By Liz In the last 10 months in Oaxaca, 43 women have been disappeared, and 16 cases of rape are reported every month. 43.9% of oaxaqueñas over the age of 15 have reported surviving spousal violence, and 26.3% have suffered sexual violence or harassment in the workplace. This gruesome reality shows its face almost daily in the news: a woman beaten bloody and left to die on the side of a road; a mother crying in desperation, pleading for the appearance of her lost daughters; a thirteen year old Triqui gang-raped in the midst of community turmoil. Sadly, these types of stories can be found in newspapers throughout the world. And maybe, as in one of the local Oaxacan newspapers, habitually on the same page as the advertisement for strippers and call girls. In Oaxaca, however, violence against women is not just about sexism and the public image of women as disposable objects. It’s much more complicated, encompassing the above-mentioned statistics, but also land conflicts in rural communities, extreme poverty, and politically related disappearances. None of these conflicts should result in rape or violence against women, but it is a tragic and common consequence. The motives are varying, the results crippling, and all of the cases of femicide in Oaxaca have one thing in common: utter and blatant governmental impunity. One example of governmental impunity surfaced in a newspaper article that described violence against Triqui women in Oaxaca. The full-page article exposed heart-wrenching stories about young women who have been kidnapped, raped, shot and beaten to death in the tumultuous Triqui region of the Mixteca. Land conflicts in the Triqui region began in 1948 when the government began to displace Triqui communities and enact policies of discrimination and isolation. Displacement resulted in extreme poverty and life-or-death agrarian conflicts between communities who need to cultivate food in order to survive. The turmoil has become so violent that many men are currently unable to plant and cultivate crops because of the death squads that await them. The labor division, therefore, has overwhelmingly shifted so that women wake up earlier to finish home duties in the morning, and work in the fields in the afternoon. Labor shifts, however, have not slowed down the land conflicts, and women are constantly in greater risk of being disappeared, killed or raped throughout their daily routine. There are numerous cases of revenge against the families of women who survive and report the violence, which is motivated by the land conflicts, and therefore carries heavy consequences and incentives for revenge. House burnings and shootings are common forms of revenge, and have left numerous people dead or gravely injured. This includes Sofía Bautista, a 13 year old who will be paralyzed for life by a bullet which carried the name of a land conflict, landed in her innocent spine, and will never be punished by authorities. Oaxaqueñas, however, have traditionally taken a leading role in Oaxacan social movements, such as the APPO movement of 2006 and 2007. Women are drawing strength from their communities in order to overcome grief and fear and create solutions to combat the violence and demand governmental accountability in place of impunity. One example of courageous organizing, The Encuentro de Mujeres, was held December 7 and 8th in Oaxaca, featuring workshops about women and media, culture, globalization, identity, health, and social movements.

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