies for women by the current government.
Under the FMLN administrations, there were several advances in terms of legislation and programs that benefited women. Among them:
✔️ Approval of laws of equality (LEI) and against violence against women (LEIV)
✔️ Creation of Specialized Units for Attention to Women in the National Civil Police, municipal offices, and other public institutions
✔️ Creation of six Ciudad Mujer locations
✔️ Creation of maternal waiting houses and breast milk banks
✔️ Literacy for hundreds of thousands of women
✔️ Reduction of maternal mortality, from 49 to 28 per 100,000 live births.
❌ Setbacks under the current administration:
The current government has cast aside many of the laws and policies that benefit women. To the point that the Nuevas Ideas legislative group is now claiming that the Special Law for a Life Free of Violence for Women (LEIV), "does not meet the expectations of women" and that the initiatives to reform it "do not work."
However, it is the lack of policies and the refusal to allocate resources for programs to assist women that the institutions charged with applying the laws have been weakened. Many special units that were established to address issues specific to women have been closed, especially in the police, in national and municipal governmental agencies, and in other public institutions.
Within Ciudad Mujer, health and legal services for women have been closed. The literacy program, which mainly benefited women, and the Women's Health Care program have also been eliminated.
❌ Violence against women on the rise.
In 2020 and 2021, acts of violence against women increased:
▪ Murders of women went from 130 to 134
▪ Reports of missing women went from 230 to 454
▪ Unsolved cases of missing women went from 46 to 137
▪ Dozens of women from the opposition have been threatened and several have gone into exile
▪ Organizations defending women's rights experience repression daily
▪ Two women are being held as political prisoners, as a result of government persecution
Women are also affected by layoffs and the continuous increase in food prices and basic services, as they have lower salaries and pensions than men and take on more tasks at home, including the remote education of their children.
✊🏽 In the face of an aggressive government, women raise their voices. The struggle is shared by everyone. If they come for one of us, all of us respond!
(Translation, CISPES)
Weekly analysis from popular education organization and publisher, Libros Equipo Maíz:
Women's living conditions worsen
International Women's Day was commemorated on March 8, with marches that began on Sunday the 6th and ended on the 8th in El Salvador to protest the increase in violence against women and the setbacks in public policies for women by the current government.
Under the FMLN administrations, there were several advances in terms of legislation and programs that benefited women. Among them:
✔️ Approval of laws of equality (LEI) and against violence against women (LEIV)
✔️ Creation of Specialized Units for Attention to Women in the National Civil Police, municipal offices, and other public institutions
✔️ Creation of six Ciudad Mujer locations
✔️ Creation of maternal waiting houses and breast milk banks
✔️ Literacy for hundreds of thousands of women
✔️ Reduction of maternal mortality, from 49 to 28 per 100,000 live births.
❌ Setbacks under the current administration:
The current government has cast aside many of the laws and policies that benefit women. To the point that the Nuevas Ideas legislative group is now claiming that the Special Law for a Life Free of Violence for Women (LEIV), "does not meet the expectations of women" and that the initiatives to reform it "do not work."
However, it is the lack of policies and the refusal to allocate resources for programs to assist women that the institutions charged with applying the laws have been weakened. Many special units that were established to address issues specific to women have been closed, especially in the police, in national and municipal governmental agencies, and in other public institutions.
Within Ciudad Mujer, health and legal services for women have been closed. The literacy program, which mainly benefited women, and the Women's Health Care program have also been eliminated.
❌ Violence against women on the rise.
In 2020 and 2021, acts of violence against women increased:
▪ Murders of women went from 130 to 134
▪ Reports of missing women went from 230 to 454
▪ Unsolved cases of missing women went from 46 to 137
▪ Dozens of women from the opposition have been threatened and several have gone into exile
▪ Organizations defending women's rights experience repression daily
▪ Two women are being held as political prisoners, as a result of government persecution
Women are also affected by layoffs and the continuous increase in food prices and basic services, as they have lower salaries and pensions than men and take on more tasks at home, including the remote education of their children.
✊🏽 In the face of an aggressive government, women raise their voices. The struggle is shared by everyone. If they come for one of us, all of us respond!
(Translation, CISPES)