I continue to listen to the news and read the reports of the violence against women in Guatemala and am horrified and outraged! More than 2,300 women (housewives, teenagers, college students, domestics) have been murdered since 2001. Raped, shot, disemboweled, sexually mutilated, beheaded and dumped in vacant lots. That's 460 a year. More than one a day (that we know about) - senseless and random murders - "femicides" -in a country whose culture and laws encourage the devaluation of women's lives.

In Guatemala, a man who rapes a minor can escape punishment by marrying his victim if her father consents. Now...in the 21st century. Domestic violence cannot be prosecuted unless signs of injury are apparent 10 days later and marital rape is not a crime. Local activists scoff at the new commission on "femicide" who will be "studying" the problem across the nation for one year. The Boston Globe says, "Unlike the epidemics of drug and gang violence in Central America, authorities have devoted scant resources and spotty attention to this crisis."

I'm looking for a nail to bite....