On April 21st, a regular meeting of the Inter-institutional and Multidisciplinary Group (GIM in its Spanish acronym) was held in Tuxtla Gutierrez, following up on the Declaration of a Gender Violence Alert (GVA) issued more than five months ago by the Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB) through the National Commission for the Prevention and Eradication of Violence against Women (CONAVIM in its Spanish acronym).

Following this, the Popular Campaign against Violence against Women and Femicide in Chiapas – made up of 21 civil organizations and dozens of individuals – said that “despite the commitments made by state and federal government institutions for the implementation of immediate actions to address the GVA, we point to the lack of commitment in clear and forceful actions to address the multiple complaints presented due to acts of violence and femicide against women in the different regions of Chiapas.”

It questioned “the lack of interest and absence of the governor, Manuel Velasco Coello, and officials with decision-making capacity” as well as the fact that “the offices of attention to cases, health and coordination of municipalities have not been installed, despite the urgent need to see to the events of violence against women who continue to mount in the state.”

The Campaign reiterated that “the partial declaration of GVA for 23 municipalities omits the serious violations of the human rights of women that are being committed in the other municipalities of the state that were not considered as part of the Declaration.”

It also criticized “the use and abuse that the state government, public servants and people invlved in domestic politics make of public resources to instrumentalize women beneficiaries of welfare programs, such as the “Prospera”, for political electoral purposes violating their right to decide and participate freely without any conditionins.”

It is worth rcalling that according to data from the National Citizen Observatory on Femicide (OCNF in its Spanish acronym), Chiapas is in tenth place in the states of Mexico with the highest number of registered attacks on women.

For more information in Spanish:

Aumentan feminicidios y dilación y omisión de autoridades en Chiapas: activistas y organizaciones (Desinformémonos, 22 de abril de 2017)

Gobierno estatal irresponsable en atender la Alerta por Violencia de Género en Chiapas (Comunicado de la Campaña Popular contra la Violencia hacia las Mujeres y el Feminicidio, Chiapas Paralelo, 25 de abril de 2017)

Lejos de cumplir Alerta de Género, gobierno de Chiapas usa programa con fines electorales: ONG (Contralínea, 26 de abril de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Internacional/Chiapas: Día Internacional de la Mujer (13 de marzo de 2017)

Chiapas : sigue la violencia hacia las mujeres (24 de febrero de 2017)

Chiapas: Día Internacional de Lucha Contra la Violencia hacia las Mujeres (28 de noviembre de 2016)