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[Translation of an article from Revistazo.com of Honduras for June 11. The Movimiento de Mujeres por la Paz “Visitación Padilla” is named in honor of pioneering Honduran feminist Visitación Padilla and its members call themselves “Las Chonas,” Padilla’s nickname being “Chona.”  Padilla was active in the early 20th century, opposing the US military interventions of 1924 and ’25, among other struggles.]

“If we were already being denied medical attention in state-operated hospitals before the coup d’état, conditions of neglect and irresponsiblity have gotten worse since then,” according to the Movimiento de Mujeres por la Paz “Visitación Padilla” [Visitación Padilla Women’s Movement for Peace], a women’s organization that for years has defended the rights of women in this country.

Tegucigalpa – On the Day of Action for Women’s Health, Las Chonas regret that their continuous demands for the elimination of violence from the lives of women and for better tretment are being ignored by the institutions and individuals required by law to attend to them.

They point out that in questions of health, the problem demands attention not only because the medicines and facilities do exist in the hospitals but because of the lack of quality in the medical treatment offered them, reflected in the increase of preventable diseases like uterine cancer, breast cancer and hypertension, which occupy the three highest positions.

One of the charges made by the group is that the primary centers of assistence in the country are packed daily with women coming from the provinces, who have to return home without being provided medicines or suitable treatment.

Another point that has come to the fore, they indicate, are the suicides, which also occupy one of the top positions, but which have not moved authorities to invesitgate the causes forcing women to make that decision.

Increase in the murders of women

“The most recent figures released by the Public Ministry on femicides indicate that in the first months of the year 110 women were murdered and one perpetrator was arrested, thus demonstrating that public authorities are responsible for the continuation of impunity,” they charge.

Las Chonas say authorities gloss over commitments made through regional and international conventions like the Convención sobre la Eliminación de todas las Formas de Discriminación contra la Mujer (CEDAW – United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) and the Convención Interamericana para Prevenir, Sancionar y Erradicar la Violencia contra la Mujer (OAS Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women. “Convention of Belem do Pará”).

The women’s group stated they will continue insisting that violence aganst women destroys and, in the end, contaminates the entire family. They have therefore begun a struggle to gain the solidarity of the people and to enlist them in helping to make visible the subjugation and oppresion the patriarchy has subjected women to, which impedes their development.

They stress that violence against women constitutes a serious violation of human rights and they consider that a firm position, requiring swift and effective action, should be taken.

Visitación Padilla movement groups from different neighborhoods and colonias of the city carried out a march for Action for Women’s Health, which they dedicated to the hundreds of women who have been murdered who, through them, demand justice and punishment for the guilty.

Tags: Action for Women's Health, coup d'etat, femicides, feminism, Honduras, Las Chonas, public hospitals, Visitacion Padilla

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