Very few Guatemalan women are elected to local government posts, and in addition, they must confront aggression just because they want to do politics differently. This was evident in the framework of the First Interdepartmental Meeting of Women in Municipal Governments and Women’s Commissions held in Panajachel, Solalá, with the support of the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW).

According to the Diagnosis on Governance, Gender and Political Participation of Women (Diagnóstico Gobernabilidad, Género y Participación Política de las Mujeres”) of UN-INSTRAW, Guatemala is the Central American country that has the lowest percentage of women elected in local governments and who, in addition to being underrepresented, must deal with harassment and political violence. According to the Panajachel Declaration, women who hold public posts in Guatemala (“ have been victims of discrimination and aggressions on the part of authorities and officials in that country.

During the meeting, which was held at the beginning of May 2008 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 accomplice to corruption practices, to the deviation of funds, to influence peddling and party favoritism”. This rejection to corruption seems to be one of the characteristics of local governments under the direction of women in different places 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 San Marcos. Ayales added that women elected in local governments, the representatives of gender mechanisms and of indigenous and women’s organizations who participated in the meeting constantly expressed their inconformity with political violence and that therefore the project will focus in introducing the theme in Guatemala steps are being taken to promote the political participation of women in four Departments: Huehuetenango, Chiquimula, Solalá and during the third and last phase of execution.

Political violence is a reality that affects women in different Latin American countries. In Bolivia Ecuador women are carrying out concrete actions to fight against violence through a cooperation agreement between both countries in order to fight against this phenomenon.

Women Demand Decentralization with a Gender Focus

On the other hand, women demand that an effective decentralization of resources be carried out to allow governmental institutions in charge of watching over 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 focusing on the distribution of resources.