Caribbean & Central America - January 2025

On 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, women’s groups in Central America, as in other parts of the world, took to the streets to demand justice, effective public policies, and an end to impunity underpinning gender violence. Despite claims of progress, Honduras continues to have the highest femicide rate in Latin America according to a new report by the United Nations (UN) Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac). Another UN organisation, UN Women, highlighted in 2023 that subregional trends in the Americas between 2017-2023 show the rate of intimate partner or family member femicide is consistently higher in Central America compared to other parts of the Americas.

Released on 22 November, the Eclac report shows Honduras as having the third highest number of femicides (380) and the highest femicide rate in the region (7.2 cases per 100,000 women) in 2023. This is up from 2022 when the rate was 6.0 (still the highest in the region) and the absolute figure was 309. Yet at the start of November, Security Minister Gustavo Sánchez released a statement claiming a 44.5% reduction in femicides in the first ten months of 2024 compared with 2023 (albeit citing a different absolute figure to Eclac – of 359). Sánchez attributed the decline to government initiatives such as Línea 114- Mujer “Vivir Sin Miedo”, an emergency number launched in January 2024 by the police for women living with violence and seeking help and support.

While El Salvador and Nicaragua did not feature in the latest Eclac report, the country with the next highest rate of femicides was Costa Rica, which had a rate of 0.9 per 100,000 women and an absolute figure of 22 femicides in 2023. This is up from 0.7 per 100,000 women in 2022 when the total number of cases was 19, and comes as Costa Rica more generally has been facing rising violence, which has been widely attributed to the presence of international drug trafficking organisations (DTOs) [SSR-24-01].

Costa Rica was followed by Panama which registered 0.7 cases in 2023 and 15 femicides, down from 1.1 cases in 2022 and 21 femicides. However, a statement dated 16 December by the Panamanian observatory against gender violence, which is attached to the ombudsman’s office, warned of an “alarming rise in femicides”, noting that as of 15 December, 20 women had been murdered in Panama so far in 2024, up from the 15 registered in 2023.

Guatemala, where the centre-left reformist President Bernardo Arévalo recently unveiled plans to tackle gender violence, also registered a decline in femicides, with 0.5 cases per 100,000 in 2023, down from 1.0 per 100,000 in 2022. Total femicides were 45 in 2023, down from 91 in 2022.

• Efforts to eradicate gender violence in Guatemala

On 25 November Guatemala’s President Bernardo Arévalo revealed plans to bolster the national plan for the prevention and eradication of violence against women (Planovi), the launch of a campaign led by the presidential secretariat for women (Seprem) aimed at promoting respectful practices, and a doubling of the budget assigned for survivors of gender violence in 2025 – from Q25.9m (US$3.36m) to Q52m. He also announced new rules to stamp out sexual harassment in the armed forces.

As regards El Salvador and Nicaragua, which did not feature in the latest Eclac report, women’s groups warn of rising femicides and violence. On 22 November a Salvadorean women’s group, Red Feminista Frente a la Violencia Contra las Mujeres (Red Fem), released a statement which tallied 130 femicides in El Salvador between June 2023 and May 2024, up from 128 from June 2022-May 2023. More generally Red Fem cites data which shows that between June 2023 and May 2024, there were 20,950 incidents recorded as femicides, sexual violence, physical violence, psychological violence, and economic violence, representing a 15% increase in violence against women from the period of June 2022 to May 2023.

The Red Fem statement also highlights that while homicides have declined in El Salvador due to the crackdown on gangs by President Nayib Bukele, violence against girls, adolescents and women remains almost unchanged, affecting their right to live free from violence.

As regards Nicaragua, on 25 November the local media cited figures from a local women’s rights group Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir (CDD) which put the number of femicides up to November 2024 at 76 – above the 72 registered in the whole of 2023. Meanwhile a report published on 25 November by Nicaraguan media outlet Divergentes highlights the impact of the crackdown on dissent by the authoritarian government led by President Daniel Ortega on women’s rights more generally, among other human rights. It cites Mesoamerican women’s rights organisation Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Defensoras de Derechos Humanos (IM-Defensoras), as saying that over 200 Nicaraguan organisations which defend women’s rights have been stripped of their legal status by the Ortega government, which it says has resulted in an increase in lethal violence against women.