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By: Lakshmi Sunder
Femicide, the intentional killing of women or girls primarily because of their sex, is the leading cause of premature deaths in women globally. While it is a problem worldwide, El Salvador has notably higher rates of femicide, as they have the highest rate of femicide in Latin America and the third-highest rate in the world. Unfortunately, this has only worsened during the pandemic when reports of gender-based violence increased by seventy percent.
Much of the violence against Salvadoran women have been perpetrated by gangs throughout the country. A report done by the government of El Salvador found that around 10% of Salvadorans are in gangs. Some gang members view women as easy targets for rape, abuse, and homicide.
While many women have tried to flee the country in response to the violence, some cannot or fail to because of the risk of deportation, gang and police retaliation, or threats from abusers at home, and as a result, many women have been driven to suicide. El Salvador is the only country that has a law against “femicide suicide”, which labels driving a girl or woman to suicide by abusing her as a form of femicide.
Why does El Salvador have such high rates of femicide and violence towards women?
One of the driving forces behind these targeted acts against women is the lack of accountability that men face for their crimes. Though the Salvadoran government has made aims in the past to stop femicide - with President Sánchez Cerén declaring a national femicide alert and the crisis over extreme violence against women for the first time in the country’s history - the UN reports that about eighty percent of femicide cases go unreported, and only ten percent of cases where a woman is a victim of femicide result in a conviction. This vast lack of conviction for crimes against women creates a culture of male immunity that helps perpetuate femicide. Because men do not fear getting convicted, they are not discouraged from committing crimes against women.
Although the central government has created policies against it, such as their 2012 femicide law, which gives perpetrators a prison sentence of 20 to 50 years for gender-driven murder, this requires that prosecutors prove that the motive for the homicide was rooted in hate for women, which is difficult to prove in many cases. Furthermore, the central government is not strong enough to effectively enforce these policies, a result of El Salvador’s civil war from 1980-1992 and the mostly nominally democratic government that emerged after.
Furthermore, many women fear reporting abuse because the police are unhelpful or even exacerbate the situation. The police force is corrupt, often gang-affiliated, and similarly established in a patriarchal society. Some police officers may even further the abuse themselves. Sometimes, the only other path women have is to flee the country, but they fear getting in a worse situation if they are caught by their abusers, by gang members, by the governments of other states, or by the police that is supposed to protect them. There are few forms of escape for women in El Salvador when they face abuse at the hands of men. Thus, the situation can get worse to the point that femicide is possible.
As with many societies, toxic masculinity or the “machismo mentality” often runs deep. Many Salvadoran men and boys are brought up to view women as inferior objects of domination. Traditional masculinity is championed, and this masculinity is supposedly achieved by subjugating women. This mentality is perpetuated through many aspects of El Salvador’s culture - through religious leaders, the media, laws, music, and more. Women who “fight back” risk further abuse from abusers, gangs, and police because they are not taking on the submissive role that they should in this view. External forces that are meant to protect them often hold the same misogynist view that abusers do. If women choose to fight back against this violence, for example, by reporting it to the police, they risk further subjugation and abuse.
While the Salvadoran government is attempting to alleviate the rampant femicide in their country, it is clear that these laws and declarations aren’t holding the sway than they should. Many Salvadoran women find themselves in unsafe homes or communities, with no realistic means of escape. The situation in El Salvador is evidence that, even in the modern world, women are still oppressed purely because of their sex and existence, and that patriarchy and toxic masculinity are still key elements of society that need to be dismantled at their root. This problem is not exclusive to El Salvador, and it is our responsibility as humans to create a world in which women not only feel like they can survive inhibited but thrive.
Discussion Questions:
How can other countries assist the women in El Salvador?
Are there parallels between the corruption in the Salvadoran police force and the American police force?
Is it possible to truly stifle femicide in El Salvador without a strong central government?
Should El Salvadoran schools attempt to create a curriculum that teaches students to evade misogyny from a young age?
Have the protests in El Salvador against violence towards women been effective at making a change?
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