2020 Gender violence commemoration | U.S-El Salvador Sister Cities

(EN ESPAÑOL ABAJO)

CCR, CORDES and other organizations in the Chalatenango area held their annual commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Sunday, November 29.

This year the event was held in Carasque, where a mural dedicated to Lorena Cruz and Yesenia Menjívar, two young people from the area who were murdered, was inaugurated. Yesenia was killed during the mandatory lockdown decreed due to the pandemic, when she was walking back home in the absence of public transportation.

The statement read during the event includes the following:

WE DEMAND from governmental institutions, political parties, universities, the entire private sector, the judiciary and the legislature, ZERO TOLERANCE to the aggressors, to comply with what the Special Law for a Life Free of Violence against Women (LEIV, in Spanish) mandates, and a law reform that removes the charter from officials to respond to acts of gender-based violence.
WE DEMAND from the Government and the Legislative Assembly budgets and laws, respectively, that reflect the interests and needs of women, since it is still necessary to continue and create social programs that benefit women, such as: Ciudad Mujer, special care for women in situations of violence, Maternity Waiting Homes and the creation of a Ciudad Mujer in Chalatenango, La Unión and others. WE DEMAND to have a public health system that guarantees universal quality and comprehensive care in sexual and reproductive health, with emphasis on the prevention of teen pregnancies, care in sexual violence and maternal mortality.
WE DEMAND an educational reform without prejudice and discrimination, that promotes programs of comprehensive and secular education in sexuality, that guarantees to girls and adolescents, schools and universities free from harassment and violence.
WE DEMAND Security, economic and social inclusion policies that guarantee a dignified life free of violence. That the State’s social order plans respond and include all people and that there are no longer murders of LGBT+ population, because they do not fit into a mandatory heterosexual regime.
WE DEMAND from the Municipal Councils that, when hiring male human resources, they include within the requirements, a psychological test and a monitoring process of their conduct, as well as constant training in gender and the legislation that protects the rights of women, so that a femicide like Yessenia’s never happens again.

You can read the entire statement (In Spanish) below

CCR, CORDES y otras organizaciones del área de Chalatenango realizaron el pasado domingo 29 de noviembre su conmemoración anual del Día internacional para la eliminación de la violencia contra las mujeres.

Este año el evento se realizó en Carasque, en donde se inauguró un mural dedicado a Lorena Cruz y Yesenia Menjívar, dos jóvenes de la zona que fueron asesinadas. Yesenia fue asesinada durante la cuarentena obligatoria decretada por la pandemia, cuando caminaba de regreso a su hogar a falta de transporte público.

A continuación el comunicado completo: