Jenny’s Pennies

On April 7th, two women journalists were brutally killed in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Teresa Bautista Flores, 24, and Felicitas Martínez, 20 worked for the community radio station La Voz que Rompe el Silencio (“The Voice that Breaks the Silence”), serving the Trique indigenous community.

From El Enemigo Común:

The Triqui indigenous people of San Juan Copala in southern Oaxaca, saw their first radio station, La Voz que Rompe el Silencio, as a major victory of their struggle. When the community declared itself an autonomous region on January 21, 2007, it vowed to stay independent from any party affiliation or influence, creating even a Police of the Community (Policia Comunitaria) to replace government armed forces in the region. The radio was to serve the Triquis people to promote unity, overcome conflicts, and encourage communication among communities, including those that are not formally members of the autonomous region. The radio stressed from the beginning the importance of promoting diversity within the station with the participation of women and particularly, the youth.

Oaxaca suffers from political tensions and attacks from paramilitary forces on the indigenous communities are common. The state of press freedom is very poor. According to the Mexican branch of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) there have been acts of violence against other small radio stations belonging to indigenous groups in Oaxaca, such as Radio Nandia in 2006 and Radio Calenda in 2007.
Reporters Without Borders has more. Mexico was ranked as number 136 in their annual press freedom index (2007), and declared the most dangerous country on the continent for the press.

AMARC has released an action alert asking for prompt clarification of the murders, punishment of those responsible, and protection for the witnesses and their children. The whole urgent action appeal with contact information to relevant persons and authorities can be found here.

Via A Womyn’s Ecdysis who says:

So, while some of us contemplate the silence that makes us uncomfortable and squirmy in our easy chairs, chew on this: These womyn died on their way to give and because of their voice.

Are you, am I, are any of us western feminists anywhere close to filling even a thimble’s worth of significance and relevance with respect to what is happening to womyn around the world?

I often wish I knew more about the law and legal matters. Because then I could understand things like this:

A pregnant teenager detained in jail only to make sure she’ll testify in court this week, according to her lawyer, is due to deliver any minute.
Noelly Mowatt, 19, who is not facing any criminal charges, and has been living in a jail cell at Vanier Women’s Centre in Milton since she was denied bail last Thursday, is worried the stress of her surroundings is affecting her health.
Expected to give birth to her second child April 15, Mowatt won’t be let out of prison until after she testifies at the April 11 assault trial of her boyfriend Christopher Harbin.
Harbin is charged with eight offences, including assault with a weapon, forcible confinement and breaching probation.
“She’s contracted the flu since she’s been in jail. She already had to seek medical attention,” defence lawyer Lydia Riva said yesterday. “She’s obviously stressed out and concerned about her pregnancy. She’s afraid to have her baby in custody.”
On March 20, a judge issued a material warrant for Mowatt’s arrest when she wasn’t in court for Harbin’s trial.
Riva said a judge can issue such a warrant if there is evidence someone won’t respond to a subpoena or is evading subpoena.
The Crown argued that after Mowatt called police in December to report that Harbin was abusing her, she refused to pick up her summons to appear at trial.

(From Canadian newspaper TheStar.com)

So, do I get this right:
The pregnant 19 year old, due to deliver any time now, is not facing any criminal charges but is detained solely to make sure she testifies against her boyfriend, who is on trial for abusing her? As I said, I’m not versed on the workings of the law, especially in Canada, but this seems too fucked up for me. Can you imagine being confined to a jail cell knowing that you basically can go into labour any minute (the expected delivery date is four days after the trial, but since when are babies always on the clock?), and to add to that stress, the reason you are in that cell is to make sure that you will testify against the man who has abused you. I understand that it’s important to make sure witnesses appear, but this just seems… cruel and unnecessary.

Reports BBC:

Military archives spanning nearly four decades of civil war in Guatemala will be opened to the public, the country’s President Alvaro Colom has announced.

Some 250,000 civilians were killed or disappeared in the 36-year conflict, which was ended in a1996 by a UN-sponsored peace agreement.

Mr Colom made Monday’s announcement from the balcony of the National Palace overlooking Guatemala’s Central Square. Demonstrators had gathered from all over the country to hear the news.

“We are going to make all of the army’s archives public so we can know the truth, to start building on a foundation of truth and justice,” Mr Colom told the hundreds-strong crowd.

This is a good initiative, but questions arise on if and how the evidence found in the archives will be used against serving or retired military officers (government forces were the main perpetrators in the conflict, that many label as genocide). In 2006, I listened to a lecture by Orlando Rodriguez from ODHAG (Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Arzobispado de Guatemala, the Guatemalan Archbishop’s Office for Human Rights). One of the things he said was that there is a “conflict over history” in Guatemala:

- There are people who don’t want to talk about what happened, that want it kept quiet. The state has not acknowledged its responsibility, and has not apologized to the victims. What happened needs to be discussed. We can’t build a new society based on a lie.

The whole article is here (in Swedish).

I hope that the opening of the archives can be the beginning of a true healing process in Guatemala, and that impunity for the perpetrators will be ended.

The Seminal has more here, and I had a link to Amnesty International about impunity in Guatemala in Friday food for thought a while ago.

As you all have read, Cuban leader Fidél Castro announced his resignation this week. On Sunday, a new president will be appointed, most probably Fidél Castro’s brother Raul.

In the end of January, I met with Cuban dissident Héctor Palacios Ruiz and his wife Gisela Delgado in Stockholm. Héctor Palacios was among the 75 people who were arrested in a mass crackdown on the opposition in March 2003 (the arrests took place the same day as the invasion of Iraq, when the media spotlight was turned elsewhere). He is now conditionally released due to health problems.

My text (in Swedish) about Héctor and Gisela are up on the Amnesty Press website now, and a shorter version will appear in the coming print issue of the magazine.

Via Feministe, I find this old, but still puke-worthy story about Justice Jon-Jo (sic!) Douglas, judge in Ontario, Canada.

An Ontario judge is at the centre of a misconduct investigation after insisting a witness who is HIV-positive and has Hepatitis C don a mask while testifying in his courtroom.

Three groups have complained to the Ontario Judicial Council about the conduct of Barrie judge Justice Jon-Jo Douglas, who later moved the case to a bigger courtroom in order to create more distance between the witness and the bench. (…)

“The HIV virus will live in a dried state for year after year after year and only needs moisture to reactivate itself,” Douglas insisted, according to a transcript of the Nov. 23 trial proceedings.

Maybe someone needs to tell dear Jon-Jo that it is very possible that he might have been sitting next to someone with HIV or Hepatitis C in a movie theater, or in the subway, or in a restaurant. He might even have shaken their hands. Because, thankfully, there is no law requiring people infected with either HIV or Hepatitis to wear a scarlet letter pinned to their clothes. If that scares Jon-Jo, maybe he should move out to the forest where he can live his life in isolated assholyness.

Really, there is absolutely no excuse for ignorance like this in year 2008.

Women’s eNews has a story up on how the leftist regime shift in Latin America has failed to address the issue of reproductive rights, but how Brazil seems to be an exception.

In the Brazilian town of Recife, where carnival just starts, the government is planning to dispense emergency contraception (EC, aka Plan B or the morning after pill). Not surprisingly, the archbishop of Recife warned that those who use EC will face excommunication and vowed to seek action in court to block it.

(And here it’s time to say it again: EC is not an “abortion pill”. It works by preventing ovulation or fertilization. If you’re already pregnant, it won’t work.)

Brazil’s minister for health, Jose Temporao, has also called for discussing abortion as a matter of public health and women’s reproductive rights. Women’s eNews writes:

“Unfortunately, women haven’t been heard on this discussion,” Temporao said in an e-mail interview with Women’s eNews. “They are the most interested party. There are 700 hospitalizations per day due to problems relating to abortion . . . I wonder: If men got pregnant, would this issue be resolved by now?”

Read the rest of the story, because it is at least some good news from a continent where women’s lives are sacrificed in the name of “morality” and “sanctity of life”.

If you read Swedish, you should read Vida Latina’s post from a few weeks ago, about Argentina. I have translated a bit here, because it is so appalling:

“She came to the ER on a Saturday, because she has such stomach pains that she didn’t know what to do, and she was getting a fever. But the doctors refused to help her, because according to them, her symptoms indicated that she had an abortion. She should suffer. Come back on Monday, she was told. Monday, she came back. The diagnosis: a ruptured appendix.”