The Northern Triangle: The Epicenter of Machismo and Femicides

As this paper has demonstrated, lethal violence against women has its roots in years of patriarchal culture mixed with gang violence. Machismo takes many forms, but its most extreme form is femicide in an attempt to assert control over women. As demonstrated, femicide can take many different forms, but much of the violence against women is carried out by an intimate partner or someone that the women know on a personal level. Women are at varying levels of risk for becoming a victim of femicide, but women from marginalized groups, impoverished women, and women during their reproductive years are at greater risk than others.

Furthermore, the presence and influence of transnational criminal groups in the region such as Mara-Salvatrucha exacerbate the problem because they use rape and violence against women as a weapon to assert their power, dominance, and control. This paper has demonstrated that violence against Central American women has become an epidemic and we must take direct action to combat it and restore safety and security to women living in the region. This violence against women cannot be allowed to continue any longer.

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Issued by the Young Feminist Scholars Program, Politics4Her Written by Megan MacGregor