Femicide rising rapidly warns charity

A report released by Oxfam Honduras and a Honduran NGO, the Tribunal of Women Against Femicide, revealed the number of women being killed in Honduras has spiked dramatically since a right-wing military coup deposed President Manuel Zelaya in July 2009.

In the month after the coup there was a 60 per cent rise in the number of femicides, with the bodies of more than 50 women found in the two largest cities Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula.

Oxfam also accused the new government of Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo, voted in three months after the coup, of inaction and complicity in the growing wave of murders.

Maritza Gallardo of Oxfam Honduras said: "Since the coup in July 2009, we've seen a sharp rise in gender-based killings, with many of these crimes simply going unreported.

"We don't even really know just how many women are being killed because families of victims are afraid to report violence and murders, because they realise the legal system gives impunity to those responsible for the killings."

A surge in violent crime is also claiming the lives of hundreds of Honduran women as Central America's notorious Mara gangs extend their power.

"In many cases the women who die are not directly involved in gangs, drug-dealing or commercial sex work.

"In most cases they are the victims of vengeance attacks, carried out to send a message to male family members," Ms Gallardo added.

"The lives of these women are simply seen as collateral damage as gang violence gets worse."

foreigneditor@peoples-press.com