According to the "
Diagnosis on Governance, Gender and Political Participation of Women" of UN-INSTRAW, Guatemala has the lowest percentage of women elected to local government in Central America. In addition to being underrepresented, female politicians must deal with harassment and political violence. According to the Panajachel Declaration, Guatemalan authorities and officials are often the perpetrators of discrimination against women.
Within the framework of the project
Strengthening Governance with a Gender Perspective and the Political Participation of Women at the local level of UN-INSTRAW-AECID, participants affirmed that the aggressions usually happen when “the women from Municipal Corporations refuse to be accomplices in corrupt practices, the deviation of funds, influencing peddling and party favoritism”.
Rejection of corruption seems to be a characteristic shared by many local governments under the direction of women in Latin America. According to the Dominican magazine Quehaceres, councilwomen in that country are popular because their administrations denote transparency in the use of resources and in the shared budget.
Ivannia Ayales, Regional Coordinator for Central America of the UN-INSTRAW-AECID project, indicated that in Guatemala steps are being taken to promote the political participation of women in four municipalities: Huehuetenango, Chiquimula, Solalá and San Marcos. Ayales added that women who participated in the meeting constantly expressed that political violence is unacceptable and that the project will therefore focus on introducing that theme in the third and last phase of execution.
Political violence affects women in many Latin American countries. Bolivia and Ecuador have a cooperation agreement to fight this phenomenon where women demand that resources be decentralized to allow governmental institutions in charge of women’s rights to respond adequately to the demands and needs of women. To this effect, women emphasized the importance of depending on municipal public policies, focused on the distribution of resources.
