Mexico Finds It’s Not Easy to End Violence Against Women
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Every day thousands of Mexican women suffer physical and psychological abuse at the hands of their spouses, despite a federal law passed over a year ago to protect them. Nearly one-third of the country’s 31 states still haven’t adopted the law, which requires Mexican law enforcement to punish acts of violence against women. Even where the law has been adopted, it’s not being applied, say legislators and activists.
That’s because, despite an official push to move beyond the cliche image of macho, Mexico is still very much a man’s world when it comes to violence against women.
Mexico City’s Commission on Human Rights recently reported that complaints by women against Mexico City law enforcement agencies for failing to respond to complaints increased more than 12 percent after the law’s passage.
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But progress is hard to come by in a country where just a few years ago the punishment for killing a cow in some states was greater than for killing a woman.
A rapist in Mexico can still escape punishment in 21 states by claiming he was seeking to satisfy an erotic fantasy. He can escape punishment in 19 states if he later marries the victim.
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Contreras [Marisela Contreras Julian, president of the Commission on Fairness and Gender in Mexico’s] lower house of Congress.said women who report crimes are turned away or persuaded not to file charges.
“They say, ‘You’re going to forgive your husband, aren’t you?’ ” she said. “It’s the culture. . . . And some of these men are abusers themselves. Therefore, they look for a way to justify the actions.”
Six out of 10 Mexican women have suffered some form of violence inflicted by their spouses or partners, according to government studies. In 2006, more than 80 percent of women who were murdered were killed in their own homes.
The National Institute for Women in Mexico reports that twice as many Mexican women suffer abuse than the worldwide average.
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(Posted on May 14, 2008)
Comments
“But progress is hard to come by in a country where just a few years ago the punishment for killing a cow in some states was greater than for killing a woman. In 2006, more than 80 percent of women who were murdered were killed in their own homes.”
And these are the people into whose hands our country is passing? (I should say “being given.”) All so that Big Business can have cheaper labor and larger profits?
These are the people that fools like El Presidente Boosh tell us have such wonderful “family values”?
Posted by voter at 6:11 PM on May 14
“Six out of 10 Mexican women have suffered some form of violence inflicted by their spouses or partners, according to government studies. In 2006, more than 80 percent of women who were murdered were killed in their own homes.”
If this is anything at all like the women’s movement in America, what they are failing to disclose is that an almost equal number of women as men kill their spouses. Perhaps they just don’t know that. It’s hard to take seriously anyone who claims, “progress is hard to come by in a country where just a few years ago the punishment for killing a cow in some states was greater than for killing a woman.”
Posted by I should have taken the blue pill. . . at 6:34 PM on May 14
This is just another reason why the US should have invaded and conquered Mexico instead of Afghanistan. Mrs. Jay Leno came on Jay’s show to egg on Americans to attack the bad boy Taliban who abused their women folk.
After conquering Mexico we can return their illegal aliens and take the best part of the land for ourselves, which is something that every Mexican thinks we did to them already. Let the gas prices fall. How do you say Veni, vidi, vici in Spanish?
Posted by P Noctura at 6:38 PM on May 14
I question whether Mexican women suffer abuse at twice the World average. I would think that Muslim countries would have higher rates of abuse.
You can’t trust Mexicans.
Posted by Nordic at 7:29 PM on May 14
Manana, manana, manana is good enough for me. How do you expect Mexican men to show they are macho ? Maybe they can beat up their chickens, or something.
Posted by gee vee at 7:54 PM on May 14
Maybe NOW and MECHA could sort this out with chains and switchblades on pay-per-view?
Posted by Schoolteacher at 8:37 PM on May 14
Plain and simple…..IT’S THEIR CULTURE JUST LIKE BLACKS…AND MUSLIMS….YOU GET MAD SMACK THE OLD LADY AROUND A BIT…it lets off steam ya know!!
Posted by lydia at 9:14 PM on May 14
And this, amigos, is what our President if forcing on us. He would do anything to fill this country with the animals described in the article above. These are the wonderful family values he extols and the people he allows to invade and colonize this nation. We must take our country back. It’s going to be difficult as the three presidental contenders all want to legalize or bestow our most precious birthright on illegal aliens - citizenship. Let’s stop them. Make your voice heard.
Posted by June at 9:23 PM on May 14
Mexico’s favorite television program is Groucho Marcos’ “You Beat Your Wife.” (My little joke, for television viewers old enough to get it).
This article is so true, from what several Mexican women have told me both about their own experiences and about the nature of their society—they agree entirely with this article.
I knew well two Mexican families in Mexico, and some women in both families had been beaten by their husbands many times. One had been almost totally deafened in one ear by a blow from her long-abusive husband (burst her eardrum and resulted in an infection), after which she had left him, moving and taking her children to another city. Not very easy to do for many women even here, and extremely difficult in Mexico—I was so impressed with this woman’s strength, resourcefulness, and how hard she had to work to get away from her husband and stay away from him (for awhile—and this was only about 4 years ago—working in a laundry 48 hours a week—they still have a 6-day work week in Mexico—for about $30 dollars a week, while working hard hours elsewhere in addition. Fortunately, her older daughter was able to make better money as a waitress, and together they managed).
From the few women I talked to I formed the strong impression that marriage in Mexico is generally something of a disaster for the spouses, though the children seem to generally be very loved.
A woman living in the neighborhood I was living in said her father had left some man who had married into their family tied to a pole for a couple of days as punishment for striking his wife, and that when she was about to marry, her father told her prospective husband that if he ever struck her he’d be treated the same.
Between some couples this problem never occurs—another lady in the neighborhood told me her parents had been deeply and beautifully in love until they died, and that such an occurrence as hitting one another would have been unthinkable.
My speculation on some reasons the violence occurs: I think Mexicans have low impulse control, which is handled by an intense system of courtesy outside the home, but breaks down inside the home. Also, Mexicans use their bodies to express themselves, along with their voices—if they are talking to you, and haven’t learned that americanos are different in this regard, they’ll be touching you in various ways as they are talking to you—it’s totally un-self conscious and natural to them. So, I speculate that when they are angry, it’s “natural” that they express that with their bodies just as they do everything else they feel. (It’s just a theory). The women also blow up and hit their husbands.
I love ‘em, but in Mexico, not in the U.S. They are too different from us. Very different.
And oh—I’m not sure how it relates, but Mexico is a highly sexual place. Some of the middle-aged women there suffer more than sexually deprived teen-age boys in the 1950s U.S.A., when they have to leave their abusive husbands and be without marital relations.
Posted by H. Dumpty at 10:57 PM on May 14
It is actually easy to end violence against women: treat every woman as if she were you mother or your sister.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 5:54 AM on May 15
Yet once again, the silence of NOW is deafening.
For all the talk of how much liberals care about women, they sure coddle a lot of misogynistic people.
Posted by BAW at 7:09 AM on May 15
Just a question, please…
Is there ANY crime which Mexicans don’t lead the world in perpetrating? Arguably, with the possible exception of the African countries, Mexico has to be the most utterly corrupt in the world.
I had to laugh at a front-page article in today’s Houston Chronicle. That that Mexico’s Chief of Police is asking for asylum in our country. Fearing the drug cartels have a contract out on him.
Getting back to that “macho image” dearly sought by Mexican males… that might account for those many rapes we hear of here in Houston. Or those many incidents of sexual abuse of CHILDREN by Mexican males.
Remember friends, THESE are the kind of people streaming over the border in their unwanted millions. Not college professors, not doctors, bank presidents or scientists. But COMMON, GARDEN VARIETY CRIMINALS OF EVERY KIND! A perception amply supported by the crime stories we see, hear and learn about.
Posted by Fed Up at 2:49 PM on May 15
I live in the southwest and pretty much everything said on this thread is true. Any Mexican woman who has anything going for her marries white. Practically every prominent female Hispanic around here has an Anglo surname. I’m an average looking white guy and not well off by any stretch of the imagination, and I’ve had some absolutely drop dead gorgeous ones come on to me.
Liberals will say that the Mexican woman’s desire to marry white comes from self-hatred instilled by colonialism and living in an institutionally racist society, yadda yadda yadda, but it really isn’t like that at all. They know that their men are abusive, unfaithful, and misogynistic and that they are likely to be treated much better by an Anglo.
Posted by qwerty at 8:39 PM on May 15
qwerty is absolutely right. Smart Mexican women will try to marry White, but smart Whites should pass them by. I very rarely have an excellent Hispanic boy in my classes, but always several really sharp girls. There are not enough suitable boys for them, so they often end up with some baggy pants cholo. Their parents aren’t happy about their choice, but they don’t want them to bring home a gringo either. After a couple years of college, a lot of the girls get tired of stupid boys and unhappy parents and figure out that White guys are the way to go. Unfortunately for the White guy, the sharp girl comes with a Mexican family. If he likes drinking beer and talking about sports he can probably get along with most of them, but there will usually be a number of cousins with shaved heads and gang tatoos, and his bride loves them too. Marry a Hispanic, and you marry the culture too.
Posted by Schoolteacher at 6:43 AM on May 16
American women have the most to lose from the Hispanization of our culture. An increasing number of Mexican immigrants is bringing their anti-female Machismo culture with them. And yet I can’t think of a single feminist organization that is against open borders and increased diversity. Take a trip to Mexico City ladies; is this your idea of a great future?
Posted by Sardonicus at 1:02 PM on May 16
“a lot of the girls get tired of stupid boys …and figure out that White guys are the way to go. Unfortunately for the White guy, the sharp girl comes with a Mexican family. If he likes drinking beer and talking about sports, he can probably get along with them.. Marry a Hispanic, and you marry the culture too. “
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Obviously, Humpty (above) noticed this and made his decision to do otherwise.
But how sad to have [reproductively] wasted all that time on aa dead-end situation.
Posted by at 3:03 PM on May 16
“Complaints for failing to respond to complaints increased threefold.”
How aweful!
Here in Colorado, when the police are called in a domestic violence dispute, they always bring at least two officers, and they are legally *required* to arrest someone. This is fair, as the police are not babysitters, and they will use any force necessary to perform an arrest.
One of my neighbors got chucked out by his girlfriend last year, and I helped him and his daughter get out of there as fast as he could. He was OK and hadn’t been drinking or anything, but it is almost always the guy who is arrested. We stored his stuff, his friend came to pick him up, and his belongings stayed in my garage until the next afternoon, when they came to get it.
Abuse goes the other way at times.
His ex- later got mad at me for reporting her parking in a fire lane and approached me quite angrily. I smiled and told her, “You don’t really want to cross that sidewalk, do you?” She decided she didn’t, and went back inside.
She called the police, who told her who I was and gave her a warning about parking in fire lanes. I could completely understand how this decent single father and his daughter could be driven out, after my encounter with his ex-girlfriend. I would desperately love to live in an area with no renters.
Having grown up with domestic abuse, I will never raise a hand to my wife, our daughter, or any other children we may have. I do not believe that a marriage or relationship should ever be an abusive one.
NOW focuses on the trappings of extinct patriarchy they find insulting, like women being patronized. Treat any woman as if she were your mother or your sister. Don’t get the door for her, but hold it open or give it an extra shove if she’s coming in behind you. If someone else had earlier opened the door and you are all going the same way, give the door an extra push for the one behind you, and say “Thank you,” to the one in front.
This has always worked well for me, even with the female guards in federal prison who obviously hated white men.
What thinking man really wants a domestic serf who is afraid of him?
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 11:08 PM on May 16