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Say No UniTE to end violence against women is a global call for action that began in November 2009. Its main purpose is to raise awareness of the tremendous violence against women, for example femicidio, in Guatemala. Its goal is overall education reaching across social classes and various societal institutions in hopes to eliminate violence against women and girls.

The article discusses how the Guatemalan government and different UN offices are launching a regional initiative called: "UNiTE to End Violence against Women." The initiative is a global action to end violence against women and girls in Guatemala. According to the article, violence against women has far-reaching consequences, harming families and communities, along with undermining economic growth.

This article focus's on Guatemala's need for the vote to end violence against women. Around 70% of women and girls are physically or sexually abused by men in their life time. This article highlights the importance of this issue and its prevalence in Guatemala.

Although the previously bookmarked article seeks to establish an outline of the human or women rights violations that occur within Guatemala, here, author Karim Velasco, sheds light upon newly distinguished laws and explains despite their hopeful goals, why they have ceased to work effectively. She argues that because of the "lack of effective investigation and prevention strategies of the Guatemalan authorities", women continue to be raped, tortured, and murdered at an increasing rate. Because of pressures from the European Parliament to abide by human rights laws, "on April 9, 2008, Guatemalan Congressed passed the 'Law Against Femicide and other Forms of Violence against Women Act' to severely punish any kind of gender-based violence..." However, because the violence stems from the power inequality between men and women in the first place, there is little belief or evidence that this Act will be implemented or strongly enforced by the men in power who seek to represent masculinity or display a constant idea of machismo.

This article addresses the impacts of domestic violence in Latin America. Is is estimated that between 30 and 45 percent of women in the region suffer from some form of physical, sexual of psychological abuse. Latin American women want domestic violence to become more visible to the public to show that everyone pays for it. Due to the efforts of women organizations, domestic abuse victims can now receive free psychological and legal assistance, along with have access to help-lines and shelters.

This video is about sexual violence in Guatemala and the stories of some of the survivors of this growing epidemic. In Guatemala about 10,000 people are raped every year. Many people are afraid of leaving their homes and entering the streets due to the lack of security and high violence. The patients in the video speak about how they have been affected by the incident and how they sought treatment to eventually break through the cycle of fear they were living in.

Here is a news video about new sex education books being distributed to schools in Mexico City. Students were glad to get the books that had real answers to their questions about sex and sexuality, as well as information about women's rights, domestic violence, and respect for different sexualities. Church groups and a parents association are strongly against the new book, and one member claimed that it "promotes death."

In 2005, Mexico declared that a sexual attack by a husband is still defined as rape. In 1994, the country ruled that it was simply "an undue exercise of conjugal rights". Under this ruling, women could not report rape by their husband. The article states that 47 percent of women report being the victims of violence, and 84 percent of domestic violence victims are silent.

In Guatemala the rate of violent deaths of women is outrageously hight and is still growing rapidly. The murdering of women usually involves torture, rape, or mutilation. Norma Cruz,co-founder of the NGO Survivors Foundation, has helped to provide many victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse and the families of murdered women with emotional and social support. According to Cruz, the "increasing number of killings of women in Guatemala is tied to the poverty that is the aftermath of Guatemala's civil war..." Even though her position in the foundation has many risks and harms, it has given voice to many victims and inspired other foundations in Guatemala to help this on-going issue of violence.

Latin America is notorious for some of the worst prisons in the world, and large levels of HIV/AIDS cases have resulted from drug use and sexual relationships inside these institutions. This article notes the poor quality healthcare available in prison, and the issue of HIV/AIDS elevated by prison inmate interaction (drug use, sex) and poor healthcare.

A radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and justice. Due to religious influences and beliefs, women do not have the rights to their bodies by law, so they seek alternative methods to have abortions, with a large number resulting in death. Similar to our discussion of sexual education in schools, the 'reality' does not match up with what is taught in schools (especially Catholic ones). Instead of being proactive and preventative, abstinence is taught. iolence against women is coming to the forefront as a major concern in Latin America. Termed "femicide," violence against women by men because they are women is a poor result of the hierarchy of the cultural society in Latin America. Machismo and masculinity influence men to feel that they must act this way from a young way in order to exert their power and strength, but it is unacceptable. This article also discusses women's movements and their fight for equal rights as well as rights to maternity leave and other aspects that women who work must take into account.

This article is a historical look at violent and violated women in Guatemala. It explores the social meanings of "gendered crimes" in rural Guatemala between 1936 and 1956. These gendered crimes include b=not only sexual violence, but also infanticide and abortion, which are defined as female. Many times harmful acts to women fail to generate criminal proceedings.

This article discusses discrimination against homosexuals in Mexico. San Francisco's Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals has made several rulings granting asylum to gay or transsexual applicants from Latin America, where violence against homosexual is common. Some of them have even been abused by the police.

This article talks about the affects of violent crime on Latin American Society. It discusses the ways in which the government is trying to instigate new programs to reduce the crime rate relating to sexual abuse, drug-trafficking, kidnappings, gangs, substance abuse. The government plans to begin early education regarding these issues as well as encourage and strengthen citizen and community participation.

This site contains an article based on the contemporary perspectives of men and masculinity in Latin American Countries. Detailing numerous countries like Brazil and Mexico, you can see the similarities and differences of what masculine identity is to each individual country or culture. "The materials analyzed are organized around the principal themes within which studies of masculinity in Latin America have been framed, namely the construction of masculine identity, fatherhood, practices and representations, homosocial spaces of masculinity, reproductive health, and masculine sexuality."

This sight documents the abuses done to homosexual couples in Mexico. I think this page gives good insight into how ashamed Mexican culture is of its gay community. The purpose of this organization is to seek social change through peaceful means but unfortunately it seems that simple letter writing campaigns will not stop discrimination on such a massive scale.