The director of UN Women for the Americas and the Caribbean, Maria-Noel Vaeza, visited Bolivia, where she highlighted the efforts of President Luis Arce to “depatriarchalize” the Plurinational State. What do local women’s organizations think about the Government’s advances?
Maria-Noel Vaeza visited Bolivia to learn about the agenda of “depatriarchalization, decolonization and construction of a culture of peace,” mentioned by President Luis Arce at the last United Nations General Assembly, last September.
Read also: Check out our coverage on Bolivia
Although Bolivia has one of the most worrying rates of femicide per population rate in South America, the director of UN Women for the Americas and the Caribbean assessed that compared to other countries in Africa and Asia “here we get it cheap.”
She recalled that in Mexico “11 femicides are committed per day. In Bolivia, 70 have been committed so far in 2022.” But it must be taken into account that 11.5 million people live in the Plurinational State, while the North American country has 130 million inhabitants.
“We are very happy with the president’s proposal to eliminate patriarchalism and depatriarchize. He has been the only president in the United Nations General Assembly who has proposed it,” Vaeza stressed.
In this regard, she noted that a cooperation project financed by South Korea “was started to strengthen the economic autonomy of women in six municipalities” along the Santa Cruz (east)-Cochabamba (center)-La Paz (west) axis.
“For us, economic autonomy involves redistributing the unpaid care work that women do and that they do not recognize us. Women do 3.5 more unpaid work than men. So we work eight days, while men work five,” said the director, born in Uruguay.
Vaeza stressed that “Bolivia is one of the countries with the highest political participation of women in the Senate. We trust that parity is a principle that we have to follow. We are half of the population. We are neither a vulnerable group nor a collective.”
Therefore, “we have the right to be elected.” And she commented that in Bolivia there are few female mayors, in addition to the fact that there is not a single female governor in any of the nine departments. “There is a long way to go on the political side,” she acknowledged.
LACK OF SUPPORT
Fátima Terrazas is president of the Mujeres de Fuego collective, which accompanies victims of violence throughout Bolivia. She came to the organization in 2018, when she had enough elements to denounce that her ex-partner sexually abused their daughter in common, then 3 years old.
For Terrazas, the lack of accompaniment for the victims, especially when they are minors, is alarming: “We have no support from anywhere, in any of the nine departments. I know because I have met them, I have looked for them. I have assured,” she told Sputnik.
“There is no government support center for victims where they can get therapy without paying, because they don’t care: it’s that clear,” she said.
“They only care about the saying: ‘Say no’, ‘don’t shut up’, ‘file the complaint’. Then, behind that, what comes? That woman needs support. She must have suffered a lot of violence all her life, since her childhood. That’s why it’s naturalized,” she explained.
“Fathers and mothers who have financial resources can pay the expenses and thus finish the therapies. But not the rest. Where do they go? I don’t want to underestimate them, but they go to NGOs [non-governmental organizations], to centers that work with the support of foreign organizations,” which in many cases profit from the suffering of people, said Terrazas.
All the members of Mujeres de Fuego suffered and suffer from violence against women, in all degrees. The vehemence of their demonstrations, with photos and posters of their murdered daughters and family members, made them really visible as women of fire.
“How many times have we had to go outside the courthouse to scream, because it makes us angry that the institutions that are supposed to help the victim do not help her. We go into the hearings and see that the State attorneys say nothing, they do not defend,” she held. Therefore, they have to find a paid lawyer.
In the case of the president of Mujeres de Fuego, she had to specialize in Law much to her regret. “I have a degree in Gastronomy myself, but by force I have had to learn everything about Law.” For this reason, when someone comes to ask them for help, “we recognize when Justice is not handled with transparency. We know the routes very well,” she assured.
VERY SHALLOW
Paola Gutiérrez is a social worker and is part of the feminist movement Mujeres Creando.
“The UN is very functional to the Government, in a very superficial way it works from a theater seat , very comfortable and very theoretical. It washes its hands leaving programs and projects that would really be interesting if they directly reached various sectors of women,” she told Sputnik.
She directs the support office of Mujeres Creando, where they provide comprehensive support to hundreds of women each year.
“There is no justice in Bolivia for women. There is no freedom at all to make our own decisions. We cannot even decide about our lives or our bodies. There are also no decent working conditions,” she said.
Regarding representation in political positions, she recognized that “there are more women parliamentarians, deputies, senators, mayors… But do they have a real representation of women themselves?”
The WhatsApp number of Mujeres de Fuego is +591 63983858.
The telephone number of the office of Mujeres en Busca de Justicia, of Mujeres Creando, is +591 22413765.
With information from Sputnik