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Gender, Violence, And Empire In Central America
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Gender, Violence, And Empire In Central America
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INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies axe in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, prim bleedthrough, substandard margin*, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are mitring pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note w iD indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g^ maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced fa y sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. A Bell & Howell informeiion Company 300 North Zeeb Roeo Ann Arbor M l 481061346 USA 313/761*4700 800 521-0600 GENDER, VIOLENCE, AND EMPIRE IN CENTRAL AMERICA Kobert F Fdinger A Dissertation l*resented to the 1ACUITY OF THH CRADIJATF SCHCXJI. UN1VHRSITY OF SOUTHHRN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirem ents for the Degree IX X TO K O F PHILOSOPHY IN RFLICION (Social Lthics) December 1994. Copyright 1994 Kobert F. Kdinger UMI Number: 9600971 UMI Microform 9600971 Copyright 1995, by UMI Coapany. All rights reserved. This aicrofora edition is protected against unauthorised copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 Morth leeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 4S103 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY PARK LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90007 This dissertation, written by R o b ert F. E d in g er under the direction of h..^..... Dissertation Committee; and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by The Graduate School in partial fulfillment of re quirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dean of Graduate Studies D ate..,. f.. . 1 . 9 . j. . A 9 9 4 DISSERTATION COM MITTEE GENDER, VIOLENCE, AND EMPIRE IN CENTRAL AMERICA By Robert F . Edinger A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA School of Religion September 1994 ABSTRACT In this dissertation I explore the way in which the political and eco nomic domination associated with imperialism runs directly parallel to the gender oppression associated with patriarchy in Central America. I ar gue that this region is one prominent example of the way in which patri archal violence is exacerbated against the females of subjugated peoples, as well as the way in which patriarchal justifications of race-based systems of sexual slavery have generally been buttressed by religious doctrine and in stitutions, especially, in this case, by the Roman Catholic Church. I exam ine the current situation in Central America in the light of its history, and in the light of Mandst-feminist theory, which provides a particularly well- suited lens to evaluate the relation between the oppression of women and their revolutionary responses. I draw on the experience of women under neocolonialism and socialism in various parts of the world in support of my thesis: that Central America is part of a broader, global historical pic ture in which socialist movements have promoted female liberation— es pecially insofar as they offered women salient roles in fighting for their own freedom. Capitalist neocolonialism, on the other hand, as I argue, tended to reinforce male domination and to allow (even encourage and support) frightful structures of systemic violence against women. 1 examine the historical dialectic between females as victims and women as militants in 'antiimperialist1 rebellions so as to better under stand the restructuring of gender roles produced by revolutionary move ments. 1 also examine the theoretical connections between feminism and socialism in the Central American context and the critical relationship of both religion and democracy to the debate over changing patterns in gen der roles. Mine eyes have seen the orgy of the launching of the Sword He is searching out the hoardings where the strangler's wealth is stored He hath loosed the fateful lightning and with w oe and death has scored. His lust is marching on. Mark Twain "Battle Hymn of the Republic" It's made so difficult, under the prevailing conditions of capi tal shaped priorities, male suprcmaasm, racism, militarism to envision that revolution without an end ... m ost of u s> even in our imaginations, settle for less. Living under these condi tions, we can lose sight of the fact that we'live human beings' are where it all must begin -even to the point of denying the degree to which we are suffering. . . at certain moments, if we are lucky, w e touch the experience, the flash, of how it would feel to be fiee. A drienne Rich, 1991 Dedicated to the wom en of Central America who have fallen in combat. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS j would like to thank my professors, especially Mary Jo W eaver and Samuel Preus of the departm ent of Religious Studies at Indiana University; Henry Clark, Don Miller, Sheila Bnggs, and Scott Davis of the School of Religion and Social Ethics, N ora Hamilton in Political Science, and M arjone Becker of the History D epartm ent of the University ol Southern California. 1 am m ost indebted to my com pafieros in Central Am enca, the Sandinistas w ho took the tim e to sort out m y questions in broken Spanish, the m uchachos in the m ountains of El Salvador who shared their rice and beans with m e and told m e their stones with such pain an d such dignity, and my colleagues at the National University of E l S alvador Ibis work rests upon the foundation of num erous scholars and ac tivists. 1 am particularly indebted, however, to the following sources First, N oam Chom sky w hose research on U.S. policy tow ards Central A m enca is referred to throughout and ( 'ynthia Enloe w hose work on w om en and mil itahzation is also frequently referred to. While Enloe praises th e work ot Chomsky, she m akes a call for analyses of pow er which take into account the 'gendered' nature of pow er politics. A docum ent resulting from the IV Encuentro Feminista, a feminist w orkshop of Central A m encan w om en on violence and war, and the Guatem alan Church In Exile's research with respect to Guatemala w ere also of foundational im portance to what fol lows. 1 would also like to thank the beautiful children of Central A m enca for their inspiration. I w as m ost struck by the openness of one little girl, in par 1 v ticular, of approxim ately five years of age, w hom 1 m et in a concentration cam p in Nebaj, Guatem ala in 19H K . I could not talk to her because 1 did not speak her language. She walked up to me, pulled on m y arm and smiled. Later, when I learned that th e '‘ youngest1 * females in these cam ps w ere "saved for the jctes (bosses o r commanders)," I w as deeply angered. I offer this as a tnbute to her beauty and pow er and the strength of her people w ho continue to press for their liberation. Robert Hdinger, Indiana, Septem ber 1994 v TABLE OF CONTENTS I N T R O D U C T I O N .................................................................................. 1 C h a p te r t . C O L O N IA L IS M A N D S E X U A L IN J U S T IC E 7 lem inism and C apitalism .............................................................. 12 U.S. H eg em o n y .................................................................................. 17 Sexual V iolence................................................................................ 27 Sexual Slavery.................................................................................. 33 lY ostitution......................................................................................... 3H Neocolonialism in Southeast Asia A Case S tu d y ................. 45 2. H IS T O R I C A L B A C K G R O U N D 55 I’ rccolum bian Society M atnarchal Paradise lo s t? ................. 5N The Patriarchal Heritage B eq u eath ed ........................................ 67 The Colonial Structure of Sexual H xploitation......................... 7K Neocolonialism In Central A m enca The Harly P e n o d 91 3. F E M A L E S A S V I C T I M S ............................................................... 113 The Cold War C o n tex t................................................................... 113 V ietnam ............................................................................................. 119 Cuba as N eo co lo n y ........................................................................ 125 Nicaragua from S o m o ctsm o to S a n d m ism o ......................... 12K ITie Contra War . ............................................................................ 146 H o n d u ra s.......................................................................................... 154 PI Salvador Sexual Violence and Social C la ss......................... Ib7 State V iolence..................................................................................... 177 The R e b els.......................................................................................... 1K 7 G uatem ala Racism, Hxploitation, and D e a th ................................191 The Democratic O pening 1944 1954 ........................................... 199 Ihe U.S. Coup and the Military S ta te ......................................... 2 1 1 5 The Concentration C am p S y stem ............................................... 226 v 1 4. WOMEN AS MILITANTS 239 W omen, C ounter Violence, and L iberation.............................. 241) Vietnam and C u b a .......................................................................... 253 N icaragua.......................................................................................... 261 H o n d u ra s.......................................................................................... 277 L I S alv ad o r........................................................................................ 2K I C u a tem ala........................................................................................ 3 1 )1 5. FEMINISM, SOCIALISM, A N D JUSTICE................... 316 Leminism and M arxism ................................................................. 317 Lvaluation of the Histoncal Record USSR and C h in a 324 Central American Fem inism ......................................................... 336 Feminism, Socialism, and D em ocracy........................................ 351) Religious ihought and the Struggle for (render ju s tic e 359 Conclusion Signs of H ope Yet CContinuing S truggle............. 366 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................... 377 V11 INTRODUCTION The political and econom ic dom ination associated with imperialism runs directly parallel to the gender oppression associated with patriarchy in Central America This region is one prom inent exam ple of the w ay in which patriarchal violence is exacerbated against the females of subjugated peoples, as well as the way in which patnarchal justifications of race based system s of sexual slavery have generally been buttressed by religious doc trine and institutions, especially, in this case, by the Roman Catholic Church. This study explores the current situation in Central America in the light of its history, and in the light of Marxist feminist theory, which provides a particularly well suited lens to evaluate the relation betw een the oppression of w om en and their revolutionary responses. 1 draw on the experience of w om en under neocolonialism and socialism in various parts of the world in support of m y thesis: that Central America is one particu larly prom inent exam ple of the w ay in which socialism has historically tended to prom ote female liberation especially insofar as it offered w om en salient roles in fighting for their own freedom. Capitalist neocolonialism , on the o th er hand, tended to reinforce m ale dom ination and to allow (even encourage and support) frightful structures of system ic violence against wom en. I explore the dialectic betw een fem ales as victims and fe m ales as com batants in 'antiimperialist1 insurgencies so as to better under stand the restructuring of gender roles produced by revolutionary m ove m ents. A broad variety of scholarly research and prim ary sources have been in corporated into this project. While occasional com m ents are also m ade on I the basis of m y personal observations while living and traveling in Central America, 1 have included these only in footnote form. As a student ot Central American political history o n the one hand, and gender relations in general in the other, I was struck by tw o glaring realities. First, these countries share in com m on social histories replete with m assive levels of sexual violence. Secondly, there is a profound difference in the way in which the autonom y of w omen has been recognized and respected betw een the politico military structures of th e Central Am erican Right, on the one hand, and the Left, on the other. This suggested the way in which sexual violence w as and still is a part of the heavily polarized scenario of Central A m erican politics. 'Imperialism', or the conquest of one sovereign people by another, and 'patriarchy,' or a political system in which m ales are dom inant and w om en are generally excluded from political power, are the tw o m ost salient cate gories utilized in this dissertation. The violent abuse and exploitation of w om en is intricately intertwined with the history of foreign dom ination in Central America. While w arfare betw een indigenous groups, divided pri m anly along linguistic lines, w as w idespread in the precolum bian era, the Spanish conquest, by subjugating the entire region, set in place a historical pattern of sexual violence which persists, in som e im portant ways, until to day. M ost importantly, as 1 argue, the neocolonialism hegem ony exercised by the United States served to reinforce and intensify traditional structures of sexual exploitation that w ere a legacy of the patriarchal arrangem ents which existed under colonialism. 2 To accurately understand the question of the historical role of gender in the region's conflicts, one must locate the issue within the context not only of colonialism but also of the Cold W ar and its relationship to the perpetu ation of neocoloniat arrangements. Of special im portance here, is the cen tral role of the Catholic Church in the m aintenance of brutally patriarchal political structures into the neocolonial era, especially insofar as Vatican policy dovetailed with that of the Reagan Presidency A Marxist feminist perspective on issues of gender and justice is partic ularly well suited to the Central American context, serving as a heuristic vehicle which helps to explain the perpetuation of structures of sexual o p pression. What follows is based primarily on the work of thinkers who represent or have been heavily influenced by these traditions. I attem pt to offer a representative account of a variety of interpretations which they of fer and to apply them to the Central American context. To attem pt to bal ance the Marxist feminist perspective with interpretations hostile to or op posed to it would be beyond the scope of this dissertation. I simply offer one application of a Marxist feminist perspective to the critical discussion of the history of sexual oppression in Central America, leaving to the reader's judgem ent w hatever implications might or might not be drawn concern ing Marxism a n d /o r feminism in general or their utility for critical histori cal analysis /interpretation outside of this context. From this perspective, the military and much of the non military aid flowing from the U.S. to Central America has supported institutionalized violence against women for decades and this continues to be the case. U S foreign policy has historically created and maintained the most repressive :S of C entral American politico military forces at the sam e time that it has been dedicated to undermining or exterminating precisely those political m ovem ents which called for and tried to implement program s which would result in greater autonom y and political pow er for women. As ar gued here, while far from bearing sole responsibility, U.S. policy perpetu ated and exacerbated the colonial legacy of racist violence against women which had been in place for centuries prior to U.S. intervention. For those readers who wish to cling to a cherished belief in the beneficent character of capitalist expansion in the Third World and the critical role of U.S. foreign policy in this regard, 1 only hope that they will be productively challenged to reconcile their understanding with the reality of the brutal atrocities com m itted against w om en and girls that are docum ented in the pages that follow The female as victim, however, represents only one pole of a dialectic of violence, the other represented by the woman as com batant. The presence of female fighters in insurgent m ovem ents has been very prom inent in Central America where m any women have tended to link their Mberation to the realization of revolutionary justice for the entire society. While som e feminists are skeptical of the success of female participation in libera tion m ovem ents with respect to securing perm anent gains in political sta tus, it is im portant to acknowledge the enduring achievements which did com e about through revolution and the way in which revolutionary m ovem ents have continued to represent sources of hope for the mitiga tion of sexual oppression. 4 ITie first chapter examines the central moral and political issues in volved in the historical relationship between colonialism /neocolonialism and sexual violence. The second offers a summ ation of the principal his torical antecedents necessary for understanding the events of the Cold War period The third and longest chapter traces the trajectory of events respon sible for the structural forms of sexual violence that developed throughout the post W.W.I1. era. The fourth chapter analyzes the revolutionary and militant responses of w om en in socialist movements, especially their role in com bat on behalf of guerrilla forces. The fifth and final chapter takes a closer look at the relationship between feminism and Marxism, with re spect to both theory and the historical record. 1 evaluate this relationship so as to better understand the symbiotic interplay which developed between feminism and Marxism in Central Amenca. 1 also attem pt a bnef assess ment of the critical im portance for this discussion of both religious thought and the struggle for authentic democracy. In studies concerning oppression the moral philosopher operating from a humanist perspective seeks to expose the structure and facets of that op pression. My primary task as a scholar is to present an accurate and cntical Marxist feminist interpretation of the histoncal interplay between gender and violence in Central America, which em phasizes the im portance of the fact that oppression itself gives birth to liberation through the opposition that it engenders. 1 seek to dem onstrate how progressive change with re spect to gender relations has been intimately linked to the struggle for au thentic national sovereignty. The revolutionary struggle, broadly speaking the plethora of popular, labor, student, and peasant organizations, and, in S particular, the role of w om en m these organizations, epitomize the courage that leads to hope in Central America and the valor that creates lasting structural change. (> CHAPTER ONE COLONIALISM AND SEXUAL INJUSTICE I or Central American revolutionaries, wom en and men, the particu larly acute forms of sexual oppression that exist in contem porary ( :entral America are a direct product of historical 'imperialism,' the conquest and domination of one sovereign people by another. Prom a Marxist (I use the term s 'Marxist' and 'socialist' interchangeably) feminist perspective, impe rial is m generally and the colonization to which the Puropean powers sub jected the peoples of what is today referred to as the '" 1 1 1 ird World' specifi cally share much in com m on with the dom ination of woman by man Both are seen as morally evil because they deny the dignity of autonom ous self realization to the 'Other.' In both cases this domination is often vio lent, the stronger preying upon the weaker ["he m odem forms of imperialism in our hem isphere arc colonialism, until the nineteenth century, and neocolonialism in the twentieth. In addi tion to the em pires that sprang forth from European exploration and con quest, the concept of imperialism is frequently applied to the foreign policy of the United Slates, particularly since the turn of the century.1 Imperialism is som etim es difficult to define, however, its interpretation 1 According to Schoonover, for example, "As the major imperial power of the twentieth century, the United States has been the last to confront the dcimperialization process, just as in the nineteenth century it managed, along with Uuba and Brazil, to b e am ong the last of the slave societies in the Western W orld" Thom as D. Schoonover, W e United States in Central America, 1860 1911: Episodes o f Imperial Rivalry in the World System (Durham, N.C.; I^uke University Press, 1991), p 174. controversial, and its application often politically inspired1 Generally speaking, imperialism applies to the politico military dom ination of one organized sovereign polity over another. Fowler, for example, makes a dis tinction between 'raiding' warfare and 'conquest* warfare, the former car ried out at the simplest levels of sociopolitical complexity while the latter is "conducted only by complex societies and m ore com mon am ong states than am ong simple societies.'^ Imperialism, for our purposes, refers to an organized conquest carried out and maintained by military force (or at least its threat). It differs from Vaiding* warfare insofar as it sets into place an enduring system of dom ination and exploitation. 1 7 1 0 term 'colonialism' is less ideologically controversial since it applies to specific historical events or patterns.3 Structures of violence against 1 Any attem pt to define 'imperialism' with sufficient specificity has to first define the notion of a sovereign people or what is commonly referred to as a 'nation.' John Stuart Mill's definition seem s adequate: "A portion of mankind .. united am ong themselves by com m on sympathies which do not exist between them and any others which make them cooperate with each other m ore willingly than with other people, desire to be under the sam e government, and desire that it should be government by themselves or a portion of them selves exclusively." Cited by Fsmond Wright, e d , The M odem WorfdfSecaucus, N.J.: (.'hartwell Books, 1979), pp. 329 330 2William R . Fowler, Jr., ih c C'uHural Evolution o f Ancient Nahua Civilisations 7 he Tipi I Nicanao o f Central Am erica (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 19H9), p. 207. 3[t is important to note, however, as does Chandra Talpade Mohanty, that the term 'colonization' has com e to denote a variety of phenom ena in recent feminist and 1 jeft writings in general, ranging from its use as a cate gory of exploitative economic exchange for Marxists to "use by feminist women of color in the U.S. to describe the appropriation of their expcri ences and struggles by hegemonic white wom en's movements." C.Tiandra Talpade Mohanty, "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and 8 w om en produced by imperialist aggression pre date the era of European colonization in Central America, however, arising in the context of wars betw een indigenous groups prior to the arrival of the Spanish Imperialism itself rem ains our central theoretical category, therefore, the m odem politi cal expressions of which have been colonialism, primarily by the Spanish, and neocolonialism, primarily by the United States, The connections be tw een neocolonial dom ination and structures of sexual violence are very clear in Central America as they have been throughout the bro ad er context of 'Hurd World revolutionary m ovem ents struggling against foreign dom ination in general. O ppression functions in a cum ulative or gradational pattern along lines of race, class, and gender W omen, as a group, have experienced greater de privation of their autonom y in colonial settings than have m en w ho shared with them an oppression based on race and class, l o r m ost feminist thinkers, violence against w om en is both the prim ordial and the penulti m ate form of oppression. l;o r Daly, for example, "the projection of ‘ the Other' easily adaptable to national, racial, and class differences has basi cally and primordially been directed against women."1 O ppression based on gender is always colored by the unique way in which it occurs in conso Colonial Discourses," in third W orld W om en a n d the Politics o f Feminism, ed. Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo, and lo u rd e s Torres (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), p. 52. 1 Mary Daly, B eyond (k id the Father Towards a Ifiilosophy o f W om en's Uberation (Boston: Beacon I Voss, 1975), p. 46. () nance with non gender based forms of oppression.1 Only when the pyra mid structure of oppression is recognized and understood in its complex totality can the concept of authentic justice be fully envisioned Many thinkers tend towards a profound pessimism concerning the pos sibility of the com plete eradication of sexual oppression due to the way in which it is seen as a global facet of human reality, the historical genesis of which lies in the inscrutable rem oteness of early human history.2 Most if not all of the feminist critics treated in this work would concur that con tem porary patriarchal domination is nearly global, transcending to some extent, all historical forms of social organization. Pateman, for example, ar gues that there is not a single society known where women as a group have decision making power over men or where they define the rules of 1 For Hartke, "Gender oppression cannot be understood in isolation from class oppression .. n o r ... can racial oppression, an understanding of which is also crucial to a theory of gender oppression." Clarifying the theo retical linkage between these multiple layers of dom ination is important because, as she points out, separating these categories would represent "a turning away from the possibility of constructing a m ore just society" and "a failure of hope" Sandra ljee Bartke, Femininity and dom ination Studies in the Fhenomenology o f Oppression {New York: Koutledge, 19911), p. 3. ^Brittan and Maynard, for example, see sexual oppression as grounded in "a male epistemological stance" that has its origins in "men's appropria tion of women as sexual possessions" Arthur Brittan and Maty Maynard, Sexism, Racism, and Oppression (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984), p. 201; According to Stacey, feminists have increasingly com e to speculate that "patriarchy is itself woven into the base, into the material conditions of fe mate oppression which transcend historical m odes of production." Judith Stacey, "When Patriarchy Kowtows: The Significance of the Chinese Family Revolution for Feminist Theory," in (Capitalist Fatrianchy and the ('ase For Socialist Feminism, ed Zillah Kisenstein (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979), pp. 299 300. 10 sexual conduct or marriage exchanges. She describes "our new civil society" (the developed West) as a specifically m odem form of patriarchy, the so daily contractual character of which tends to gloss over the way in which patriarchal oppression lives on in the "sexual contract" which continues to acknowledge "patriarchal right."1 For I )aly "Those who claim to see racism a n d /o r imperialism in m y indictment of these atrocities Isexual violence and oppression! can d o so only by blinding themselves to the fact that the oppression of women knows no ethnic, national, or religious bounds. There are variations on the them e of oppression, but the phenom enon is planetary."2 While this is true, a sharp focus on those forms of sexual op pression which are direct products of racism a n d /o r imperialism, rather than representing a moral blind spot, can compliment m ore global or theo retical analyses represented by thinkers such as Daly The evils associated with militarization are often seen as a concomitant feature of patriarchal power structures.3 As Hnloe observes, however, an approach which traces militarism back to patriarchy and patriarchy back to 1 Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract (Stanford, ( 'alif Stanford University I*ress, 1988), pp. 5 7. 2 Mary Daly, Gyn/ecology. fh c Metaethics o f Radical Feminism (Boston Beacon I’ ress, 1978), p. 111. ^Kvelyne Accad, for example, suggests that: "The meaning and im por tance given to a military weapon and to the sexual weapon are equal. Man uses his penis in the sam e way he uses his gun: to conquer, control, and possess." Evelyne Accad, "Sexuality and Sexual Politics: Conflicts and Contradictions for Contem porary W om en in the Middle Hast," in Ihird World W om en and the Tofitics o f Feminism, ed. Chandra I'alpadc Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres (Bloomington: Indiana University l*ress, 1991), p. 245. I 1 the "fundamental quality of maleness" can b e "demoralizing and even paralyzing" because it implies that the very nature of m an qua man would have to b e changed in o rd er for the militarized oppression of w om en to end She urges researchers in this field to focus on the "processes" of mili tarization, therefore, so as to "put p o w er back into the picture" and to assess the exact nature of militarization and w ho benefits from it1 To b e sure, critical social theory needs to be sensitive and fair to the differences in lev els of sexual oppression that exist betw een different types of historical struc tures and the w ay in which militarization has contributed to these differ ences. Feminism. Capitalism, and Colonialism Feminist interpretations of oppression are often utilized to correct what are seen as oversights in Marxist analysis, its failure to provide adequate ac counts of the genderedness of pow er relations, and recognize the im por tance of social conflicts other than class conflict.2 While it is true that the Marxist tradition has often turned a blind eye to the genderedness of pow er relations, this does not have to b e the case. In fact, it may be necessary to set critical analyses of gender relations within the context of bro ad er structures of politico econom ic dom ination in ord er to gain a full picture of th e com plexilies involved. 1 Cynthia Fnloe, D oes Khaki b ecom e You? The Militarization o f W om en's Uvcs (Boston: South Knd Press, 19K3), p. 210 (em phasis hers). 2 Nancy C. M. Hart sock, M oney, SeK and Pow er Toward a Feminist Historical Materialism (New York: longm an, 19H3), p. 146. 12 I )e Beauvoir contended that the degree of a w om an's liberty or auton omy, as opposed to her level of happiness, was all that could be accurately gauged by social science because happiness, unlike autonom y, is subjec tive.1 Similarly, Rosemary Radford Reuther focuses on the lack of auton om y accorded w om en's sexualities and the w ay in which they are matiipu lated, controlled, and dom inated as a result of patriarchal attitudes and so cial structures.2 She also links the sexual dom ination of w om en to the dom ination of th e economically m arginalized by the rich and powerful. "1110 labor of dom inated bodies, dom inated peoples women, peasants, w orkers m ediate for those w ho rule the fruits of the earth*'3 ^She asks: "How can a hum an being in w om an's situation attain fulfill nient? W hat roads are open to her? Which are blocked? How can indepen dcnce b e recovered in a state of dependency? W hat circum stances limit w om en's liberty and how can they b e overcom e? These are the fundam cn tal questions on which I would fain throw som e light. This m eans that I am interested in the fortunes of the individual a s defined not in term s of happiness but in term s of liberty" Simone d e Beauvoir, The Second Sex (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953, Random House, Vintage Books Kdition, 1974), p xxxiv. ^She notes that for radical feminists, ". .. th e core issue is w om en's con trol over their own persons, their ow n bodies as vehicles of autonom ous sexual experience, and their own reproduction. Patriarchy means, above all, the subordination of wom en's bodies, sexuality, and reproduction to m ale ow nership and control." Rosem ary Radford Reuther, Sexism and (k id Talk Toward a Feminist Theo/ogy(Boston: Beacon Press, 19K3), p. 22K 31 ‘ or her, "The toil of laboring bodies provides the tools through which the earth is despoiled and left desolate. Through the raped bodies the earth is raped. Those who enjoy the goods distance them selves from the destruc tion." Ibid., p. 263. 13 The historical deprivation of autonom y to which the peoples of Central America have been subjected is m irrored by a lack of autonom y on the part of their wom en. Olga )im6nez Munoz, founding m em ber of the Union of O uatem aian W om en, refers to post C onquest Guatem alan history as "500 years of patriarchal capitalism." She criticizes the "capitalist class structure, the hierarchical order of the m asculine and feminine w orlds of patriarchy and the racial division of labor which is practiced in a singular way within capitalism but has its roots in slavery." As she see it, capitalist patriarchy re quires sexual oppression along with racial and class o p p ressio n 1 Victims of sexual oppression in neocolonial settings such as Guatemala represent the bottom rung of an international hierarchy of exploitation and it is im por tant to account for the way in which it o p erates across international fron tiers, in a hierarchical fashion from First to Second to Third Worlds.2 U)!ga Jim6nez Muftoz, "La mujer guatematteca: Q uinientos arios de pa triarcado capitalista," Noticias do (.uatemala (Guatemala), O ctober 1992, p 18. 2 It is no coincidence that the locations from which North American m en now b u y mail order brides are Latin America, the I'hilippines, and Thailand, areas of the world where the U.S. governm ent has been able to acquire and retain the highest levels of political hegemony. See Kathleen Hairy, Female Sexual Slavery (New York: New York University IVcss, 1984), p. xiii; The international pattern of exploitation betw een First and Second world patriarchies is evinced, for example, on the U.S. border with Mfexico, where, in addition to num erous other hum an rights abuses, the U.S. border patrol com m its rape in a system atic fashion and the occasions upon which these agents are penalized for their actions are extremely rare. Uj O pinidni lo s Angeles), 8 June 1991, in reference to a report compiled by the Am erican Friends Service Committee. On Mexico’ s southern border, the exploited becom es exploiter as the Mexican border patrol takes advan tage of the desperate situation of refugee w om en from Central America fleeing north in search of political safe havens and econom ic opportuni tics, 14 M odern W estern capitalism is historically founded upon exploitation based on race, class, and gender. Patriarchal pow er and capital are inti m ately intertwined. The international m onetary system perpetuates the hierarchical ordering of society and the marginalization of Third W orld w orkers and peasants, particularly w om en.1 Brittan and M aynard suggest that "the subjection of w om en in hetero sexual relationships is m irrored by the subjection of the colonized in the 1 l or Keuther: "The richer and m ore powerful the executive, the higher and m ore intricate the pyram id of class , race , and gender based division of labor that supports his pow er and profits." Reuther, Sexism a n d (kid Talk, p. 219; Por the father of Latin Am erican Liberation 'Pheology, Gustavo (Gutierrez, indigenous people, peasants, m anual laborers, and m arginalized urban dwellers in latin America all represent the bottom rung of a ladder of exploitation and oppression, “ yet the w om en of these sectors are doubly oppressed and marginalized." Gustavo Gutierrez, The Tower o f the Toorin H istory (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 19H3), p. 137. By the late 196Us, conscious ness raising that cam e about due to the work of thinkers like Gutierrez had penetrated into the official pronouncem ents of the l-atin American Catholic Church. This concern with the structure of injustice continued and becam e part of the docum ent produced by the Latin American Bishops gathered in l*uebta M6xico in 1979, which lam ented how: "13116] vast ma jority of o u r brothers continue to live in a situation of poverty and even misery which has gotten worse; they lack the m ost elem entary material goods, in contrast to the accum ulation of wealth in the hands of a m inor ity, often at the cost of the poverty of the many. The p o o r not only lack ma terial goods but also on the level of hum an dignity they d o not have a full social and political participation. In this category are mainly our Indians, peasants, workers, marginal people of the city, and especially the w om an in these social sectors because of her doubly oppressed and marginalized con dition." Cited by Phillip Berryman, "W hat H appened at Puebla," in Churches and Politics in l^tin America, ed. Daniel H, Levine, with a I*reface by John P . Harrison (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 19K0), p. 66. IS colonial w orld"1 For Kuper. "Objectification of the subject race ... consists in a dental of the right to self regulation o r the capacity for self regulation. In its ultim ate form, m em bers of the subject race are equated with objects, with things. The fullest expression of this state is to be found in chattel slavery "2 Colonization and sexual dom ination are intricately intertwined on both political and psychological levels. Some writers use the term 'colonization* to refer specifically to the subjugation of w om en by men The strength of the analogy is augm ented by the way in which the colo nizer, like the rapist, generally fails to recognize his act as morally evil, pre ferring to see his action as beneficial to the subjugated w hom he sees as in nately inferior to himself. The processes of sexual exploitation that invari ably accom pany colonization arc also cloaked in paternalistic justification. For Barry, all are subject to the rule of the colonizer and, "as a reward for destroying and rem aking the lives of people he has taken under his control through physical dom ination, he extracts cheap o r free (translate slave) la b o ra n d sex"3 The subjugation that accom panies colonialism and neocolo nialism distorts relationships betw een both peoples and genders. As struc 1 For them: "W hite men (all men) stand in the sam e relationship to w om en as colonists stand to the colonized." Brtttan and Maynard, Sexism, Racism and Oppression, pp. 200 201. 2jjeo Kuper, Race, Class, and Tow erd-ondon Duckworth, 1974), pp. 13 14. 3Kathleen Barry, Femate Sexual Slavery, p. 195. 10 tures of dom ination solidify with time, these distortions becom e internal ized.1 U.S. Hegemony From a Marxist perspective, m odem capitalism was founded, at least in part, upon the exploitation of the Third World.2 North American colonists had a prom inent share in the pillage By the mid 17th centuiy the Duke o( York, for example, was branding the initials "DY" in the buttocks or breasts of three thousand slaves brought to the "sugar islands" of the Caribbean every year. Profits from the slave trade helped to finance the colonies' war H ’ or Begelsdorf and Hageman: "Colonialism and neocolonialism, by definition, must im pose distortions both upon the structures of the subju gated society and upon the minds and persons of those who live within it. If the class structure that exists in any colonized society is perverted to re fleet the interests of the colonizer, so too, the patriarchal structure is simi larly distorted, 'rhe m anner in which imperialism has traditionally cm ployed the patriarchal structure of victim countries for its own purposes is a study that remains to be undertaken. If, however, we can accept the no tion that 'woman is the most deform ed product of class based society,' then the situation of women in colonized and neocolonized society is even m ore deformed, even more complex." Carol lee Bengelsdorf and Alice Hageman, "Emerging from Underdevelopment: W omen and Work in Cuba," in Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case For Socialist Feminism, ed /illah Kisenstein (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979), p 271 ^According to Marx, "Ihc discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entom bm ent in mines of the aboriginal pop ulation, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the Hast Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black skins, signalized the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production." Quoted by Kduardo Caleann, Open Veins o f Latin America. Five Centuries o f the Pillage o f a Continent, trans. Cedric Belfrage (New York: Monthly Review [Yess, 1973), pp. 38 39 17 for independence.1 Central American society was organized around the forced expropriation of the best lands and the forced conscription of labor in order to produce export crops that generated fortunes for small local elites, profits shared, under neocolonialism , betw een 'native* elites and foreign corporate enterprises. Berryman argues that "the role of the Church in this exploitation [under both colonialism and neocolonialism), notew or thy exceptions notw ithstanding w as one of supplying religious legitinia lions.*'2 Neocolonial financial interests gradually m oved into positions of dom inance by building on colonial econom ic structures designed around wealth extraction 'llie shift from colonial to neocolonial dom ination was alm ost immediate, illustrated by the timing of the M onroe Doctrine a uni lateral declaration of U.S. hegem ony over I^tin American affairs in 1K23, just as independence from Spain w as becom ing solidified 'ITie dom ination of Central Am erica by the United States has a long history and the paternal A cc o rd in g to Galeano: "Northern slave ships carried barrets of rum to Africa from Boston, Newport, and Providence; they exchanged the rum for slaves, sold the slaves in the (Caribbean, and from there brought m olasses to M assachusetts, w here it was distilled and converted into rum, com plet ing the cy cle... . With capital obtained from this trade in slaves, the Brown brothers of Providence installed the foundry that provided Cieorge W ashington with guns for the Am erican revolution. Caleano, O pen Veins, p. 9 S . 2 Phillip Berryman, 77?e Religious R oots o f Rebel I ton Christians in Central A m erican R evolutions (Mary knoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books; 19H6), p 37. 1 8 istic justifications for the U.S. application of its M onroe Doctrine are very well known.l The sexual violence and exploitation that took fonn throughout the period of U S "gunboat diplomacy" are part of a m ore general expropria tion of the colonial ’ bread basket.'2 (General Smedley Huller, w ho com I'Iw o decades after issuing the Doctrine, the U S. had already dem on strated its willingness to use force to acquire territory by m aking war on Mfcxicn. (A w ar which U.S. Crant referred to as "the m ost unjust war ever w aged by a stronger against a w eaker nation ") The New York press pro nounced that Mexicans were "aboriginal Indians" w ho "must share the destiny of their race." Noam Chomsky, Turning th e Tide: U.S. Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Tcacc (Boston South 1-nd lYess, 1985), p. 88; Over the last 150 years, North American arm ed forces have intervened in Central Am erica on scores of occasions in order to overthrow governm ents, install friendly governm ents, assist or sup press revolutions, and support North Am erican econom ic interests Hy the early part of this century, imperialist rhetoric flourished at the centers of power, [’ resident Taft declared that "the day is not far distant" when "the whole hem isphere will b e ours in fact as, by virtue of our superiority of race, it already is ours morally." Ibid., p. 59, According to Schoonover, ex pansion under Roosevelt was sustained by "racial argum ents which claimed that backward, nonwhite societies would benefit from white ru le" Schoonover, 77ie United States in C'entral America, p. 118. 2 Distracted by the Civil W ar and the tam ing of the 'Wild* West (m ost of it the spoils of the w ar with M6xico), U.S. aggression in Central America did not get into full swing until the end of the century Again, it was the collapsing em pire of Spain into which it sought to supplant its control, (Juba, I*ucrto Rico, and the Philippines. As was the case in Cuba and the ITiilippines, the military subjugation of Central America during the early part of this century w as clearly m otivated by prospects of exploitation of both hum an and natural resources. This was candidly enunciated by IVesident Taft w ho declared that "the correct path of justice" in U.S. foreign policy "may well b e m ade to include active intervention to secure for our m erchandise and our capitalists opportunity for profitable investm ent" Q uoted by Leo Huberm an, M an’ s Worldly G oods (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1952), p 265 1 < ) m andcd the Marine landings in Nicaragua in 1909 and 1912, would later brag at a legionnaires convention that he served as a "high class muscle man for Big Business .. a racketeer for capitalism" w ho "helped in the rape of half a dozen C'entral American republics for the benefit of Wall Street."1 It is insightful that the (General would himself unabashedly choose this m etaphor to describe his patriotic duties. While very few sol diers fighting under Smedley cam e hom e to give public testim ony to the effect,2 the violent sexual exploitation of w om en undoubtedly accom pa nied at least m any of these operations By the close of W.W.ll, the United States found itself in an extrem ely enviable position, for a variety of reasons, with respect to the global distri bution of resources. U S, foreign policy becam e geared tow ards the maxi niization and protection of this enorm ous disparity in wealth distribution, particularly vis a vis the Third World.3 Its investm ents in lalin America 1 Q uoted by Chomsky, Turning th e I'idc, pp 94 95 (em phasis mine) 2lo r one notable exception with respect to Nicaragua, see the testim ony of Bill Candall in C hapter 2. 3 As C ieorge Kennan head of the U.S. State D epartm ent explained in 1948," . . we have about 5tl% of the world's wealth, but only 6.3% of its population. . . In this situation, w e cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentm ent. Our real task in the com ing period is to devise a pattern of re lationships which will perm it us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detrim ent to our national security. To d o so, we will have to dispense with all sentim entality and day dream ing and our attention will have to b e concentrated everyw here on our im m ediate national objec tives. We need not deceive ourselves that w e can afford today the luxury of altruism and w orld benefaction . We should cease to talk about vague and for the Far East unreal objectives such as hum an rights, the raising of the living standards, and dem ocratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight pow er concepts. The less we are then 20 cam e to represent nearly three quarters of the total foreign investment in the region by the mid 1970s.1 The guiding concern of U S foreign policy was the climate for U.S. business operations. Chomsky secs this as a "fact well supported in the historical and docum entary record and easily ex plained in terms of the domestic institutional basis for foreign policy plan ning." He noted that, in the Ihird World, im provem ent in the investment climate is "regularly achieved by destruction of popular organizations, tor ture of labor and peasant organizers, killing of priests engaged in social re forms, and general m ass m urder and repression," pointing out that U.S. aid has been positively related to investment climate and inversely related to the m aintenance of a dem ocratic order and hum an rights.2 Rigid class divisions in Central America are a legacy of centuries of ex ploitation wherein the wealth generated from its resources either left for the coffers of the Spanish crown or served to maintain an extremely small proportion of colonial society in ostentatious opulence After indepen dence in the early 19th centuty and the advent of the industrial revolution ham pered by idealistic slogans, the better" Quoted by Chomsky, Turning the Tide, p 48 Uialeano, Open Veins, p. 225. 2Chomsky, Turning the Tide, p. 158. While m ost Americans believe that U.S. policy is charitable to the Third World by virtue of the aid which it sends there (a large percentage of which is military), it is critical to keep in mind that even according to the U.S. Departm ent of Com merce itself for every dollar that U.S. com panies invest in Latin America, three dollars com e back to the U.S. in profits. Penny Ivemoux, Cry o f the i ’ coplc The Struggle for Human Rights in I a t in Am erica The Catholic Church in Conflict with US. policy [ New York: Penguin Books, 19H2), p. 58 21 with its limited impact on Central America only a small m iddle class em erged and the polarization of wealth continued unabated l or the m ost part, large scale agriculture for export rem ains the largest source of rev enue Central Am erican oligarchies live in the capital cities w here they go to business luncheons with foreign investors, leaving their plantations in the care of adm inistrators; they frequent the sam e clubs and their children attend the sam e schools and intermarry, Im poverished majorities remain trapped in near servitude to the system, channels of upw ard mobility blocked by social convention. Historians refer to the de capitalization of form er colonies as 'neocolonialism ' because of the w ay in which econom ic structures and class divisions set in place under colonialism w ere exploited by foreign cap ital flowing into these highly profitable 'investm ent climates.' foreign cap ital in Central America continues to work in cooperation with the interests of elites, sharing in the m aintenance of exploitative econom ic structures which keep the majority of Central A m ericans struggling to sustain life it self.1 The history of structures of violence against w om en in C ’ entral 1'ITie U.S. has supported neocolonial elites throughout the Third World because it has subscribed to and sought to propagate an ideological justifica tion for wealth accumulation. Jeane Kirkpatrick, U.S. am bassador to the United Nations under Keagan, candidly defended U.S. support for "traditional autocrats" w ho 'leave in place existing allocations of wealth, power, status, and other resources which in m ost traditional societies favor an affluent few and maintain m asses in poverty," because "they d o not dis turb the habitual rhythm s of work and leisure, habitual places of residence, habitual patterns of family and personal relations." With respect to the not so fortunate, Kirkpatrick is not particularly concerned because, "since the miseries of traditional life are familiar, they are bearable to ordinary people who, growing up in the society, learn to cope," One must conclude that for Kirkpatrick and the governm ent that she represented, w om en of the popu 22 Am erica is inseparable from this general history of foreign exploitation As in the colonial era, wom en of the popular classes b ear a double burden un der neocolonialism, which im pedes their realization of greater levels of so cio econom ic autonom y. Ihe largest contribution that the United States has m ade to Central Am erica lies in aid to the security forces of the region. The m assive mili tary buildup of the post W.W.ll. era resulted in what is referred to as the "National Security State," due to th e preem inent im portance accorded to 'national security’ in its justification. These military states have been over whelmingly oppressive to the popular classes in general and w om en of those classes in particular. Bunster Barotto charges that: lar classes languishing under the brutality of structures of racist and sexist violence needed to simply "cope" with the situation and w ere seen as able to d o so since these m iseries w ere "familiar." While the elitist arrogance of Kirkpatrick and her callous dismissal of hum an anguish m ay seem shock ing, they reflect the m ainstream m indset of the political cam p to which she belongs jeane Kirkpatrick, "Dictatorships and D ouble Standards," Commentary, N ovem ber 1979, p. 44. As observed by Nelson I’ all m oyer, 'freedom ' in the m indset of U.S. foreign policy is defined as "the free m ovem ent of capital" which "has rew arded elites while leaving the poor free to b e hungry, landless, sick, and p ersecu ted " As he notes, Brazil's National Security State, for example, with econom ic policies of deliberate redistribution tow ard the wealthy and torture and death squads for nial contents, w as often lauded by the U.S. as a m odel for latin America jack Nelson I’ a limey or, War On the IY>on Low Intensity Conflict and Christian Faith (Maryknoll, NY: Orb is Books, 1989), p. 53; 'Ihe wealth at stake with respect to the continuing neocolonial exploitation of Latin America is no small sum As I’ idel ( ’ astro contends with som e validity in his typical polemic, "now that there are so m any of us Indians," exploitation has reached such a point that “all of the silver and gold that Spain extracted from Am erica in its colonial exploitation is w orth less than the riches that leave our countries today on an annual b asis" Tom ^s Borge, Un grano d e mat?.: Conversacidn con Fidel Castro (San Salvador Kditorial Tercer M undo, 1992), p 101 23 The military state d ep en d s on the oppression and exploitation of the poverty striken m asses of I,atin Americans; it is against the full participation of ethnic minorities in national affairs because it is racist. The military state is also the epitom e of sexist patriar chal ideology and therefore against the largest minority, women, w ho have been m ade to retreat to their traditional role of repro ducers and nurturers of the younger generations,1 Through the training and funding of those w ho staff the military m a chines, rather than relying directly on its own military personnel, the U.S. w as able to maintain a certain distance from the violence for which its policies w ere directly responsible. Nicaragua, Honduras, 1 - 1 Salvador, and G uatem ala have been em broiled in revolutionary and counter revolutionary warfare for decades The liber ation m ovem ents that developed w ere accom panied by progressive changes in gender roles These developm ents w ere thw arted by the U S, especially the Keagan administration, which was fully com m itted to re versing the gains m ade through popular revolution and prepared to over look the hum an rights abuses necessary for a successful counter revolu tionary program Marxist feminist Angela Davis describes the Keagan ad m inistration as "the m ost sexist governm ent . the m ost racist govern m ent . the m ost fiercely w arm ongering governm ent of this century "2 While this charge may be som ewhat overstated (particularly with reference IXim ena Bunster Burotto, "Surviving Beyond Lear: W om en and 1'orture in Latin America," in W om en a n d Change in Ijttin Am erica, ed June Nash and Helen I. Safa (South Hadley, Mass.. Bergin St Garvey, 1986), p 317 (em phasis mine), 2Angela Y. Davis, W omen, C'ultune, and /b/fries (New York: Random House, 1989), p. 38 24 lo the Nazis and their Japanese allies), it is perhaps most accurate when ap plied to the context of Central America. In its attem pts lo destroy the w idespread gains m ade by popular insurrection against dictatorial regimes, the U.S. found it necessary to direct, arm, and train military forces which went on to rape and m urder many thousands of civilians. 1 1 1 0 forces of the Kight the military machines of the 1 - 1 Salvadoran and CGuatemalan gov emments, the Somoza regime in Nicaragua, and, after its overthrow, the counter revolutionary Contra army are or were guilty of massive levels of kidnapping, rape, torture, mass m urder of innocent civilians, and the im prisonm cnt of females for sexual abuse. Conversely, the revolutionary forces that opposed them have not made a practice of rape, torture, or sex ual exploitation. As testified to by Berryman: In Nicaragua, L I Salvador, and Guatemala, the official troops as dc facto policy have engaged in massive kidnapping, torture, rape, murder, and mutilation of individuals, and indiscriminate large scale military attacks on whole towns and villages. Ihe vast majority of the victims have been unarm ed civilians, noncom batants, although it would be too much to present them as utterly un involved and "innocent" many were indeed "guilt/' of oppo sition. But it must be em phasized that these opposition groups have not practiced rape or torture and make every effort to target their violence precisely at the "e n em /1 : the official and paramili tary forces, and those who direct them. Most hum an rights orga nizations monitoring L 1 Salvador, for example, have concluded that well over H O percent of the killing is done by government and governm ent linked forces.1 1 Berryman, Religious Roots o f Rebellion, p. 317 (emphasis mine) He records how for 1982, for example, Tutela l£gal, the official legal aid service of the Archdiocese of San Salvador, docum ented the cases of 5,399 civilians killed or "disappeared" by official and right wing organizations as opposed to 46 civilians killed by the Left. The 'official' forces to which he refers, in a 25 I*he reasons, psychological and political, why the forces of the Kight have raped "as d e facta policy” while the forces of the left have not except in ex Iretnely isolated instances strikes at the core of my central thesis: that mili tarized rape is a tool that has generally been em ployed by forces seeking to dom inate, forces that d o not represent the will of the people in w hose terri lory the w ar is being waged. Ihe forces of the l.eft in Central America, as in Vietnam, have not practiced rape because they have seen them selves as fighting to protect what is/w as 'their own.' Given a long history of U.S. support for repressive dictatorial regimes in latin America, it is little w onder that Marxist inspired doctrines of revolu variety of ways and to varying degrees, w ere or are funded, organized, and directed by the U.S. government, State departm ent, or CIA. Between 19511 and 1975 alone, 71,651 l.atin Am erican military personnel were trained by the U.S. which also supplied $2.5 billion dollars of arm s to the region in the sam e period. As ljem oux observed, the sickness that engulfed latin America, that endorsed torture and assassination as routine in m ost of these countries, "was to a significant extent bred in the boardroom s and military institutes of the United States." Penny Lemoux, Cry o f the /feop/e, pp. 56,157; After Keagan cam e to office, the level of military aid to CCentral America w as greatly increased, reaching over a million dollars a day in P I Salvador alone. As apologists for U.S. dom ination in Central America have been quick to point out, however, the extrem ely limited resources of the region render this hegem ony of very little econom ic value. Nevertheless, it w as the dom ination itself which was seen as of crucial im portance as an exam ple to other regions of the world w here greater re sources w ere at stake. As Reagan's Secretary of State (Jeorge Schultz cau tioned the Pentagon: "Americans must understand . . that a num ber of small challenges, year after year, can add up to a m ore serious challenge to our interests," therefore, "we m ust b e prepared to com m it our political, economic, and, if necessary, military pow er when the threat is still m anage able and w hen its prudent use can prevent the threat from growing." Q uoted by Nelson Pallmeyer, War an the Poor, p. 26, He cites the D epartm ent of Defense, "Proceedings of the lo w Intensity Warfare Conference," 14 15 January 19H6, p. 10. 2 (> tionary change gained such a foothold. According to Berryman, "Marxist terminology is as all pervasive as psychological jargon is in the United States." It is also no surprise that revolutionary organizations sought assis tancc from the U S S R, since it often aided insurgent m ovem ents strug gling to throw off the yoke of colonial and neocolonial oppression. The for cign policy of the former Soviet Union was m ore apt to support the poor in liberation m ovem ents while the United States (government and corpora tions) was alm ost always allied with dom inant elites and military regimes such as in Indonesia, the Philippines, South Africa, and I,atin America lo nam e but a few examples. Tragically, Soviet support for Central American revolutionaries, even though minimal, proved to be a 'catch 22' situation since it provided the U.S. with what was deem ed adequate legitimation for its counter insurgency programs. Sexual Violence Com mon them es radiate throughout W estern history with respect to the sexual violence associated with political conquest and its legitimation, lo r Bunster Barotto, investigating the torture of female political prisoners in Latin America, "many connections, som etim es enlightening, though also horrifying, and widespread both geographically and temporally, com e to mind": Written evidence and 'graphics' surviving from the European Middle Ages . describe tortures of women strikingly similar in fact, many details identical to those used by the state torturers in Iatin America. The same parts of the body are attacked, in the sam e ways technologies were simply som ewhat different 27 Much of this continuity is grounded in the institution of slavery which generally accom panied the building of W estern empires. She notes: . parallels betw een how w om en political prisoners have been brutalized in torture in the Southern Cone of Latin Am erica and the black female experience in the United States before the Civil War. Slave m asters on plantations terrorized and 'tam ed' their w om en slaves by subjecting them to sexual exploitation and op pression through rape, forced breeding, sadistic floggings during which black w om en were stripped naked and publicly whipped.1 While there is nothing controversial about the m oral condem nation of slavery in general and sexual slavery in particular, this is not so obvious when directed at the colonial legacy of sexual slavery that continued into the neocolonial era of the National Security State. Feminist social critics generally see rape as a cornerstone feature of pa triarchal authority For Pateman, while patriarchal right was struck a heavy blow in the mid nineteenth century when m arried w om en in m any parts of the world first gained the right to own property, legalized conjugal sub jugation lingers on in jurisdictions wherein rape in m arriage is not ac know ledged as possible. 2 'Hie extra marital control of w om en's bodies, however, represents our principal focus since it serves as a gauge of the ex ^ Hunster Burollo, “Surviving Beyond Fear," p. 319. 2The institution of m arriage itself, being the central unit of patriarchal political power, continues, at least from her perspective, to b e a relation ship of dom ination. As she sees it, gender relations have not yet developed to the point of authentically autonom ous, non coercive contract even in the First World, her moral frame of reference. She criticizes feminist con tractarians because, according to her, the contractual character of gender re lations continues to show preferential treatm ent to m ale 'right.' She notes that, "as suggested by Hobbes, m en m ade the contract and w om en are sub jects of the contract." Pateman, The Sexual Contract, pp. 5 7. 28 tent to which political states publicly or 'officially1 enforce sexual subjuga tion. On this level, the question of public policy, profound differences exist across the political spectrum from left to Right. Feminists em phasize the violence associated with rape, generally deny ing that rape involves sexual desire on the part of the violator, they sec it as an act of violence, som ething other than sex. For Reuther, for example, the rape of women is fundamentally "an expression of hostility and con tem pt for women rather than an expression of 'uncontrollable sexual de sire.’ "1 A mutually pleasurable act of love is, of course, categorically differ cnt from rape, which, like any other act of violence, is terrifying to its vie tim. As Dworkin attem pts to clarify it: "When feminists say rape is wo Icncc, not sex; we mean to say that from our perspective as victims of forced sex, we do not get sexual pleasure from rape; contrary to the rapist's view, the pom ographer's view, and the law's view, rape is not a good time for us"2 Feminists have concerned themselves primarily with exposing the rcla tions of pow er and dom ination that define rape For Hrownmiller, rape has been essential to the establishment of male pow er throughout history, a conscious process of intimidation by which men keep wom en in a state of fear.1 Rape gives every evidence of being an alm ost intractable phe 1 Reuther, Sexism and Ck)d Talk, p. 175. 2Andrea Dworkin, letters From a War /o n e Writings 1976 19H9{ New York: F.P. Dutton, 19H9), pp. 179 1H 0 (emphasis hers). ^Hartsock criticizes Brownmiller, arguing that while she "accurately highlights the extent to which pow er and dom ination are central to rape," she "has ignored the specifically sexual aspect of rape." Hartsock, Money, 20 nom enon, cutting across all political, socioeconom ic, and cultural lines As Daly expresses it, "this 'everyday world* is fundam entally a world of sexual dom inance and violation."1 Sexual violence is exacerbated by military confrontations, female vie tims caught up in tribal or political disputes betw een warring male fac lions.2 For Neitzsche, "Man should b e trained for w ar and w om an for the recreation of the warrior" With the twist of a well placed hyphen, Paly concurs that this is “true on a d ee p psychic level: the psychic sapping of w om en in patriarchy functions continually to re create its warriors." Military m achines could not function without w om en to b e defended, to reproduce the warriors, keep the hom e fires burning prepare the grateful and glorious w elcom e hom e celebrations and, with respect to wom en of the enemy, serve as the spoils of victory. Rape has generally been seen as a Sex, and rower, p. 165; As with Brownmiller, Khrlich sees rape as primarily a question of the assertion of male pow er and control over wom en rather than sexual desire. Fallowing the anthropological investigations of W ebster, she argues that rape is present in societies irrespective of their m odes of production or class structures, since even in primitive societies with very little apparent class division, w om en have been raped for "refusing to work, for com m itting adultery, for flaunting male authority, for leaving the village without an escort, for learning m en's secrets, for go in g o u t at night, etc." Carol Fhrlich, "The U nhappy M arriage of Marxism and Feminism: Can It Be Saved," in W om en a n d Revolution: A Discussion o f the U nhappy Marriage o f Marxism a n d Feminism, ed lydia Sargent (Boston: South Knd Press, 1981), p. 106. 11 )aly, B eyond Ciod the Father, p. 118 2Hvclyne Accad suggests, for example, that am ong the at least eighteen parties with m any subdivisions fighting each other in tebanon, each "tries to dom inate the others largely through the control of w om en “ Accad, "Sexuality and Sexual Politics," pp. 245 246. M) concom itant part of conquest, victory, and the destruction of the enemy.1 It is an expression of group antagonism s as they work them selves out in mil itary an d para military confrontations. r lT»e legitimation of rape in the m inds of the perpetrators is intimately b ound up with the military di chotom y betw een 'them ' and ‘ us* 1 or Daly, "Rape is expressive of group think, and group think is at the core of racial prejudice w hose logical con elusion and final solution is genocide"2 Ihe relationship betw een rape and class based exploitation has proven to be an enduring one. Rape as an institutional pattern conforms to the structures of pow er of any given society, with sexual violence tending to be concentrated upon those social groupings which have been historical vie tim s of injustice and exploitation, it is intimately bound up with racism 1 1 As Daly elaborates,'* . organized aggression/violence of males filled with fear of their own em ptiness and w eakness is carried out against w om en in concrete acts of rape, dism em berm ent, and murder. These acts of violation/violence are expressions of the War State's essential identity as the State of Kapism, in which all invasions, occupations, destructions of 'enem y territory1 are elaborations upon the them e of rape/gynocide We have seen that the female anatom y provides m etaphors for degradation in military training notably in the marines. Consistent with this m ental ity/training is the fact that pom films near military centers often depict vi olent attacks against w om en Also consistent with these patterns of fan tasy / behavior is the fact that such fantasies are acted out by military per sonnel in the form of violent abuse of available w om en and later con verted into subject m atter for stories upon return to the base after 'liberty "' Daly, Ciyn/ecology, pp. 356, 36V ^ Daly, Heyond (k x i the Father, p. 118. 3According to Davis: "Rape beans a direct relationship to all of the exist ing pow er structures in a given society. I*his relationship is not a simple, m echanical one, but, rather, involves com plex structures reflecting the in terconnectedness of the race, gender, and class oppression that characterize 31 This is especially true in Latin America. Hunster Burotto observes how "proletarian wom en with markedly m estizo features the fusion of European and Indian admixtures have been even m ore brutalized than their lighter sisters coming from bourgeois families1 Davis is especially sensitive to these connections, stressing the structural similarities between Southern Africa and C ’entral America in this regard. She argues that "wc cannot grasp the true nature of sexual assault without situating it within its larger sociopolitical context," which includes, "in addition to the violence of South African apartheid .,. the imperialist violence im posed on the people of Nicaragua." For her, the ’ rape of a nation' and the rape of its women go hand and hand, as Namibia as a nation was raped by South Africa (with U.S. assistance), so the women of Namibia and neighboring Angola were raped by imperialist troops seeking to assert hegemony over the region white hegemony.2 the society. If we do not com prehend the nature of sexual violence as it is m ediated by racial, class, and government violence and power, we cannot hope to develop strategies that will allow us eventually to purge our soci ety of oppressive misogynist violence." Davis is particularly concerned with the way in which black women in the U.S. both before and after slav ery have been confronted with patterns of sexual abuse from which escape was virtually impossible. She suggests that “the relegation of Black women to menial jobs did not begin to change until the late 1950s, and there is am pie docum entation that as maids and washerwomen, Black women have repeatedly been the victims of sexual assault com m itted by the white men in the families for which they worked " Davis, W omen, Culture, and rohtics, pp. 45 47 1 Bunster Burotto, "Surviving Beyond Fear," p. 512. ^Angela Y . Davis, Women, Culture, and Politics, pp. 56 57. Apologists for the use of U.S. military force have also m ade appeal to the analogy be tween rape and political aggression as was the case with The Rape o f M Sexual Slavery Sexual violence in counter insurgency w arfare involves a series of gra dations of sexual subjugation which share in com m on, to varying degrees, the violence associated with rape. Sexual slavery in these contexts is often classified under the rubric of prostitution (even by writers of I,eft orienta tions). Ihe moral difference betw een the two is particularly blurred by the militarization of 'prostitution'. Rape, institutionalized sexual slavery, and coerced prostitution, pervasive in latin Am erican history and continuing today, are egregious injustices tow ards females as females products of pa triarchal, ideology, law, and socto econom ic structures which seek to con trol the fem ale will, dom inating her sexuality w ithout regard for her inter csts, welfare, and in m any cases life, l or Hlizabeth Maier, w ho writes about w om en in the Nicaraguan revolution, "rape is a political act, the rapist is Kuwait which cam e off the press just in time for the Gulf War. The per capita level of w om en raped in Angola and M ozam bique by South African forces and U.S. and South African trained and funded m ercenaries is prob ably the highest of any Cold War confrontation since Vietnam. The Angolan and M ozam biqucn struggles against Portuguese colonialists and the Nam ibian struggle for freedom, first from German and then from South African hegem ony, present clear structural parallels to Central America With respect to the form er two, the Soviet Union (like the W orld Council of Churches) contributed to the forces of liberation from colonial rule and the U.S., Israel (South Africa’ s principal supplier of military hardware), and South Africa stood united in their opposition to the social ist governm ents which cam e to pow er after the Portuguese were expelled. The connections betw een this region and Central America w ere height ened even further by the presence of over 50,000 volunteer soldiers from Cuba fighting in defense of Angolan sovereignty. These C uban men did not practice rape while it w as endem ic am ong the forces fighting on behalf of U.S./South African hegemony. the oppressor and the (woman] w ho is raped is the oppressed, both lose their identity as hum an beings"1 Ibe extent to which w om en are able to exercise genuine choices with regard to their sexual function determ ines, m orally speaking w hether or not an act in question constitutes rape. The sale of sexual access is morally reprehensible, from this perspective, only insofar as it is coerced; the less free choice involved on the part of the w om an, the m ore evil the act. IVostitution, o r the 'voluntary* sale of sexual access, strictly speaking exists only w here the 'prostitute' can be said to have exercised com plete free choice in the m arketing of her or his sexuality. W here this is not the case, it may be m ore accurate to describe the 'relationship' as sexual slavery. !he institutionalization of w om en as sexual objects by military ma chines represents a denial of autonom y of the highest order Hor Barry "The self is devalued into an object and deprived of respect, honor, and dignity. That is the living hell of fem ale sexual slavery, the daily, hourly, deprivation of sexual intimacy through forced sexual objectification. It w ears dow n the spirit, strips the ego, denies the value of ’ self.'" l or her, "As long as a w om an or girl is held in sexual slavery, sexual intercourse is, by definition, rape.2 The evil of sexual slavery in Central America is 1 Hlizabeth Maier, Nicaragua, la m u jeren la revolution (M6xico: Hdiciones d e Cultura Popular, 1980), p. 97. ^She adds: "If one is not free to consent o r reject, one is forced; and forced sexual intercourse, w hether physically brutal or seductively subtle, is rape. The fact of rape is determ ined by its objective conditions. If those are conditions which a w om an or girl cannot leave o r alter, then they are con ditions of slavery." Barry, Female Sexual Slavery, pp. 40, 268 4 heightened by the fact that it has often been accom panied by torture, partic ularly in the militarized context. For Bunster Hurotto, "The m ore general ized and diffused female sexual enslavem ent through the patriarchal state has been crystallized and physically llteralized through the military state as torturer.'*1 Sexual slavery accom panied by torture has been a very prevalent tool utilized by the l.atin American Right. As Bunster Burotto elaborates: Gang rape, massive rape becom es the standard torture mecha nism for the social control of the im prisoned women. Politically committed, active w om en w ho have dared to take control ol their own lives by struggling against an oppressive regime de m and sexual torture as do the w om en who have stood by their men in an organized political effort to liberate their country and themselves from a coercive military regime. One of the essential ideas behind the sexual slavery of a woman in torture is to teach her that she m ust retreat into the hom e and fulfill the traditional role of wife and mother.2 While the sexual torture of men for political motives has also been widespread, it is qualitatively different from that of women As Bunster Burotto em phasizes, “it's object is som ething less than the extinction of gender identity " it operates primarily through the sexual torture of the fc males that men and boys have loved, placing them in positions where they 1 Bunster Burotto, "Surviving Beyond Fear," p. 297. 2lbid, pp 307,310. This debasem ent has extended to the use of animals as rapists from mice and rats inserted into a wom an's vagina to rape by dogp 35 are forced to witness the rap e/to rtu re of their wife, daughter, mother, or cam paftcra in front of their eyes.1 Researchers have found a direct relationship betw een the presence of U.S. aid in Third W orld countnes and the presence of institutions of state torture.2 In C'entral America, sexual slavery and torture have been institu lionalized only by U.S. client regimes, som e of the highest per capita recipi ents of U.S. aid in the world. El Salvador, for example, followed only be hind Israel in this regard throughout the mid 19K0s, Clearly, w here the state secunty forces them selves are the prim ary rapists, its leaders are morally unfit to govern for this reason alone if for no other, a point not lost on Central American revolutionaries m any of whom joined the revo lution as a direct response to the rape of their m other, sister, or compahcra. The longstanding interconnections betw een sexual slavery and prostitu tion underscore the need for clarification of the difference betw een the two. In colonial society, m any slave w om en w ere prostituted by their masters, incom es on which the m aster w as som etim es dependent for hts or her livelihood While this practice was m ost com m on in Portuguese America, 1 She argues that; "W om en's torm ent is com paratively m uch worse than m en's because it is painfully magnified a thousand tim es by the m ost inhuman, cruel, an d degrading m ethods of torture consciously and system atically directed at her female sexual identity and fem ale anatomy. The pro cesses of im prisonm ent and torture of w om en political prisoners is female sexual slavery in its m ost hideous and blatantly obvious forms It repre sents 'm acho' patriarchal contem pt and misogyny crystallized and imple m ented through military police structures of organized violence." Ibid., pp. 306 307. ^Blaise Bonpane. Guerrillas o f Tcacc bhcration Theology and the C'entral Am erican Revolution (Boston: South End Press, 19H7), p. 99. il flourished in Spanish America as well.1 M any slave w om en were also sexual slaves. After the abolition of slavery, sexual slavery tended to en dure, generally under th e guise of prostitution. People are still bought and sold in Latin America, especially children, lhe slave trade for purposes of sexual slavery, in particular, has been a thriving business for centuries, and continues to be highly lucrative today C am pesino children from im poverished rural sectors of the continent are sold to brothel ow ners in the m ajor cities or destined for export to the U.S. or Europe. The United States failed to ratify U N. conventions which pro hibited this traffic which was generally associated with the rise of U.S. backed authoritarian governm ents.2 ^Some of these ow ners w ere "poor widows," 'ladies of quality," who had no other incom e yet lived quite com fortably off the earnings of their fem ale slaves. C. R. Boxer, W om en in Iberian Expansion Overseas, 1415 lift5: S o m e Facts, Fancies, and f ’ crsonalitics(New York: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp. 58 59. 2A ccording to Barry, International Law derived from the 1949 United N ations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons, m akes it an indictable offense to hire, induce, or lead astray a w om an or girl -even if she consents with a view to m aking her "engage in prostitution" outside her own country. As of 1984, only 49 nations h ad ratified this convention. The United States was not am ong them. It is insightful, however, that ac cording to the Mann Act, passed in 1910, U.S. law does forbid the trans portatton of anyone across state or national boundaries for "prostitution or other immoral purposes." It has often been used selectively, putting for example, Am erica's first black heavy weight boxing cham pion behind bars for som e time. Barry researched the traffic in sexual slaves in Paraguay un d er Stroessner w here m any of the houses of 'prostitution' w ere run by the military as they w ere in Som oza's Nicaragua and still are in Guatem ala and El Salvador. One eyewitness testified that girls from 8 to 14 years old w ere purchased from poverty stricken parents for use in bordellos w here they w ere sexually abused by the military governm ent's VIPs, She also charges that StroessnePs governm ent exported 700 girls from the rural area M Prostitution Even in situations w here military o r para military forces are not in volved or are only marginal factors, the line betw een sexual slavery and prostitution has often been a thin one in Central America. Acute econom ic suffering com bined with traditionally repressive and exploitative ideology, law, and social structures have left m any w om en with few if any real alter natives to prostitution. While it m ay be fair to say that som e Central Am erican prostitutes have freely chosen this m eans of livelihood, for most, it represents a last resort, frequently necessary to provide a subsis tence incom e for them selves and their children. O nce she has taken the plunge, the prostituted w om an becom es locked in by socioeconom ic cir cum stances and societal attitudes, chained to a life w here d ie confronts her dehum anization every day. Many are confined, quartered, or segregated against their wishes and frequently victimized by the police. According to Sepulveda Niho, "History seem s to imply that prostttu tion has been m ore notorious in th e W estern world than in the Eastern; m ore in the Christian world than In the non Christian, in the Catholic m ore than in the non Catholic, and in the latino m ore than in the non Latino."1 W hether o r n o t this is the case, it is safe to say that prostitution is of Caraguatay in the early part of the 1980s, shipping them to the United States in groups of ten to twenty, passing through Miami and Chicago and on by b u s to New York City. In flushing New York, a local bishop, accord ing to her, “w as known to have collaborated with procurers." Paraguayan lawyers p repared visas and passports which were certified through the American Consul there Barry, Female Sexual Slavery,; pp. 68 69 1Saturino Sepulveda Niho, La pm stitucidn e n Colombia: Una quiebra d c las estructuras sociales (Bogota Editorial Andes, 1970), p. 11. 38 extremely prevalent In Latin America and generally seen as a 'problem' by many Latin Americans, particularly well educated ones and those of (jeft orientations. The reasons for its ubiquity are highly complex, grounded in a long history of sexual exploitation. Revolutionaries tend to view prostitu tion as a paradigmatic expression of a m ore general social malaise produced by economic exploitation. Marx referred to prostitution (in a footnote) as "only a specific expres sion of the generaiprostitution of the laborer, and since it is a relationship in which falls not the prostitute alone, but also the one who prostitutes and the tatter's abomination is still greater the capitalist, etc. also com es under this head.,r * The prostituted woman, for many Marxists, symbolizes everything that is w rong with wage labour, its econom ic coercion, exploita tion, and alienation. Prostitution represents m ore than one 'specific' form of exploitation am ong many, however, due to the extent to which the pros titute surrenders the body itself. The sale of sexual access com es much closer to the com plete sale or surrender of one's identity than does the sale of one's labor generally speaking2 While Marx correctly saw the action of the client or “the one who prostitutes" as exploitation, his contention, al belt m easured, that both prostitute and client represent an "abomination," 1 Karl Marx, Economic and Ifiiiosophic Manuscripts o f W44, ed. Dirk j Struik, trans. Martin Milligan (New York: International, 1982), p. 133 (em phasis his). 2As Pateman argues, prostitution differs from wage slavery because, while no form of labour pow er can be separated from the body, “only through the prostitution contract does the buyer obtain unilateral right of direct sexual use of the seller’ s body." Pateman, The Sexuai Contract, pp. 201 204 39 suggests that, at least to som e extent, he is blam ing the victim. This has been an unfortunate result of som e Marxist inspired reforms as well; Lenin, for example, on at least one occasion, ordered som e prostituted w om en shot.1 Patriarchal attitudes tow ards prostitution have not been quickly overcom e even by profound societal restructurings accom panying successful socialist revolutions. The socialist d e Beauvoir lam ented that “to try, for example, to speak to workers about the rights of prostitutes and the respect that is d u e them, this is scandalous to the majority of them.'2 Nevertheless, Marxist and feminist ideologies share in com m on a dis like for the institution of prostitution based upon the way in which each recognizes the alienation and exploitation inherent in its function. From both positions, sex is som ething that should not be sold since its purchase d o es violence to hum an dignity As Barry explains her feminist opposition: Political change m eans confrontation with the values, Institu tions, and individuals, which keep w om en colonized. Sex colo nization assum es sex as an autom atic right of men, but sexual in tim acy precludes the proposition that sex is the right of anyone and asserts instead that it m ust b e earned through trust and shar ing It follows then that sex cannot be purchased, legally acquired\ or seized b y force and that w om en m ust oppose all practices which prom ote "getting sex' on those bases. 1See C hapter Five. ^Simone d e Beauvoir, “Simone de Beauvoir, una intelectual que se caso con el siglo," D ocum entos sabre la mujer, vol. 2, ed. Centro de fnvestigaci6n d e la Realidad de America I.atina (Managua), January March, 1988, p. 40. 4 0 From a feminist perspective, prostitution is a product of patriarchal injus tice wherein the female is m anipulated and exploited for th e purposes of m ale gratification.1 While feminists are generally o p p o sed to the criminalization of prosti tution because of the way in which it further victimizes the w om en in volved, prostitution d o es not exist in their eschatological vision of the just society wherein sexual equality is fully realized. For Bartke: There are reasons, in my view, why feminists ought to support the decrim inalization of prostitution If prostitution w ere legal ized, prostitutes w ould no longer be subject to police or Mafia shakedow ns or to the harassm ent of fines and imprisonm ent, nor would they need the protection of pim ps w ho often brutalize them Flowever, none of this implies approval of prostitution as an Institution or an abandonm ent of the feminist vision of a so ciety w ithout prostitutes.2 This "feminist vision of a society without prostitutes" is a picture of a post patriarchal society tow ards which the feminist agenda presses, a society free of sexual exploitation, a vision which has frequently dovetailed with so ctalist utopias o r ideals. For feminists like Dworkin, the institution of prostitution is a product of econom ic forces geared tow ards the realization and m aintenance of 1 Barry, Female Sexual Slavery, pp. 11, 270 (em phasis hers) While som e, particularly contractarians, may wish to argue that there is a sym m etry be tw een male and female prostitution, m ost feminists see a fundam ental dis tinction betw een the tw o with respect to power. Barry argues* for example, that "the victimization and enslavem ent to which w om en are subject in m ale dom inated society finds no equivalent in m ale experience." 2 Bartke, Femininity and D om ination, p. 50. 4 1 'patriarchal right' designed to keep w om en sexually available to men.1 Pateman describes prostitution as “a m ajor capitalist industry." For her, the m ost dram atic example of the public aspect of patriarchal right is that “men dem and wom en's bodies for sale as com m odities in the capitalist market."2 Dworkin goes so far as to make the claim that the econom ic exploitation ol women renders 'women as a class' subject to the title of prostitute because "we have to sell sex and that makes us, as a class, not irrationally viewed as prostitutes by men whether they ca’l us prostitutes or not."3 Prostituted women in the Third World d o not even enjoy the levels of autonom y of their First World counterparts, they have fewer resources, le gal and economic, which would enable them to avoid entering the trade or 1She charges that; "One of the reasons that women are kept in a stale of econom ic degradation because that's what it is for m ost women is be cause that is the best way to keep women sexually available. We can also talk about the way capitalism is organized, the way multi nationals work, the way cheap labor is exploited by exploiting all kinds of people on the ba sis of race and class; but the fact of the m atter is that when women are eco nomically dependent, wom en are sexually available. W omen have got to sell sex at home, at work; and som e women only have sex to sell because they are kept illiterate and untrained and because women are paid so little for 'honest' work anyway. Systematic econom ic debasem ent turns every woman into a woman who can be bought, a woman who will be bought, and it is better to be a w om an who has a high market value" Dworkin, Letters From a War Zone, p. 145. 2According to Pateman, de Beauvoir, focusing on the violence and ter ritoriality surrounding gender relations, saw the wife as "hired for life by one man," the prostitute as having multiple clients who "pay her by the piece." "The one is protected by one male against all the others; the other is defended by all against the exclusive tyranny of each." Pateman, The Sexual Contract pp. 17,190. 3 Dworkin, Letters F m m a War Zone, p. 146. 42 leave it once they had begun. W om en in under developed countries, gen erally speaking, enjoy less equality with m en than in the First World This is of critical im portance because, as Pateman points out, in conditions of substantial social inequality, questions are raised about what counts as vol untary entry into a contract. She stresses that the form s of prostitution upon which feminist contractarian defences of 'sound' prostitution are constructed are those which developed around the turn of the last century in the United States, Britain, and Australia.1 Prostitution is a distinctly dif ferent matter, however, w hen it transpires am idst the colonizers as op posed to the colonized, w here its structures are generally doubly vicious, doubly violent. Often, an act of violence or a series of sequential acts of violence arc of decisive influence in one's entrance into the sex trade. Some studies sug 1 Pateman, The Sexual Contract, pp. 62,195. It is im portant to note the way in which som e First W orld prostitutes are often quick to defend their free choice in the matter. As one Canadian sex trade worker, A m ber Cooke, expressed to a feminist w ho interviewed h er "Some w om en feel they are victims. Som e are victims. And then there are also others w ho have m ade that choice and celebrate that choice." Cooke feels com fortable with "sex as a m eans to an end." For her, "most things are supposed to be m eans to an end." She cites the Catholic view of sex as strictly procreative, for example, and declares, "I'd rather b e a w hore than a Catholic." She suggests that "as long as people are willing to buy sex, there will be people w ho choose to make their living in the sex trade. Unless we return to the tem ple prosti tutes, w ho did it for God." Laurie Bell, ed., G ood G irls/Bad Girls Feminists and Sex Trade Workers Face to Face (Toronto: Seal Press, 1987), p. 202 (em phasis theirs). The greater autonom y of First W orld as opposed to Thind W orld prostitutes is also reflected by th e form er having organized internationally in the International C om m ittee for Prostitute's Rights (ICPR). Saundra Pollock Sturdevant and Brenda Stoltzfus, eds., Let the G ood lim es Roll Prostitution a n d the U.S. Military in Asia (New York: The New Press, 1992), pp. 300 301. 43 gest, for example, that as m any as 70% of prostituted w om en have been in cest victims.1 Clearly, if the act of sexual violation itself is determ inative, the decision cannot be seen as free of coercion. Even in cases w here vio lence or the threat of violence Is not initially involved, however, it is often used to force w om en/girls to remain in the trade. In m any brothels in Central America, young w om en have found them selves literally locked into sexual service functions from which they w ere physically prevented from fleeing. In addition to physical coercion, cultural stigm as im prison a w om an in prostitution. Once she has entered, patriarchal societal attitudes perpetu a ted by both men and w om en generally make an exit from the enterprise very difficult, m uch m ore so than with form s of em ploym ent seen as legitim ate.' As noted by Barry, after w om en are “enslaved" in prostitution, “they are accepted as part of the group of w om en destined for that lot in life."2 They b ecom e part of an ostracized social caste, enslaved in ^ ■ eco nom ic activity which is debasing depriving them of authentic self realiza tion. O ther factors related to poverty low levels of education, the presence of children dependent solely on the m other for support, drug and alcohol addiction, and social dislocation call into question the extent to which en 1 Dworkin, Letters From a W ar Zone, p. 147. One study d o n e of Fibpina prostitutes revealed w idespread incest and sexual violence during their youth which forced m any of them to leave home. Aida F. Santos, “Gathering the Dust: The Bases Issue In the Philippines," in Let the G ood Times Roll: Prostitution a n d the U S Military in Asia, ed. Saundra Pollock Sturdevant and Brenda Stoltzfus (New York: The New Press, 1992), pp. 41 42 2Barry, Female Sexual Slavery, p. 8 4 4 trance into prostitution can be seen as the result of an authentically au tonom ous decision1 Neocolonialism in Southeast Asia A Case Study N eocolonialism and the military subjugation that enforces it are di rectly responsible for th e form ation of sub cultures of sexual slavery and prostitution which have becom e an entrenched part of international ex change throughout m any parts of the Third W orld The contem porary "sex tourism" industry of Thailand Is one particularly prom inent exam ple of the sym pathetic relationship that exists betw een neocolonialism, Cold War militarization, and international sexual exploitation. While Thailand was never directly colonized by the West, the neocolonial influence of the U.S. has been particularly strong As a charter m em ber of the South Fast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), headquartered In Bangkok, Thai govern m ents have been staunch allies of the U.S. in the struggle against com m u nism since 1950, even contributing troops in th e Korean war. Thailand's alignm ent with the U.S. throughout the Cold W ar and its position of world leader in the sex tourism Industry are not unrelated. This ‘ industry* originated during the Vietnam w ar w hen Thailand was used as a base for "rest and relaxation" (re creation) of the U.S. fighting m a chine. After the w ar an d the flight of military dollars, structures of sexual service created for military purposes w ere harnessed to a growing tourist market. W hen the army pulled out the corporation step p ed in Many thou 1 Dworkin defines rape, for example, as "any kind of coerced sex, includ ing sex coerced by poverty." Dworkin, Letters Fm m a War Zone, p. 169. 45 sands of U.S., European, Japanese, and other wealthy businessm en flock to Thailand every year on organized sex tours. Segments of the Asian w om en's m ovem ent refer to the flesh trade as “sexual Imperialism," which could only occur “because of the inferior econom ic position of som e Asian countries.*' For Truong, it is a result of “the process of international izatlon of production in the area of leisure and entertainm ent facilitated by state and capital intervention."1 Many Thai sex w orkers are children, morally incapable of entering into the prostitution contract and physically unable to extricate them selves from the situation. For m any child victims, their enslavem ent proves to be fatal Between 6.2 and 8.7% of w om en in Thailand betw een the ages of 15 and 34 work in prostitution. Its function in the international capitalist m arketplace has created a virtual assem bly line of rape, degradation, and m urder for fem ales of 'low birth' or social station. The class structure of 1 1 1 3 1 society determ ines w ho will be sacrificed. Thai security forces receive a rake off o n the profits; police, governm ent officials, and military officers 1 As she sees it, prostitution in Thailand is a result of specific policy and investm ent decisions, "an alliance betw een the military and com m ercial com m unities ... reinforced by external forces for geo political reasons.'' Thanh-D am Truong, Sex, Money, a n d Morality: Prostitution and Tourism in Southeast A sia (London: Zed Books, 1990), pp. 55,189. As a traditional anticom m unist safe haven for W estern capital, Thailand's sex tourism business underscores Pateman's description of prostitution as “a m ajor cap italist industry," particularly with respect to the international marketplace. From the perspective of the Left, Thai leaders sold away a m easure of their national sovereignty and dignity through the International m arketing of the bodies of Thai w om en an d girls. 40 are known to be involved In the profits from brothels, as well as the sale ol Thai women abroad.1 in neighboring Vietnam, similar structures of prostitution, child sexual slavery, torture, and death existed prior to the withdrawal of the United States. ITie destruction of these structures of violent exploitation was a prom inent feature of the revolutionary agenda. The sale of wom en's bod ies to foreign interests was seen as an ultimate betrayal ot Vietnamese A cco rd in g to Truong: "Traffic in children may be connected with the re em ergence of an old practice the deflowering of virgins as a ritual to in crease male sexual virility and life expectancy. It is also related to the highly competitive nature of sex related forms of entertainment, which has led to the use of younger and younger girls to attract customers. Furthermore, child labour is easily disciplined, cheaper, and yields very high profits. For example, a teenager can be sold to a pim p for as little as 6,000 baht. The price for deflowering a virgin is around 4,000 baht By putting the teenager to be deflowered, the pimp already gets two thirds of his investment back. Most of such children are kept under confinement and are subm itted to violent forms of discipline to make them accept the violation of their bod ies. The fire in Phu Ket In February 1984 revealing the burnt bodies of young girls chained to their beds, is the m ost tragic evidence of the use ot violence and forced labour In prostitution. ., . The clandestine burial of prostitutes who have been beaten or burnt to death to destroy evidence ot their m urder shows how the idea of being of low birth can permit violence to take place without consequences to those who have comm itted It. Violence and cruelty are systemic to an industry which must maintain a supply of young and sexually fit females and which must discipline them to perform their role as sexual temptresses. Violence and cruelty are also systemic to a moral system which sees prostitutes as culprits, in their pre sent as well as former lives, and to a social system which synchronizes multiple relations of pow er in production under one ruling group arm ed with the pow er to discipline and 'protect' the moral and sodal order, i.e. the military and police." According to Business in Thailand, Novem ber 1982, "Often, the police can't do anything because they know that the men behind the operation of som e brothels are those w hose pictures are fre quently seen in the newspapers, attending big parties with top ranking po licemen and governm ent officials " Ibid, pp. 181 189. 47 sovereignty and dignity which the revolution w as dedicated to protecting. A parallel situation, albeit on a smaller scale, exists in the context of revo lutionary Central America w here the political forces of the Right, sup ported by the United States, have continued to operate system s of sexual slavery and exploitation which the Left has struggled to eradicate Central Am erican pow er structures share much in com m on with other sectors of the neocolonial Third World such as the Philippines and Thailand which continue to labour under structures of system ic sexual violence. The closest direct parallel to neocolonialism in Central America and the Caribbean Is the Philippines. The Filipino people h ad rebelled against the Spanish and established an independent governm ent when the U. S stepped in and annexed the island chain.1 A ccording to Oiom sky, the sub ject of the conquest of the Philippines "is rarely touched upon in history texts, and when it is, this sordid episode is reduced to a bare m ention of an ‘ insurrection against A m erican rule.'" The heroic ndigenous struggle w as ultimately futile and proved very costly with tens of thousands, m ostly civilians, slaughtered, hundreds of thousands m ore dying of starvation and disease as a direct product of the war, m any in U.S. concentration 1 Som e U.S. politicians resisted the m ove describing it as “ outright colo nialism" which it was, but, according to Wright, “imperialistic fervor w as stronger than the feeling that Philippine self determ ination should pre vail" He notes how “the argum ent of a civilizing mission, so familiar to European ears, eventually proved adequate to convince the Senate." Wright, The M o d em World, p. 186. 48 cam ps.1 In som e places w om en and children w ere spared, in others, sol diers were ord ered to kilt everyone over the age of 10.2 By 1902, tow ard the end of the three year war, every military post in the [Tillippines had its own brothel with the w om en regularly exam ined by Army physicians. Ib is represents a general pattern of the U.S. military of the period. Similar structures would later be put into place even on the U.S. m ainland frontiers w here military m edical personnel exam ined pros tituted w om en every two weeks during the border tensions with Mexico in 1 According to one source a poet / literature professor appearing on pub lie television these cam ps were studied by the Nazis when they were still in th e planning stages for their m onum ental accom plishm ents in this re gard. The poet In question m entioned this in the context of dedicating a poem entitled 'The Indigenous Ones.’ ^A ccording to Chomsky: "The scale of US achievem ents in pursuing its 'good intentions' can only b e guessed. General Jam es Bell, w ho com m anded operations in southern Luzon, estim ated in May 1901 that one sixth of the natives of Luzon had been killed o r died from dengue fever, considered the result of w ar kiduced famine; thus, over 600,000 dead in this island alone. A US governm ent report indicated that 3 /4 of the popu lation of 300,000 had been killed by the arm y o r famine and disease in one province of Luzon, w here Bell had been fighting A Republican Congressm an w ho visited the Philippines w rote that, 'You never hear of any disturbances in Northern Luzon ... because there isn't anybody there to re b e l... our soldiers took no prisoners; they kept no records; they simply sw ept the country and w herever o r how ever they could get hold of a Filipino they killed him. The w om en and children w ere spared and may now be noticed in disproportionate num bers in that part of the island.' On the island of Samar, in contrast, everyone over 10 w as ordered killed. . " Chomsky, Turning the Tide, p. 88. President McKinley, for his part, de clared that the governm ent being established by the U.S. was designed "not for our satisfaction n o r the expression of our theoretical views but for the happiness, peace, and prosperity of the people of the Philippine Islands" Q uoted In Kumari jayaw ardena, F em inism a n d N ationalism in th e Third W orld (London: Zed Books, 1986), p. 162. 4‘) 19161 After solidifying its control over the Filipino people, the U.S. main tained an enorm ous military presence to protect its hegemony, lasting ex cept for a brief period when Japanese fascists controlled the plunder throughout the century. This situation generated structures of militarized prostitution on an ubiquitous scale.2 There are o r were som e 90,000 registered "hospitality girls" and an esti m ated 5,000 child prostitutes in the sex jungles of M etro Mantla alone The largest American military installations outside the U.S. mainland, Clark Air Base at Angeles and Pampanga and Subic Naval Bases at Otongapo, were the biggest military consum ers. O longapo City provided m ore than 500 clubs, bars, hotels, and other entertainm ent establishm ents for ser vicemen In 1980, there were 9,056 registered hospitality girls, a reported 8,000 street walkers and 3,000 w aitresses prostitutes catering to the sexual appetites of U.S. personnel stationed at Subic alone. Angeles City boasted 450 hotels, disco Joints, cabarets, and cocktail lounges. Some 7,000 registered hospitality gjrls serviced the Clark airm en in addition to street walkers. In the Clark and Subic Bases together, over 30,000 Filipino prostitutes, accord 1Sturdevant and Stoltzfus, l<et th e G ood Tim es R oll p p 303 304. 2To this day, in both Korea and the Philippines, the Social Hygiene Clinic (SHC) system is used to try to ensure "clean" w om en for U.S. ser vicem en All b ar areas outside a b ase have an SHC, all w om en selling their sexual labor m ust be part of the system, if they are caught without the neq uisite papers they are incarcerated. This iron clad control of a large sector of the population is even put to directly political purposes, for the elections of 1986 in the Philippines, for example, w om en em ployed in the clubs of O longapo were trucked into voting locations and told that retention of their jobs required that they vote for the corrupt U.S. puppet Ferdinand Marcos. Ibid., pp. 308 309. 50 ing to Kaqulsa, plyed their trade "amidst squalor aggravated by drug abuse, smuggling, extortion, Illicit dollar trading, and violence." These institu tions w ere m onitored and protected by th e governm ent in accordance with U.S. guidelines.1 The sustained crass generational presence of the military has actually resulted In a flesh industry in which thousands of the children fathered by U.S. servicem en have them selves becom e enslaved. Of the ap proximately 30,000 children bom each year to Ftliplna w om en and U S. soldiers nearly half becam e street children. Many have been sold to brothel ow ners for entry into the trade In which they were conceived. It has been reported that those fathered by white servicem en bring betw een $50 and $200 w hereas those produced by black soldiers fetch only $25 to $30.2 Feminists in the nationalist m ovem ent of the Philippines m ade prosti tution related to the bases a m ajor issue not just of national sovereignty but also "national dignity, class inequalities, sexual politics, and racism "3 With ^Toilette Raquisa, "Prostitution: A Philippine Experience," in Third W orld S ec o n d Sex vol. 2. ed. M iranda Davies (London: Z ed Books, 1987), p 221 Santos cites a survey done by a w om en's research institution which estim ated the num ber of prostituted w om en serving the Angeles and O longapo bases alone at 55,0001 not including child prostitutes Santos, "Gathering the I3ust," p, 33 ^Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beachesr < fr Bases: M aking Fem inist S en se o f international Politics (London. Pandora, 1989). p. 87. ^The racist exploitation inherent in th e 'relationship' betw een the G 1 and the bar girl is m ost graphically reflected by a popular T shirt for air m en which referred to Pilipinas as "Little Brown Fucking M achines Powered With Rice" o r "LBFMs," for short. Santos, "Gathering the Dust," pp. 37 40; According to Enloe: "Filipino feminists refuse to discuss prostitu tion o r sex tourism in a vacuum. TTiey insist that all analyses and organiza tional strategies should tie sex tourism to the issues of Philippines nation altsm, land reform and demilitarization. Nowadays, they argue, sex 51 the ascension of Corazbn Aquino to pow er in 1986, a token effort was m ade to efface some of the degeneracy of the Marcos years. As is typical of 'clean up' campaigns of this nature in capitalist neocolonies, the victim w as pun Ished still further. Hundreds of prostituted women were arrested while virtually no pimps, brothel owners, or clients were jailed.1 The revolution developing in the Philippines throughout the decades following W.W.II., has long opposed the militarization of prostitution.2 By the time that the Clark base was closed in 1991 after a volcanic eruption and later a lease expiration, the communist New People's Army (NPA) had all but shut down the flesh trade since the military was generally forced to stay inside the base due to fear of guerrilla attacks.3 As w as the case in Thailand, militarized prostitution paved the way for sex tourism which has becom e an integral feature of the role of the Philippines in the world economy. Raquisa contends that as long as the econom y remains heavily addicted to foreign capital, “nothing will be held sacred in the face of the mighty dollar," resulting in, "the com prom ise of a nation's sovereignty to foreign creditors, especially the IMF World Bank; the sell out of one's econom y to foreign Investors; the commercialization of one's culture to dollar bearing tourists." For Aguilar San juan, "as long tourism must also be understood in relation to Filipinas' migration over seas. Enloe, Bananas, Beaches, & Bases, p. 39. 1 Enloe, Bananas, Beaches, & Bases, p. 39. ^Sturdevant and Stoltzfus, Let th e G ood Tim es Roll, pp. 319. 3Santos, "Gathering the Dust," pp. 37 40. 52 as the Philippines remains a neocolony .. . prostitution . . . will seduce women and their little girls after them, with the grotesque lure that is the product of a well honed colonial mentality."1 The Philippines presents structural parallels to Central America not only with regard to women as victims of exploitation but also with respect to women as revolutionary com batants. The guerrilla forces fighting against neocotonial dom ination enfranchised thousands of women into their politico military structures. There is a historical dialectic betw een woman as victim and wom an as fighter where women have been singled out as victims, they often distinguish them selves in com bat. Prostitution and sexual slavery represent a prominent part of this dialectic in Central America as well. On several occasions, for example, military controlled brothels were attacked by Salvadoran rebels, nearly a third of whom were female. The legal codes of many Latin American countries distinguish between "honest" women and "dishonest" wom en with respect to laws governing 1Kaquisa, "I’rostitution: A ITiiHppine Experience," p. 221, In Aguilar San Juan's collection of interviews with 42 Filipino women m ost of whom had been forced underground by a repressive governm ent in the late 1970s a com m on sentim ent concerning national sovereignty em erged Despite the fact that these women cam e from diverse sections of the popu lation church women, tribal minorities, urban poor, rural and industrial workers, professionals, and prostitutes they held a strong conviction, "to the last woman" that "freedom from oppression as wom en can become possible only when the nation is liberated from U.S. domination and when the majority of the people can be released from poverty, illness, malnutrt tion, and other forms of deprivation ram pant In a neocolony." Delia Aguilar San Juan, "Feminism and the National Liberation Struggle in the Philippines," in W om en and M en's Wars, ed. Judith Stiehm (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1983), pp. 254-259. 53 acts of sexual violence.1 "Dishonest" women, as prostituted women arc considered to be, have very few rights in Central America, exploited and victimized by the police, brothel owners, and men in general, they repre sent a severely oppressed sector of society and their suffering was exacer bated by the U.S. sponsored counter insurgency project of the 1980s which produced w idespread geographical displacement. Many women and girts often widows and orphans fleeing violence in E l Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, were left with no other recourse to feed their children. This so cial disruption and displacement was exacerbated by increasing levels of drug trafficking and addiction,2 feeding the downward spirals of human suffering. 1 Centro de Investigacibn de la Kealidad de America Iatfna, "Resoluciones del I Congreso Latinoamericano 'Mujer y legislation’ /' in D ocum entos so b re la mujer, vol. 6, March 1989, p. 58; In Barry’ s words, prostitution "creates a neat and socially sanctioned separation between m adonna and whore." Barry, Female Sexual Slavery, p 137; For Daly, " Ihe existence of ‘ good’ women according to male standards of being unm o lested private property has required the existence of 'bad* women, who have been scapegoats for male sexual guilt" Daly, B eyond C od th e Father, p. 61. 2Ana Isabel Garcia and Enrique Gomdriz, M ujeres Centroam ericanas, vol. 2, Efectos d e l conflicto (San Josfe: Masco, 1989), p. 57. 54 CHAPTER TWO HISTORICAL BACKGROUND W om an is the m o st m o n stro u s anim al in the w hole o f Mature, b a d te m p e red a n d w orse sp o ken To have this anim al in th e /rouse is asking fo r trouble in th e w ay o f tattling tale bearing m alicious gossip, and controversies; fo r w herever a w om an is, it w o u ld se e m to b e im possible to h a ve p ea c e a n d q u ie t H ow ever, even this m ig h t b e to lera ted tf it w ere n o t fo r th e danger o f un chastity.... Alot o n ly sh o u ld th e parish-priest o f Indians abstain from em p lo yin g a n y w om an in his house, b u t sh o u ld n o t allow a n y o f th e m to en ter it, e v e n if th e y are o n ly paying a calfl To understand m odem structures of violence against w om en in (Central America, one m ust begin with the analysis of the original C onquest and the colonial structures of patriarchal control that em erged and solidified in its aftermath, it is especially im portant to explicate the ideological o r reli gious legitim ation that accom panied a n d /o r inspired this institutional za tion of violence. The above excerpt from a handbook for the guidance and instructions of parish priests in the Spanish colony of the Philippines was written by one of the m ost fam ous of Augustinian Friars and published in Manila in 1745. The structural historical parallels betw een the Philippines and Latin Am erica are roo ted in this period. The friar's sentim ents were not isolated ones, they represented the celebrated main stream perspective on the gender of evil in both regions conquered and adm inistered for cen turies by Spain, with th e Catholic Church playing a central role. The friar's counsel is especially illuminating insofar as it m anifests the way in which the racism associated with colonization existed in a special 1 Q uoted by C. IT Boxer, W om en in Iberian Expansion O verseas, 1415 1815: S o m e Facts, Fancies a n d Personalities (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975), p. 97. 5 5 way for the indigenous female: located on the bo tto m rung of a hierarchy of dom ination legitim ated by a patriarchal scale of religious purity or godli ness. The contem pt in which this conquering system held indigenous peo pie in general and w om en in particular form s the backdrop before which one m ust assess the last 500 years of racist misogyny in Central America. Guatem alan activist Jim6nez M unoz stresses that w om an of the epoch of the C onquest w ere "forced to respond to the im age of m edieval Catholicism about their inferior nature, which resulted in an absolute do minion of society by the econom ically and politically powerful m ale "1 While it did som etim es condem n the m ost flagrant cruelties, the Church functioned as part of the Spanish state apparatus, providing an ideological foundation for the subjugation of indigenous peoples. r Fhe degradation and oppression associated with imperialism is recog nized and condem ned by Roman Catholic doctrine of today. As early as 1967, for example, Pope Paul Vi's I’ o p u lo ru m f ’ rogressin criticized "imperialism, neocolonialism , and capitalism that dehum anizes.'2 The historic support of the Church for colonial socioeconom ic structures, how ever, continued on into the neocolonial era. Central American Church hi erarchies, with som e notable recent exceptions, continued to bolster and 1c gitimate structures of neocolonialism dom ination throughout the revolu l()lga jim 6nez Munoz, "La m ujer guatem alteca: Q uinientos aftos de pa triarcado capitalista," in N o tia a s d e G uatem ala; Guatemala, O ctober 1992, p 19. 2Cited by Sheldon B . Liss, Radical Thought in C entral Am erica, latin American Perspectives Series, no. 7. (Boulder Colo.: W estview Press, 1991) p. 195 50 lionary context of the last three decades.1 They generally cast their lots with the forces of neocolonial hegem ony because they saw their own traditional pow er b ases threatened by reformist m ovem ents, thereby lending their enorm ous influence to the perpetuation of structures of pow er which in eluded w idespread institutionalized violence against women. U nder the guidance of the current Pope, in particular, the Vatican responded with crucial and unequivocal support for the U.S. funded anticom m unist cam paign of terrorism and disinformation. This crusade resulted in w idespread political violence directed against w om en in rebellion against traditional authority. To better understand the dynam ics of that violence, one m ust look to its origins in the colonization process. 1 irst, however, it is im portant to acknow ledge that patriarchal oppres sion existed in this hem isphere long before (Columbus cam e ashore or Cort6z hacked his way into the Central Mexican valley. Still, the Spanish instituted racist form s of patriarchy which excluded from anything near equal rights and dignity all those w ho w ere not of Spanish descent; it was novel in its character, scope, and duration. Imperialism and sexual slavery w ere also very m uch a part, however, of precolum bian patriarchy as well. 1 According to form er G uatem alan president Juan Jos6 Arevalo who, along with his successor Jacobo Arbenz, presided over the first and only progressive governm ents in the history of Guatemala, Church authorities opposed them and fully cooperated with the United States in the violent overthrow of Guatem alan dem ocracy. The anticom m unist ideology of the Church, according to him, served to strengthen and perpetuate dictatorial rule and the com m ercial interests of millionaires at the sam e tim e that it enabled the Church to recover and perpetuate its m onopoly on the spiri tual form ation of the young. Juan Josfe Arfevalo, A n ti K o m m u n ism in Latin A m erica (New York: Lyle Stewart, 1963), pp. 166 167. 57 Precolumbian Society Matriarchal Paradise Lost? Many if not m ost w om en in pre C onquest society enjoyed only limited levels of political pow er a n d /o r authentic autonom y vis a vis men, even the pam pered aristocratic few. For most, their lives were consum ed by la b o r and childbirth and characterized by docile obedience to husbands and rulers. For those w ho were slaves, life w as particularly short and brutal There is w idespread agreem ent that the subjugation of w om en pre dated the Conquest While the Conquest com plicated and exacerbated the prob lem, it appears to have com e about su ig en eris from the m ost rem ote pre hi span ic times.1 The level of autonom y enjoyed by w om en in precolum bian society is a highly ideologically charged question, however, since Central American feminists tend to look back to those societies for m odels of advanced levels of gender equality, m odels for a new revolutionary system which they hope to construct in the future. Their historical vision seem s to b e colored, however, at least to som e extent, by their desire to see colonialism as the foundation of all sexual oppression. In general, the way in which Central Am erican revolutionaries acknow ledge o r characterize their indigenous lju an Luis Pineda C?uiroa, "La discriminaciOn feminina en el codigo civil guatem alteco" ( Tesis d e licenciado, University of San Carlos, Guatemala, 1982), p. 35; Vitale observes how European patriarchy built it self upon pre C onquest class distinctions, im posing “a new patriarchal sys tern which was devoted to the needs of a system in transition from feudal ism to m ercantile capitalism." Luis Vitale, La m ita d invisible d e la histcria. E lp ro ta g o n ism o social d e la m ujer latinoam ericana (Buenos Aires: Planeta, 1987), p. 47. 58 tradition is heavily influenced b y their current political struggle, feminist positions have tended to b e linked to that b ro ad er picture. Som e argue that high levels of gender equality were w idespread in Central America and the Caribbean prior to the Conquest. Some times these assertions are m ade on the basis of the mythological record.1 Some feminists go so far as to paint a picture of female dom ination or political leadership in pre C onquest society. Holt Seeland, for example, claims that at the tim e of the discovery of what is today Cuba, Indian w om en h ad no problem s of social equality with men, that indigenous society was m atriar chal, "which is to say, a society adm inistered and directed by the ideas and will of w om en "2 1 As a female sociologist from the Catholic University of San Salvador argues, for example: "rIhe primitive inhabitants of Cuscatlan granted equal dignity to the w om an as to the man; beside of Q uetzalcoatl their god, they adored Izcueye (a feminine figure), together they form ed the prim ordial pair of deities; in this way they venerated th e moon, th e m other of the gods, the goddess of com, flowers, etc. Pipile w om en worked together with m en in diverse roles, giving place to equality." IV Encuentro Eeminista, M ujer C en tm a m etica n a. vinlenda y gverra, m em nrias d el taller (M6xico: Oxfam, 1987), p. 74. (Throughout this docum ent the nam es of the partici pant speakers are not given. This w as undoubtedly done so as to protect them from possible political reprisals ); Similarly, D orothea Wilson, an in digenous Nicaraguan feminist, argues that precolum bian society on Nicaragua's east coast w as not sexist. She claims that: "The indigenous w om an has always been the head of the family, always present in the leader's meetings. .. There w as an equitable division of labour, valued as equally im portant: w om en cultivated the land while m en hunted and gathered firew ood It is the contact with capitalism that underm ined the values of the m an w om an relationship in indigenous society." Q uoted by Helen Collinson, W o m en a n d R evolution in Nicaragua (London: Zed Books, 1990), p. 176. ^Inger Holt Seeland, W om en o f Cuba, trans. Elizabeth Hamilton Iaco ste (W estport, Conn.: Lawrence Hill & Co., 1981), p. 81 She cites "the SO Guatemala's Jimfenez Muftoz confesses that it is very difficult to estab lish with objectivity what the situation of wom en in precolum bian society really was “since the majority of docum ents that could have given testi m ony were destroyed by the Spaniards." Nevertheless, she assum es that, "as happened in the majority of civilizations, indigenous Guatemalan peo pies had an epoch in which the woman was on a footing of equality with the man with respect to work and pow er " She sees this as reflected in the second chapter of the first part of the Popol Vuh (the sacred mythological text of the Quich& Mayans) where the divinities are presented in male fe male pairs attributing equal importance to each. She notes, however, that tow ards the end of the book the nam es of the male chieftains of the great houses and lineage's are exalted exclusively. She also observes how women in precolum bian Guatemala were "exchangeable for a variety of different types of goods." With respect to the mythological record, as she points out, the evidence it contains is controversial due to the contrasting images presented: where a female receives the death penalty for conceiving a child out of wedlock, for example, but yet a female figure saves the Quichfe people from captivity at the hands of the XibalbA.'1 Clearly, those thinkers who extrapolate from ancient mythology to claims concerning the most typical example" as "the tribe governed by Anacaona in Santo Domingo, after her brother Caonabo was kilted in a treacherous ambush." She was the cacica de Jaragua. After a period of negotiation in which she at tem pted to avoid a massacre, she rebelled, was captured, jailed, and later hung; According to Vitale, cactcas (female chieftains) were first in the line of resistance to the Spanish in Colombia as well as La Lspaftola. Vitale, /*? m i ta d invisible, p. 59. Ijimfenez Mufloz, "La mujer guatem alteca,” pp. 18 19. 00 political structure of gender pow er in precolum bian society adopt a risky m ethodology. ’ I*herc w as an extremely b road diversity with respect to gender relations am ong different societies in aboriginal A m erica1 To the extent that w om en were dom inated, this was exacerbated by warfare and conquest be tw een belligerent groups. Patriarchal em pires rose and fell in Central Am erica with territorial wars occurring very frequently.2 According to * * TTiis is illustrated by the North Am erican context wherein, according to lo rd and Burke, som e tribes banned w om en from their councils yet oth ers w ere ruled by female chiefs. Som e groups sanctioned pre marital sex, others did not; som e punished adulteresses with dism em berm ent while others allowed a w om an to end a m arriage simply by "setting her hus band's belongings outside the d o o r as a sign for him to go live with his mother." lew is Lord and Sarah Burke, “Those First Americans," U S N ew s & W orld Report, 8 July 1991. Despite enorm ous diversity, however, it seem s safe to assum e that som e similarity existed betw een indigenous groups with respect to simple divisions of labor along gender lines. According to d e Oyuela, there was a form of labor distribution com m on to all prehispanic peoples in the new world which was based on physical strength. The strong fished, hunted, and w orked the soil, those with less strength collected o r gathered and prepared, those with the least physical strength traded g o o d s , prepared foods, etc Leticia de Oyuela, N otas so b re la evolucibn historica d e la m u jer en H onduras (Tegucigalpa Hditorial Guaymuras, 1989), p. 8. 2 Fowler notes how: "It w as primarily through warfare that invading Nahua groups dislodged resident populations and seized much of north em Gentral America. Indeed som e Pipil an d N icarao populations were later driven from their 'new* territories by o th er N ahau invaders and Highland Maya groups. A rm ed conflict w as the m echanism by which poli ties in the area expanded. W arfare w as an expression of political force " He describes political, ethnic, and linguistic borders as being in "a constant state of flux as som e groups expanded their territories at the expense of oth ers." William R Fowler, Jr, I b e C ultural E volution o f A n cie n t N ahua C ivilizations: The Pipil N icarao o f C entral A m erica (Norm an: University of Oklahom a Press, 1989), pp. 199,206; Francisco A ntonio d e Fuentes y Guzman, R ecordacidn Florida: O iscurso h isto ria ly dem o stra cid n natural, 01 Lovell, the Quich6 of (Guatemala w ere particularly successful in achieving the goal of empire. They dem anded tribute from the peoples that they sub jugated and took slaves which they utilized for forced labor.1 Political soli darity o p erated along the lines of com m on linguistic bonds; the stranger, the enemy, w as the group that spoke a different tongue. Peace prevailed at certain tim es of the year when trading occurred but those groups who spoke different languages w ere never fully at peace, carrying out attacks and am bushes as well as open battles and possessing fortified hill sites to which they could retreat and withstand long sieges 2 While disputes over boundaries and the desire to seize agricultural land were fundam ental reasons for war, booty, particularly in the form of cap lives, was also a prom inent motivation. Female slaves w ere highly valued material, m ilita ry politica d el reirto d e G uatem ala, Prblogo del licenciado J. A ntonio Villacorta C., 3 vols. (Guatemala: Sociedad d e Geografia e Historia, 1932), pt. 2, bk. 2, chap. 5, p. 92, 1 (jeorge W. lovell, C xm quest a n d Survival in C olonial G uatem ala A H istorical G eography o f the C huchum atAn Highlands, 1500 1821 (Kingston and Montreal: McGill Q ueen's University Press, 1985), pp. 48 50. According to lovell: "After successfully consolidating their position in what later b e cam e their heartland, the Quich6 founded the political capital of Gumarcaah, later known as Utatl£n. From Gum arcaah a series of expan sionist cam paigns was launched, resulting in the greater part of highland G uatem ala falling under Quich6 hegemony"; A ccording io th e T opol Vuh, this period of expansion began "during the fifth generation of men." See A. Kecinos, ed. and trans., Bopul Vuh: The Sacred B ook o f th e A ncient Q uichd M aya English trans. D. G oetz and S, G, M orley (Norman: University of Oklahom a Press, 1950), pp. 215 217. 2 Linda Newson, I h e C ost o f C o n q u est Indian Decline in H onduras U nder Spanish Rule (Boulder, Colo.: W estview Press, 1986), p 63; Fowler, C ultural E volution, p. 206. 02 as they perform ed both dom estic chores and served as sexual objects. A ccording to de Oyuela, the majority of theorists, including Knrique Dussell, postulate that w om en in precolum bian societies were subject to sale and purchase on the m arketplace which is typical of any slaveholding society.1 Slavery went hand in gjove with imperialism. Each em pire was rigidly patriarchal with slave ow ners jealously guarding access to their slaves /concubines. Slaveholders am ong the Pipil of w hat is today H I Salvador w ere particularly strict in this respect. Any m an w ho had sexual intercourse with a slave not belonging to him was himself enslaved unless the sentence was suspended by the high priest, which w as som etim es the case if the guilty party w ere an outstanding warrior. Although in som e groups com m oners sold them selves or their children into slavery, m ost slaves, at least am ong the Pipil Nicarao, w ere 'aliens' captured in war. After a period of exploitation, slaves w ere often sacrificed and cannibal iz e d 2 ^dc Oyuela, N otas, p. 8; Newson, C ost o f C onquest, p. 81. 2 According to Oviedo, the only foreigners to b e found in a Nicarao (the people of what is today Nicaragua) market w ere those for sale as slaves, which cost around 100 cacao beans Fowler, C ultural Evolution, p p 198 199, 214. N eedless to say, sex betw een a m ale slave and the females of the slave holder's household was treated with the utm ost gravity For the Nicarao people the only crime that was apparently regarded as a capital offense was sex betw een a m ale slave and his m aster's daughter with both offenders uncerem oniously buried alive. The law w as clearly geared tow ards pre venting offspring from the union. Sexual contact betw een a m ale slave and the ow ner's daughter o r wife represented the sam e kind of ultimate nightm are as it did to white slave ow ners in th e antebellum , U.S. South. This of course is the com m on pattern of slave societies. As Fowler o b serves, the fact that slaves were sold on the open market implies that any one could b e a slaveholder w ho could raise the sufficient purchasing price; ( > 4 Cannibalism w as particularly w idespread am ong the Nicarao of what is today Nicaragua, w here it w as developed to the extrem e form of what Fowler calls “sociopolitical te rro rism W h ile m uch of the slaughter and consum ption had a ritual character, there w as no clear dem arcation be tw een 'gustatory' cannibalism and 'ritual' cannibalism. Som e victims w ere intentionally fattened up prior to execution O viedo noted with aversion that parents even sold their children with the knowledge that they would b e eaten. Both male and female flesh appears to have been regarded as deli cate cuisine in different parts of precolum bian Central America. With re spect to the cannibalization involved in 'ritual* sacrifice am ong the Nicarao, however, w om en appear to have been discrim inated against. The priests did not partake of female flesh, according to Fowler, “since w om en were not allowed in the temples.''1 While this is perhaps a som ew hat du bious discrimination, it points to the way in which femininity itself w as ex eluded from the inner circles of religious ritual and the political pow er which em anated from them. Polygamy and / or concubinage appears to have been com m on among som e peoples.2 In som e polities, however, polygam y seem ed to be the ex Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Vald6s, H istoric g e n e ra ly natural d e las Indias, isla sy tie rra firm c d e l m ar ocdano 4 vols. (Madrid: Real A cadem ia de Historia, 1851 1855), pt. 3, bk. 42, chap. 1, p. 37 and pt. 1, b k 8, chap. 30, p. 316 1 Fowler, C ultural Involution, pp. 246 247; Oviedo y Vald6s, H istoria g e n oral, pt 3, bk. 42, ch. 11, p. 101. 2 In 1547 Bishop Pedraza observed, for example, that in the village of Co^um ba near San Pedro in what is today Honduras, "each Indian had ten to twelve women." Newson, C ost o f C onquest, p. 64. The significance at (> 4 ception rather than the rule, tending to be based on class, allowable only in the case of caciques or other m em bers of wealthy/powerful minorities Even where polygamy was generally frowned on, concubinage existed and many if not m ost slaveholders had slaves "with whom they slept.’ '1 Evidence also suggests that the institution of prostitution existed alongside sex slavery, concubinage, and polygam ous marriages in som e regions with women trading their bodies for cacao, widely used as currency 2 Qearly, there was an in g roup/out group distinction in and am ong prc Conquest societies wherein the 'alien/ the 'Other/ w as to be treated quite differently than 'one's own.' For Vitale, "despite the accelerated advance ment tow ards patriarchy in the Incan and Aztec empires, the woman still enjoyed a great deal of prestige." Sejoum6 claims that in som e Mesoamerican societies women organized banquet parties from which men were prohibited, later, "they would go beat up |or hit| a disloyal hus band." While the Nicarao feasted on their adversaries/slaves, they had elaborate legal/m oral codes which applied am ongst themselves wherein tached to virginity, however, may have been absent in at least som e soci eties; the Jesuit priest JosC de Acosta, lamented, for example, that, "however great and alm ost divine is the honour which all other peoptes pay to virginity, these beasts consider it to be all the more despicable and ignom ious" Boxer, W om en in Iberian Expansion, p. 108, 1 Fowler, Cultural Evolution, p. 203. Ixgal provisions existed in som e places for the protection of noble sons of concubines, assuring them land, slaves, etc. 2 Editorial Nueva Nicaragua, Historia precolonial d e nicaragua, 1980 p. 35; quoted by 1NNSSBI (the National Nicaraguan Institute of Social Security and Well Being), "La prostitucibn en Nicaragua" (Managua: INNSSBI, 1985). p. 17. f>5 adultery, bigamy, and rape were all punished with varying degrees of severity "Wife stealing," according to Fowler, could b e com m itted with impunity ("as long as the couple fled town"). A m ong th e Mita Pipil, th e death penalty w as prescribed for adultery as well as rape and incest With the Nicarao, both robbery and rape w ere punishable by enslaving the of fender, the robber if he w ere unable to pay for what he had taken and a rapist if he w ere unable to pay a ransom to the parents of the girl. Interestingly, if the victim's parents w ere deceased, the rapist becam e his victim’ s slave, a policy so ’ progressive* that it might well find som e sup port in feminist circles of today.1 What em erges is a picture of generalized sexual exploitation drastically exacerbated by military conquest Undoubtedly, som e wom en in pre C onquest Central America did enjoy advanced levels of autonom y vis a vis men, in m ost societies, how ever, m any clearly did not, especially those w ho w ere slaves. W om en 'as a dass' obviously enjoyed the greatest levels of autonom y in those groups which w ere not part of a slavehalding eni pire. Imperialism w as of central im portance only to the structures of cer tain societies at certain periods. While it seem s to have been w idespread, it was not a determ inative force in all areas at all times As d e Oyuela sug 1 Vitale, La m ita d invisible, p. 41; Laurette Sejoum£, A n tig u a s culturas p re co lo m b in a s {Madrid: Siglo XXI, 1971), p. 131, Fowler, C ultural Evolution, pp. 198, 214; Diego G artia de Palacio, "San Salvador y Honduras: FI afio 1576," in C oleccidn d e d o cu m en to s para la historia d e C osta Rica, pub Lie. don Le6n Fem dndez (San jos£ Im prenta Nacional, 1881), pp. 43 44; de O viedo y Vald£s, H istoria g en era l pt. 3, bk. 42, ch. 3, pp. 51 54. ()(> gests, at the time of the Conquest, Honduras, for exam ple, had no imperial system, "not even a structured cultural system "1 The fact that w om en in som e societies enjoyed greater levels of political pow er in pre C onquest society than under colonial rule, has served as an im portant rallying point for antiimperial agendas. According to 1 Junayevskaya, the great freedom of Iroquois w om en w as very significant for Marx, for exam ple (who never distinguished himself with respect to feminist consciousness), because it show ed "how great w as the freedom the w om en had before the European im planted civilization destroyed the Indians"2 Similarly, for revolutionary feminists in Central America who took forward to som e sort of socialist order capable of shielding itself from the exploitation of international capitalism, the egalitarian m odels of som e indigenous societies serve as a sym bol of pride and hope, a paradise lost of indigenous sovereignty and freedom. The Patriarchal Heritage Bequeathed The pow er structures of today's Central America are a legacy of the man w ho cut the history of the region in half, Cortfez, w ho took an indigenous 1d e Oyuela, N otas, p. 7. ^She claims that "it is true, throughout the world, that 'civflized' na tions took aw ay the freedom of the wom en, as w as true when British im pe rial ism deprived the Irish wom en of m any of their freedom s w hen they conquered Ireland" This is one of the reasons, according to her, that Marx's hatred of capitalism grew even m ore intense as he studied pre capitalist so cieties. Raya Dunayevskaya, Rasa L uxem burg W om en's Liberation, a n d Marx*s P hilosophy o f R evolution (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1991) p 201. 07 princess as a 'com panion'; his m en raped at will The Iberian pow er insti tuted a political system which ushered in a new age of systemic horror for indigenous w om en in general Throughout Latin A m erican colonial his tory, and continuing to som e extent today, indigenous w om en and female children of the popular classes have served as easy prey for abduction and violation; once 'defiled*, they have often been forced into prostitution. The institutionalized sexual violence im posed in the New World has its roots in the dom inant patriarchal ideology of Hurope in the Middle Ages, cspe daily the singularly brutal way in which it developed in Spain 'lTie com m on threads that bound Catholic Hurope w ere very strong ere ating similar structures of ’ divine* justice in each m ajor nation state or city which functioned, am ong o th er things, to legitim ate the oppression and exploitation of females. The Catholicism that accom panied the conquest of l^itin Am erica w as rife with misogynist elem ents. W om en of the High Middle Ages, along with being legally and politically disenfranchised as they also w ere in Roman as well as ancient Greek and H ebrew societies w ere dem onized in special ways by Christian doctrine which located in their carnal, sexual, and sensual ethos the locus of evil in the world. This dem onization of fem aleness reached its peak with the witch burnings that spanned several centuries; the practice had not yet drawn to a close when the Inquisition cam e to America. The traditional categorization of females as either virgins, whores, o r m others radiates throughout Christian myth, ideology, and tradition.1 Rape, sexual slavery, and dom estic violence were 1 From a radical feminist perspective such as that of Dworkin, "the dual ism of good an d evil, virgin and whore, lily and rose, spirit and nature is inherent in Christianity, and finds its logical expression in the rituals of 08 institutionalized and applauded in Medieval Christian society in a variety of ways. Women were generally seen as possessions, to be physically disci plined or even killed if deem ed appropriate1 l or feminist critics the practice of torture and execution of victims sin gled out on the basis of their femininity forges a link betw een the patriar chal brutality of the Old and New Worlds. According to Bunster Burotto: With the death throes of the European Medieval world view cam e a pervasive torture and m urder of women. This time, we were called witches, and the church and state then defined witchcraft as a crim en exceptum , a crime distinct from all others, the rules of proof suspended, as were all holds on torture. These threats to the public security m et with highly refined, highly sim ilar [between the Middle Ages and our current era! torture tech niques. Perhaps a m ost significant parallel here is the extension and perpetuation of female enslavement through torture. Young female children were threatened a n d /o r tortured into confession against their mothers; young girls were forced to watch their sadomasochism." A ndrea Dworkin, W om an Hating (New York: H P . Dutton, 1974), p. 73. 1 According to O'Faolain and Martines: “From Naples to northern Europe, if he (the husband] caught her |the wife] in adultery and killed her there and then, he might go free: society encouraged and condoned his wrath. Logically enough, in more ordinary circumstances, he had the moral and legal right to inflict corporal punishm ent on h e r all law systems agreed an this" Julia O'Faolain and Lauro Martines, eds. N o t in (iod's Image: W om en in H istory horn the C',reeks to the Victorians (New York: Harper, 1973), p 175; Christian theology as well as secular law condoned wife beating for the m ere offense of scolding one's husband in the presence of others The Book of the Knight of la Tour Landry, the most popular manual of upper class m ores of the Middle Ages, favorably mentions a husband who broke his wife's nose for scolding him in front of others "with evil and great language." Cited by Susan Brownmiller, F em ininity (New York: Linden Press/Sim on & Schuster, 1984), p 112 09 m others tortured and then often burned at the stake without the usual dispatch m ent by an executioner.1 A ccording to Hays, the whole subject of witchcraft w as "riddled with sex." As he sees it, the "blatant phallic sadism" that radiated throughout Scholastic religious ideology w as a product of the "pathological imagina tion of the m edieval male" w ho "relished the idea of being obscenely w or shipped by a crow d of women," yet, in his disturbed imagination, "expressed his hostility by attacking them with the familiar penis as w eapon."2 The institution of witch hunting, torture, and execution was clearly a question of sexual violence since the ratio of w om en to men exe cuted for witchcraft has been estim ated to b e betw een 20 to 1 and 100 to 1 ? It functioned to control the female population through intimidation and an ^Ximena Bunster Burotto, "Surviving Beyond Fear: W om en and Torture in Latin America," in W o m en a n d C hange in Latin Am erica, ed. june Nash and Helen I. Safa (South Hadley, Mass.: Bergin & Garvey, 1986). p. 320 ^H. R. Hays, The D angerous Sex: 'The M yth o f Fem inine F v iliLondon: M ethuen and Co., 1966), pp. 138, 146. ^Dworkin, W om en H ating p. 130; The sexual nature of the charge of witchcraft and the way in which it w as linked to m ale insecurities is graph ically reflected in the fact that witches w ere frequently charged with casting "glamours" over the male organ which w ere thought to m ake it disappear entirely. Sprenger and Kramer argued in the M alleus M alficarum that witches did not actually rem ove the organ but rendered it invisible. In one case, a young m an w ho had lost his m em ber and suspected a certain woman, tied a towel about her neck, choked her and dem anded to b e cured. "The witch touched him with her hand betw een the thighs, saying ‘Now you have your desire.’ " His m em ber w as im m ediately restored. Marriages could be annulled in those cases w ere the glam our lasted for over three years. Hays, D angerous Sex, p. 11; Dworkin, W o m en H ating p. 135. 70 nihilation of those elem ents which w ere in one way or another threaten ing to, or thought to b e threatening to, structures of patriarchal pow er The witchcraft charge w as in m any cases a penalty for the sexual insub ordination of women, their refusal to surrender their bodies. Rape w as a com m onplace occurrence in the trial of witches, the refusal of sexual access som etim es served as a pretext for the accusation.1 In Christian Europe of the Middle Ages, fem ale hum an life w as seen as having no inherent value or sanctity, it w as preserved only insofar as it conform ed to and filled the needs of patriarchal power. Female children, for example, who had re m ained virgins until the age of eleven, w ere som etim es killed so that their blood could b e used by physicians to cure maladies.2 The clerical concubinage so prevalent in Europe, particularly prior to the Council of Trent, would later flourish in the colonial world Bishops as well as cardinals w ere frequently involved in exploitative liaisons with wom en. One Bishop of Toul, for example, kept his own daughter by a nun of Epinal as his favorite concubine. As Boxer points out, "With so m any of the clergy com porting them selves like stallions, it is hardly surprising that 10 n e Frau Feller, for example, the wife of a court officer, w ho during her interrogation in 1631 w as raped by the torturer's assistants, had al legedly been accused of witchcraft in the first place because her sister had re fused to sleep with the witch judge, one Franz Buirmann. Rossell Hope Robbins, The E ncyclopedia o f W itchcraft a n d D em o n o lo g yi New York: Crown, 1959), p. 503; Mary Daly, G yn/ecology. The M etaethics o f Radical F em inism (Boston: Beacon Press, 1978), pp. 201 202. 2 Beth Ann Bassein, W o m en a n d Death: Linkages in W estern Thought a n d litera tu re (W estport, Conn.: G reenw ood Press, 1984), p. 197. 71 m any of the laity did likewise,"1 a valid point with respect to the contexts of both Old and New Worlds. In addition to religious 'justifications' for sexual dom ination, the rigid class structures of European society at the time of the discovery of the New World set a pattern for the sexual slavery and abuse that would evolve in the newly conquered domains. Rape w as institutionalized along class lines. Am ong the num erous ways in which the nobility exploited the peasantry was the custom of the ju s prim ae noctis which legalized the rape of newly wed peasant women. According to Hays, "Serfs had no rights and women of this group were treated as property to be used when the noble lord felt the urge."2 While som e peasant wom en m ay have enjoyed minimal pro tection under the feudal system, many were outright slaves, used and abused entirely upon their master's discretion. An enorm ously popular Latin work written by an English Franciscan in the late 14th century and subsequently translated into French, English, Dutch, and Spanish, Les ftx)prtetes d e s Choses, glorifies in graphic detail the nightmarish realties endured by servant girls or "chambermaids" of the period: A cham berm aid is a servant em ployed by the m aster or mis tress of the house to do the heaviest and foulest jobs. She is fed coarse food, clad in the meanest cloth, and bears the burden of servitude. If she has children they are the m aster's serfs. If she is a serf herself, she may not marry whom she chooses, and anyone who does marry her, falling into servitude, can b e sold like an an imal by the master. If freed, the serving maid can be recalled to "•Boxer, W om en in Iberian Expansion, p. 109; Dworkin, W om en Hating, p. 122. 2Hays, D angerous Sex, p. 106; Dwoilcin, W om en Hating, p 122 72 serfdom for ingratitude. Chambermaids are frequently beaten, abused, and tormented, and scarcely given a chance to console themselves by laughter or distractions.... Not surprisingly, this moralist also acknowledges that cham berm aids char acteristically "rebel against their m asters and m istresses and get out of hand if they are not kept down," He adm onishes the reader to remember, there fore, that "serfs and that sort are kept in place only through fear."1 With re spect to the m ovem ent of "courtly love" of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, according to Hays, it did nothing for the im provem ent of the sit uation of plebeian women, for whom its advocates advised "immediate rape." The connection for feminist criticism betw een sexual slavery in the Old and New worlds is underscored by Enloe, who refers to Central American countries as "nations of cham berm aids" in her work on gender and international exploitation.2 The practice of prom inent men maintaining second relationships with women of the lower classes provided the basis for the acceptance of these It aisons in the New World, The Iberian conquerors and their descendants brought with them pre established m odels for marriageless relationships with black and Indian women that included som e recognition of pater nity.3 The offspring of these liaisons, in accordance with Spanish law, be 1 Quoted by O'Faolain and Martines, N ot in (kid 's Image, p. 163 ^Cynthia Enloe, “Bananas, Bases, and Patriarchy" in W om en, Militarism, a n d War. Essays in History, Politics, and Social Theory, ed. Jean Bethe Elshtain & Sheila Tobias (Savage Md,: Rowman & Littlefield, 1990), p. 196. 3James Lockhart and Stuart B . Schwartz, Early I a tin Am erica: A H istory o f Colonial Spanish A m erica and Brazil (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 7. 73 cam e sim ultaneously both servant and relative. These relationships w ere highly lucrative due to the lifetime of service to b e furnished by the off spring/servants. Despite the Medieval Church's official condem nation of extra conjugal sexual acts, it recognized prostitution as an inevitable feature of worldly so ciety which it had no am bition to reform. Truong argues that the toleration of prostitution in the Middle Ages w as "mainly of a fiscal and moral na ture, nam ely collecting taxes from brothels an d prostitutes while protecting the integrity of the family upheld by law and religion" Brothels were a source of incom e for both religious corporations and municipalities Itiis is perhaps one reason why prostitutes w ere not persecuted during the witch hunt, because of the recognition of their fiscal utility I’rostitutes had their own guilds until the 14th century, a place in Church processions, and their own patron saint, Saint Magdalena.l Almost alt w om en in the m iddle ages w ho were not under the direct control of a man, were either widows, nuns, or 'prostitutes.' W idows often had financial resources an d children that helped m any of them to survive, nuns received support and protection from the church, prostituted w om en 1 Truong cites the spread of syphilis and other venereal diseases as even tually leading to tighter control and a "confinement of 'bad1 w om en to the brothel w here they w ere distinguished from 'good' women. Thanh Dam T ruong Sex, M oney, a n d M orality: P rostitution a n d Tourism in Southeast A sia (London: Zed Books, 1990), p. 15; Hays, D angerous Sex, p. 105; Saint Augustine, for example, w arned that the abolition of prostitution could have disastrous consequences for society for him, it w as a necessary evil in an inevitably im perfect world, Leah Lydia Otis, ^restitu tio n in M edieval S o ciety (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), p. 12. 74 w ere the least fortunate although they played a very im portant role in the Medieval Christian city. Conservative (Catholic ethicist John Courtney Murray estim ated that, by 1517, the num ber of prostitutes in Rome consid erably surpassed the num ber of m arried wom en. By 1592, "under a Rope o( form idable strictness," Sixtus V, there w ere m ore than 9,001) prostitutes amid a population of 70,000.1 Clearly, in a society w here one in every 7 or K people w as a prostitute, there w as an enorm ous dem and for their services. IVostituted w om en were m aintained hypocritically on the fringes of society yet played a m ost im portant part in it. According to d e Beauvoir, "Christianity poured out its scorn upon them, b u t accepted them as a nec essary evil."2 The general dehum anization which accom panied the institution of prostitution was similar to the ostracization to which Jews w ere subjected. Jews and prostitutes alike were seen as m em bers of untouchable castes. According to Otis, it was no accident that Saint Thom as included his de fense of the necessity of prostitution in a chapter dealing with the tolera tion of the Jews. W hen Pope Pius V tried to ban Jews and prostitutes alike from Rom e in 1566, citizens petitioned him to be m ore indulgent, "in imi tation of the Lord, w ho has tolerated in the world Jews, adulterers, and 1 John Cortney Murray, W e H old These lYuths(K ansas City, Mo.: Sheed and Ward, 1960), p. 163. ^She cites the analogy used by St. Thom as w ho asserted that the sup pression of prostitution would m ean the disruption of society by debauch: "Prostitutes are to a city w hat sewers are to a palace" Simone de Beauvoir, The S e c o n d Sex (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953; Random House, Vintage Books Kdition, 1974), p. 115, 75 prostitutes." A regulation from the A vignonese custom s of 1243 prohibited both Jews and prostitutes from touching bread or fruit on the market, obtig ing them to buy all that they touched. Similarly, a 13th century statute of Marseilles forbade Jews and prostitutes from entering public baths except on specified days (M onday for prostitutes, Friday for Jews)"1 Much of what w as true concerning the social ostracization of prostitutes in European society of the Middle Ages is also true of prostituted w om en in 1 ^ 3 tin America today. They are marked, scorned by society at large, stig matized, degraded, and victimized in special ways. The sexual violence of late Medieval Europe w as particularly pro nounced in Spain. Prostitution thrived there with openly com m ercial so called ‘ w arehouses' purveying *bad women* enjoying police protection; they w ere located adjacent to the public gambling houses w hose proceeds the Crown w as taxing In m any parts of Medieval Spain, the 'ordeal of the hot iron* w as a com m on, obligatory sentence im posed only on woman, ac cused of a host of sexual crimes. With this m ethod of “proving innocence," a wom an first w ashed her hands then carried a four foot iron rod, heated 1 Leah Lydia Otis, P rostitution in M edieval Society, p 70; d e Beauvoir notes how: "The usury of the Jews and the extra conjugal sexuality of the prostitutes w ere alike denounced by Church and State; but society could not get along without financial speculation and extram arital love; these func tions were therefore assigned to w retched castes, segregated in ghettos o r in restricted quarters. The prostitutes like the Jews w ere obliged to w ear dis tinctive signs on their clothing they w ere helpless against the police; for most, life was difficult." de Beauvoir, S e c o n d Sex, p. 116 70 in a fire and blessed by a priest, for a distance of nine paces She was placed under observation and if h er flesh charred, she was convicted.1 Spanish m ales distinguished them selves in the developm ent of a sin gularly brutal m oral code of sexual dom inion. According to Gonzalez Crussi, "The staunchest defenders of religious orthodoxy becam e the epit om e of hypersensitive male jealousy." He em phasizes that "Spaniards and foreigners alike agree that at a certain time in the history of ideas, m en of this nation created a com plex net of concepts and social conventions by which they gained a violent em pire on their wives, sisters, and daugh ters."2 Boxer describes the general attitude of the Iberian m an as "summed 1 A ccording to Dillard: "This proof, m oreover, w as dem anded only of w om en w hose questionable innocence of particular perfidies m ade them unw orthy of legal protection, w hether provided by w itnesses of their own sex or by a man w ho might fight a dual to defend them. These w om en w ere in fact dissociated from the high m inded citizenry of their town even before guilt had been established. The purported harlot w as one such woman." Given the way in which prostitutes w ere excluded from the honor codes of Spanish patriarchy, it is unlikely that many w ere rescued by a m an wilting to fight a dual on their behalf. Heath Dilland, D aughters o f th e R econquest W om en in C astilian Town Society, 1100 13Q0(London: Cam bridge University Press, 19K4), pp. 198 199. 2Frank (Gonzalez Grussi, On th e N ature o f Things Erotic (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), p. 27; According to a Spanish law of 12411 which also applied to a fianc£, if the m an to whom a w om an belonged' felt himself w ronged and chose to kill her, he paid no fine for the homicide. A m an could legally kill not only his adulteress wife but her lover as well. If he could establish the fact that she had com m itted adultery in court, the wife and her lover, along with all their goods, would b e at the com plete disposition of the offended party. He could then punish them as he saw fit, including death and enslavem ent. A ccording to Castilian law which also becam e operative in the New World, a w om an was legally treated alm ost identically to a minor. She rem ained under the legal authority of her father until she w as married, irregardless of her age. Even after 25 years of age, at which tim e she would b e entitled to adm inister her own inheritance if o n e 77 up in the phrase that the w om en of one's own family were sacred but alt others w ere fair g am e" Marriages and dowries were arranged by fathers ac cording to purely strategic socioeconom ic aims, seeking husbands who would bring the family the m ost possible wealth and prestige. It was around the tim e of the C onquest that w ords such as p u n d o n a rand honra w ere first coined, having no exact equivalent in other W estern languages, they are stilt in use today throughout l,atin America.'1 The fathers and fam ilies of aristocratic daughters jealously guarded their virginity, those bom into lower class families w ere not generally accorded similar protections The Spanish conquistadors w ho stum bled upon the New W orld were a breed of m en w hose world view had been shaped by centuries of warfare against the Moors. The interconnections betw een racism, conquest, and sexual dom ination in the New World were grounded in the Spanish expo existed (and she were still single), she could not perform any public role, exercise any judicial functions, o r testify in court, she was not even seen as responsible enough to b e jailed for nonpaym ent of debts incurred. Spanish patriarchy preserved ancient custom s of sexual dom inion which were sur prising even to European visitors of the period. Belgian physician johan Wier (1516 1588), for example, w as struck by the fact that it w as still very com m on in Spain for brides to preserve the linen showing th e blood sm ears of their deflow ering O'Faolain and Martines, N ot in G ad's Image, pp. 143,175 178; Dillard, D aughters o f th e R econquest, p. 203; Josefina Muriel, I x j s recogim ientas d e m ujeres. - R espuesta a una problem A tica social n o vahispana (M6xico Instituto de Investigaciones Histbricas, 1974), pp. 4 5. 1 P undonor and honra refer to patriarchal notions of 'honor' with re spect to sexual propriety If, for example, a prostitute gets m arried in I a tin America, she is often said to b e "honrada"or honored, i.e. m ade morally legitimate o r licit in the eyes of the community. Gonzalez Crussi, N ature o f Things Erotic, p. 27; Boxer, W o m en in Iberian Expansion, p. 108; lockhart and Schwartz, Early Latin A m erica, p. 6. 78 rience of reclaiming the Iberian Peninsula from the heathen, dark skinned, invaders, an experience through which the Spanish warrior caste devel oped a strict (double) standard of sexual purity with respect to race and reli gjon.1 As the reconquest of the Spanish mainland drew to a close, a new arena was discovered wherein new generations of the warrior class were able to expand their empire. Their notions of racial superiority/inferiority and religious purity were uniquely suited to sexual dom ination in this new theater. The Colonial Structure of Sexual Exploitation llie successful reconquest of the peninsula for Christianity had bol stered the conviction of those who survived that they had fought and con quered in accordance with the will of god As with the crusaders before them, they had fought this long and arduous struggle in the nam e of true religion. The idea of divine authorization or Tioly w ar1 stood prominently at the forefront of Spanish ideology at the time of the Conquest and helped 1 According to Dillard,B custom had sanctioned and continued to condone a double standard of sexual conduct which prohibited contact solely betw een Christian women and Jewish or Muslim men. Minority women were fair gam e for Christian men, m othered their children and doubtless becam e their barrangas^ but these women were necessarily on the fringes of Jewish and Muslim society in their own atjamas. The double standard rewarded the conquerors, but it inevitably produced women in both the dom inant and minority groups, outcasts from their own commu nities, w hose position was at best uncertain. Christian society naturally re proached most vehem ently its women who ignored injunctions to remain aloof from Jewish and Muslim men." Dillard, Daughters o f the Reconquest, p. 207. 7l) to legitimate the spoils of victory.1 Some of the booty in the New World that fell to Spanish hands cam e in the form of female slaves The racial structure of the situation was similar to that of conflict at home. According to de Oyuela, som e theorists seek to explain "the special attraction that the Spanish man of the conquest had for w om en of dark skin" as a product of "the mythical experience played out in the war of the reconquest of the peninsula."2 Institutional Christianity served, for the most part, to legitimate, bless, rationalize, and share in the spoils of the Conquest It becam e very wealthy, 1 According to Leonard: "For centuries the Spaniard had been in the front line of defense of European Christianity against a M ohammedanism which had flooded over his native soil. For other peoples of Europe the Crusades w ere a struggle against the infidel far from the homeland, but for the Christians of Spain their holy war w as a hand to hand com bat with the foe inside their own boundaries. From this close and continual conflict with the followers of Allah, who had invaded Europe by way of the Feninsula, cam e a hardening of the Spaniard's faith into a pitiless fanati cism, and from his ever growing triumph over these pagan hosts cam e an unshakable conviction of his own righteousness and a concept of himself as the right hand of God If he served God by expelling the infidel from the land or by converting him to Christianity by force, he felt himself clearly entitled to econom ic rewards for furthering God's work on earth The prizes and booty that fell to the Spaniard in these efforts, w hether in the form of lands, mines, estates or even of slaves, were thus considered tokens of appreciation bestow ed by a grateful deity upon the victor Hence, when the Conquistador brought what he conceived as the suprem e boon of his faith to the native of the New World, it did not seem unreasonable to him to extract as his legitimate reward for this service the maximum econom ic return from the bewildered native, even if the m ethods em ployed were dangerously like those of plundering and looting" Irving A, Leonard, Books o f the Brave: Being an Account o f Books and o f Men in the Spanish ('onquest and Settlement o f the Sixteenth C entury N ew World (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University lYess, 1949), pp. 7 8. 2de Oyuela, Notas, p. 9. 80 particularly in land, and sought to maximize and perpetuate its power. It almost invariably allied itself with and served the interests of the richest and m ost authoritarian rulers throughout the colonial period, remaining loyal to the Spanish crown until it was no longer prudent to do so. With respect to indigenous women, Catholic ideology was uniquely suited for the purpose of legitimating the sexual exploitation to which they were sub jected. Columbus took no wom en with him on his first voyage to the New World. When he left som e of his sailors behind at La Navidad and re turned to Spain, they were killed by the Arawaks before his return, primar ily for "seizing native women." He brought no women on his second voy age either, and, according to Boxer, his m en "'shacked up* often literally with Arawak women of their choice with or without the permission, con nivance, or refusal of their menfolk." Cort6z was instructed to prevent his men from taking the daughters and wives of the Indians that he would en counter in Central America because of the profound unrest and friction that this had caused with the indigenous population in the islands. l:or the m ost part, this instruction went unheeded. According to Boxer, "Spanish men found Indian women attractive, and any Spaniard could have as many as he wanted."1 The relationship between Spanish men and Indian 1 Boxer, W om en in Iberian Expansion, pp. 35, 51; Lesley Byrd Simpson, The Encomienda in N ew Spain (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1950), p. 60. He claims that the Council of the Indies was "unacquainted with Indian hospitality," arguing that it w as not always nec essary for Cortfez's men to seize women since CortCz had so many concu bines "pressed upon him by his hosts" I think that in all likelihood this characterization of the nature of this exchange as voluntary o r noncoer cive, indeed "hospitable," is som ewhat skewed given the balance of pow er 8 1 w om en must b e viewed as part of the total conquest and, indeed, part of the m eaning of conquest According to Spanish law, the conquistadors w ere required to read the following fiequerim iento (without a translator) to indigenous peoples b e fore engaging in military action against them, urging them to ad o p t the Catholic faith: If you d o not, or if you maliciously delay in so doin g I certify that with God's help I will advance powerfully against you and make w ar on you w herever and how ever I am able, and will subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their m ajesties and take your w om en and children to b e slaves, and as such I will sell and dispose of them as their m ajesties m ay order, and I will take your possessions and d o you all the harm and dam age that I can.2 As one Salvadoran sociologist puts it: ’ "I’ he Spanish took indfgenas by force, utilizing them to satisfy their sexual instincts, later, they ab an d o n ed them with the fruit of that forced relationship. In this situation, the w om an had the value of any other object or thing ow ned by the conquista dor." As she sees it, "this fact has b een influential throughout history, forming a m achista culture w here th e w om an is discrim inated against and devalued."3 betw een conqueror and victim. Even so, this alleged hospitality was on the part of indigenous m en (fearing for their lives) and leaves the issue of the will of the fem ales in question com pletely o u t of the picture. 1 lavrin, la tin A m erican W om en, p. 105. 2 Eduardo Galeano, O pen Veins o f Latin America: Five CJen tunes o f the Pillage o f a (Continent, trans. Cedric Belfrage (New York: M onthly Review Press, 1973), p. 23. ^IV Encuentro Feminista. M ujer Centm am ericana, p. 74. 82 Sexual slavery w as part of a larger system of enslavem ent of the indigc nous population. In what is today Honduras, for example, betw een 1502 and the prom ulgation of new laws in 1542, the Spanish com m itted m as sive abductions of young people destined for the Caribbean slave m arkets As m any as 150,000 w ere enslaved and exported. Many indigenous w om en induced m iscarriages and practiced infanticide not wishing to have their children live under such circum stances1 During the first two centuries fol lowing the Conquest, indigenous people w ere enslaved in a variety of legal and pseudo legal ways, from the system of encam ienda in which they were given along with land in grants, to a variety of forms of d ebt servitude. Of the archival records that m ention indigenous slaves in colonial Peru, all of them w ere female, enslaved in the 1530s and 1540s and taken to Seville by Spanish men. Some were sold and others w ere retained for per sonal service. Typically, indigenous w om en in the service of a Spaniard were sent to him as tribute from a village. In 1541, the King of Spain noted that he had been inform ed that Spaniards "have a large num ber of Indian w om en in their houses in o rd er to carry out their evil w ants on them." O ne directive issued by the M onarch to the Audencia of Quito referred to the custom am ong aristocrats to keep betw een twenty and thirty young in digenous females as household servants. The king considered this to b e im proper because, "in order to have the service of female Indians, they a 1 low them to be in sin and single, refusing to let them m arry so that their 1d e Oyuela, N at as, p. 8; Tom Barry and Kent Norsworthy, H onduras A C ountry Guide (A lbuquerque, N.Mex: Inter Hemispheric Education Resource Center, 1990), p. 96. 83 husbands will not take them away; it is a type of enslavement."1 As w as generally the case, however, the king's protestations had little efficacy lh e exploitation of slave w om en throughout th e New W orld w as frequently centered upon the dom ination of their sexual function. Men of all social classes sought brown and black w om en as objects of sexual subjugation According to Morrissey, not only slave w om en but free w om en of color as well w ere "universally m aintained" by w hite m en of all ranks and condi tions. Som e black m ales of status also asserted their authority to force w om en into sexual relationships. While slave w om en did have som e offi cial protection against violence in som e settings, these proscriptions had little influence on behavior. Com plex rationalizations evolved to justify this exploitation,2 Muriel describes the interracial mixture that occurred in the early years of the Conquest as a "mestizaje based on violence" The first m estizo s or mixed bloods in the New World were, for the m ost part, products of rape or sexual enslavem ent. Marriage betw een espa Holes and i n d i o s never offi cially illegal did occur, however. The Crown initially encouraged inter 11^vrin, I^tin A m erican W omen, pp. 110 112. ^M arietta Morrissey, Slave W om en in the N ew World. G ender Stratification in the Caribbean (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 19H9). p 147; In Cuba medicinal pow ers w ere attributed to female slaves. According to one time slave Esteban Montejo: "There w as one type of sick ness the whites picked up, a sickness of the veins and m ale organs. It could only b e got rid of with black women; if the m an w ho had it slept with a Negress he was cured immediately." Esteban Montejo, The A utobiography o f a Runaway Slave, ed Miguel Barnet (New York: W orld Publishing 1969), p. 42. 84 racial marriage with som e reports indicating that as m any as one in three Spaniards had an Amerindian wife in the early colonial years. Spanish racism of the time was primarily directed at the Moors, Jews, and Africans; after a few decades passed, however, the concern for Umptcza d e sangre (purity of blood) w as extended to the Amerindian population as well. Muriel claims that Spanish indigenous marriages occurred only infre quently and that the practice died out almost completely by the end of the first century of conquest when large num bers of Hispanic women began to arrive in the new world. Even before their arrival, however, inter racial marriage was generally seen as unnecessary given the way in which many Spaniards kept indigenous sex slave/servants.1 1 Muriel, Los rccagimicntos d e mujeres, p. 2; In the Caribbean islands le gal penalties accrued to those European m en who choose to marry African or mulatta women. According to Boxer, Governors and city fathers com plained to the Crown that soldiers and even officers were violating the blood standard, "a regrettable state of affairs," perhaps because "the men in question were badly p aid ” In general, mixed marriage was the exception rather than the rule, concubinage sufficed for the satisfaction of sexual need without the social costs of marrying "beneath oneself.1 A white wife was a m ajor status symbol and this was what was generally aspired for Boxer, W om en in Iberian Expansion, pp. 36 38, According to Muriel, Spanish women played a m ost im portant role in the cultural transform ations that accom panied the Conquest, "with and through her, the essential values of W estern culture becam e a living reality in these lands." Muriel, Los rccagimicntos de mujeres, p. 1; Benjamin Keen and MarV Wasserman, A Short History o f Latin America (Boston: Houften Mifflin, 1984). p. 105; 'ITie process of m estizaje continued after the arrival of white women, however, with high num bers of illegitimate offspring in the plantation societies that developed throughout Latin America in the 16th and 17th centuries. Lavrin, Latin Am erican Women, p. 307; D ocum ent os sobre la mujer, vol. 2. ed. Centro de lnvestigacibn de la Realidad de America Latina (Managua), 1988, p. 45. 85 Marriage was a necessity for a w oman to be accorded adult status at all W om en of colonial M6xico w ho never married, rem aining single for w hatever reason (soltem nati) , continued to b e referred to as niftas or female children irrespective of their age According to de Oyuela, with the arrival of white wom en to Central America, a social organization developed that was based around the m arriage of white to white, “ with generations of m estizos w ho generally sought to ignore o r deny the existence of their in digenous grandm other, seeking to accom m odate them selves to the values of the im ported culture." W hat interracial marriage did occur, occurred alm ost entirely am ong m em bers of the low er echelons of society,1 Ihere is little evidence of indigenous w om en participating in prostitu tion in early colonial society Records seem to indicate that all of these 1 Muriel, i.os necogimientos d e mujeres, p. 101; de Oyuela, Notas, p. 9 ; Central American conqueror Pedro d e A lvarado m arried one ’ doria* Luisa Xochiquctzatl until that m arriage w as nullified by the arrival of dona Beatriz d e la Cueva who arrived later along with the legendary 57 white w om en from CPastille w ho accom panied her so as to m arry the other cap tains of the conquest. rfhe "philoprogenitive" Francisco d e Aguirre, con queror of CTiile (1500 1581), boasted that he had sired fifty m estizo offspring in the twenty three years prior to being joined b y his Spanish wife Boxer, W om en in ibcrian f-xpansion, p. 109 117; As lavrin describes the racial hi erarchy of matrimony: "The majority of w hite w om en preferred to m arry w hite men, although they ventured outside their ethnic group, marrying m ulattos or m ahscos, m ore often than their m en White m en w ere con servative, hardly marrying outside their group. A possible explanation for this situation ties in the fact that men could maintain illicit relations with w om en of low er socioethnic groups an d avoid legal com m itm ent, a situa tion that w as largely unacceptable for white wom en. M on seas and m estizos rarely m arried men of darker skin, m arrying whites, m e stizo s or mulattos. M ulatto w om en m arried m ostly within their group, but would also couple with m estizos, Indians, o r blacks, Indian w om en w ere m arried m ostly to Indian men, their second choices being m ulattos and m estizos." lavrin, I At in Am erican W omen, pp. 32 33. 80 w om en w ere Spanish o r m estiza 'fhe reason for this is undoubtedly lo cated in the rapacious nature of the Spaniard's relationship with indige nous women. A ccording to Muriel, M&xico City, for example, did not have even one house of prostitution during the first years of colonization, a sit uation which she suggests resulted in all likelihood from the fact that the dem and in question was satisfied by abusive and violent relations with in digenous w om en The first such establishm ent cam e into existence around 1558, “after society and the politico social order had becom e stabilized and m en had their families with them " It w as authorized by city authorities In colonial Mexico prostitutes were referred to as '7as perdidas"(the lost ones) and forced to w ear special clothing that indicated their dishonored station. Conversely, according to Muriel, "never did any m an have his honor jeop ardized by frequenting bo/detfcw"1 Ihe colonial Church regarded the 'natural order of things' with respect to m an w om an relations as consisting in the subjection of all females in a household to either their father o r husband, they always lived under one roof or the other. Fray Martin de Cbrdoba, w ho w rote a small treatise on the m oral virtues for queen Isabel, considered the state of virginity to rep resent the total perfection of woman, with the secular end of m arriage and propagation of the species. Wives were to b e loyal to their husbands and remain at hom e educating their children. The "carnal passions" were lo be 1 Muriel, Ixis recogim ientos d e mujeres, pp. 32 34; A myth of Indian prostitutes was propagated by som e colonial writers like Fadre Ocafta, how ever, w ho spoke of som e Indian w om en as "princesses" w ho are "like pub lie w om en to the Spaniards " lavrin, l^atin Am erican W omen, pp. 1USff 87 directed lo the "impura.<' or impure ones, the prostitutes.1 With respect to slavery, the Church participated fully even in the torture of slaves and reaped financial rewards through their cooperation. According to Galeano, in colonial Cuba "overseers applied their thongs of hide or hem p to the backs of pregnant females who had erred, but not before stretching them out with their bellies over a hole to avoid damaging ‘ the little creature', priests, who received five percent of sugar production as a tithe, gave O iristian absolution."2 I b e public institutionalization of wom en under I-atin American patri archy has a long history. Women who were ostracized in one way or an other during the colonial period were often forced to seek shelter in special places set aside for them. When a man accused his wife of adultery, for ex ample, she was frequently interred in a detention hom e called a dcposito Many of these internment houses, also referred to as recogimientos, she! tered large num bers of lower class wom en including prostitutes. The movement of the women was highly restricted and they w ere subjected to social ostracism.^ Still, the very fact that women who had been rejected by the patriarchal system or who sought to flee its violence and abuse had a refuge to turn to at all, represents, to som e extent, an advantage enjoyed by women in colonial society over what exists today. Ihe female who is out cast, homeless, abused, and penniless in today's neocolonial I a tin America, 1 Cited by de Oyuela, Notas, p. 10. 2Galeano, O pen Veins, p. 98. 3lavrin, l^tin Am erican W omen, pp. 35 36. 88 generally speaking, has no option other than to struggle for survival in the street. In addition to the role of victim, their is som e continuity between the female role as militant under colonialism and neocolonialism. In the decades prior to the wars of independence of the early 19th century, women participated in num erous uprisings, som e of which were class based Many paid with their lives as colonial authorities crushed the rebellions The Com unero revolts of 17H 1 in Socorro, Antioquia, Neiva, and Maracaibo saw women in leadership as well as supportive roles. W omen were in volved in the Corns slave revolt as well as the insurrection in Gual Lspaha in 1797.1 Throughout the wars of independence, women were subjected to widespread violence, frequently raped and m urdered by the armies sweep ing across their lands. Most important to this discussion, is the fact that the Imperial or loyalist forces captured and enslaved wom en forcing them to accompany the army to carry baggage and foodstuffs as well as provide sex ual services while they fared som ewhat better at the hands of the forces fighting for independence. This undoubtedly accounts, at least in part, for 1 According to Vitale, the Conimuneros revolt was initiated by women, they were also very distinguished as fighters during the Peruvian indigc nous rebellion of 1780 w here 40,000 indigenas "put the colonial regime in la Paz in check." Vitale, /a m i tad invisible, p. 63; Although women were not officially allowed to fight in Gran Colombia, w om en did join the inde pendence armies, sometimes in disguise. Records attest to the presence of women in com bat at the battle of Boyaca in 1819, for example. Lvangelista Tamayo, a veteran of this battle, continued to fight under Bolivar until she died with the rank of captain at San Luis de Coro in 1821. W omen also fought in the battles of Gameza, Pantafio de Vargas, and Ptchincha, liberat ing the Audencia of Quito in 1822 Ibid, p. 220. the broad female participation in the forces opposing the Crown; lower class and mixed blood females participated as did white w om en1 The role of female as com batant was most pronounced when it cam e to defending cities from Imperial / loyalist attack. Most of those engaged in com bat did so in defense of their communities.2 Advances in gender equality produced for women as a class by this ex periencc of successful anticolonial warfare, however, were minimal at best The militant participation of Latin American w om en in the liberation oi their societies from colonial rule did virtually nothing to raise their collec live status vis a vis their menfolk, at least officially or legally. The advent of female com batants advancing toward their liberation from male domi nation through participation in revolutionary violence would have to wait until our own time and the socialist struggles that would take place against neocolonial domination. 1 lav tin, I Jilin American Women, pp. 221 225. 2Juana Ramirez, for example, organized an all female battalion, Las Mujeres, that fought in defense of Maturin Venezuela. When Spanish (General Pablo Morillo first invaded the island of Margarita, upon encoun tering fierce resistance at the hand of female defenders, he remarked that “these gallant Am azons constantly worked the guns in the battalion under General Gomez; and the havoc which they m ade am ong the enem y suffi ciently proved the skill and dexterity they had acquired in the m anagem ent of their artillery" In the words of Simon Bolivar," .. even the fair sex, the delights of humankind, our am azons have fought against the tyrants of San Carlos with a valor divine, although without success The m onsters and tigers of Spain have shown the full extent of the cowardice of their na tion They have used their infamous arm s against the innocent feminine breasts of our beauties; they have shed their blood. They have killed many of them and they loaded them with chains, because they conceived the sub lime plan of liberating their beloved c o u n try Ib id . 90 Neocolonialism in Central America the Parlv Period ITie conditions of sexual subjugation associated with the colonial era im proved only very slowly in Central America. The growth of Kuropean U.S. hegemony over the region tended to reinforce the colonial legacy of class disparities, elongating hierarchical system s of patriarchal power and exacerbating the violent sexual abuse that resulted from its exercise. ITie U.S. first attacked Nicaragua in 1854, burning down the town of San Juan del Norte.1 A few years later, it recognized the 'government' of U.S. adventurer William Walker who had conquered Nicaragua, Honduras, and I - 1 Salvador at the head of a band of mercenary buccaneers Walker de clarcd himself president as well as com m ander in chief of the Armed forces, m ade Knglish the official language, reinstituted slavery, and tried to attract foreign investment.2 He represented a vanguard of Southern impe rialists who hoped to expand their slave em pire beyond the region that would becom e the Confederate States. He remains a perm anent symbol of imperialism for the Nicaraguan people.3 Jos6 Hilario Herdocia, Catholic 1 Noam Chomsky, Turning the Tide: U.S. Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Tcace (Boston South Knd Press, 1985), p. 12K . ^ITullip Berryman, The Religious Roots o f Rebellion: Christians in Central Am erican Revolutions (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books 1986), p. 51, Ralph le e W oodward, Jr., C'entral America: A Nation Divided (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), pp. 136 146; Richard Millet, Guardians o f the Dynasty: A History o f the U.S. created Cuardia Nacional de Nicaragua and the Sam ara Family (Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books, 1977), pp. 18ff.; Thomas W. Watker, Nicaragua: The la n d o f Sandino (Boulder, Colo.. West view IYess, 1981), pp. 13 15 ^Thc IJberals, w ho had initially invited Walker to Nicaragua, enlisting his support against their Conservative adversaries, were so disgraced there <)1 tieneral Vicar, sent his congratulations to Walker for the "victory ob tained," rejoicing that "now Nicaragua will leave behind the ruins in which it had been sunken for more than thirty years." The press in neigh boring Honduras com plained that Walker and his men had, "assassinated the m ost illustrious citizens, contracted its children as slaves, robbed and burnt its towns, violated its virgins and sacked the holy temples of God."1 Walker’ s men were eventually routed, he was executed by firing squad in Honduras. Marines w ere landed in 19119 initiating a period of direct U.S. military control that would last until 1933 (with the exception of one year). Adolfo l)laz, an accountant for an American mining company, w as forcefully in stalled in the presidency, beginning what would becom e a long tradition of U.S. rule through puppet dictators. In 1912, 2,700 Marines were sent in to quell a I Jberal revolt led by (General Benjamin Zeledbn. After it was put down, a symbolic presence of a one hundred man Marine delegation was sufficient to keep the opposition at bay until the mid 1920s. Withdrawn in after that they rem ained out of pow er until the presidency of Jo st Santos Zelaya (1893 1909) 1 Walker replied to the Vicar "I am very pleased to know that ccclcsiat authority will be working in favor of the current government. Without the help of religious sentim ents and those with which you educate [the Nicaraguan people], good government is not possible, the fear of god is the base of alt social and political organization . . . . I trust in god for the tri um ph of the cause that you have em braced and the m aintenance of the principals that it invokes. Without his assistance all hum an efforts are fu tile, but with the divine assistance a handful of men can overcom e a le gjon." Gregorio Selser, Nicaragua d e Walker a Som ova (Goyoacein, M6xico; Mex Sur editorial, 1984), pp. 48, 62. l) l 1925, they had to return one year later due to still another Liberal rebellion on the Atlantic coast led by Jos6 Maria Moncada. l aced with the prospect of new U.S. military intervention, all of the Liberal generals resigned with the exception of Augusto C6sar Sandino who continued to fight the Marines and the National Guard that they had been training until 1935 when the Marines were again withdrawn.1 Sandino's resistance met with unprecedented brutality from the frus trated forces of occupation who tortured and executed large numbers of civilians believed to be supporting his cause, launching aerial bom bard m ents and m achine gunning injured women and children from the air. lYesident Coolidge declared the most famous of these incidences "a heroic action of wari* and the aviators were decorated.2 Broad sectors of the U S Army raped and pillaged the civilian population, this was particularly true of those forces that saw com bat against Sandino's guerrilla Army of National Liberation One Marine of the period, Bill Gandall, later becam e a Solidarity activist who worked to oppose U.S. policy in Central America. According to the L A Times: For decades, Gandall was haunted by m em ories of participating in gang rapes, burning villages, and standing by while soldiers tortured and disemboweled rebel prisoners He left the Marines in 1928, soon after an incident in which he joined a group of 1 Berryman, Religious Roots o f Rebel/ion, pp. 52 53; Millet, (*uardians o f the Dynasty, p. 33; Walker, la n d o f Sandino, pp. 20ff. ^Sofonlas Salvatierra, Sandino o la Tragedia d c un pucblci {Madrid Im prenta Buropa, 1934); Selser, Walker a Somoza, pp 169 171. 93 drunken soldiers at a party in M anagua's main cem etery, cavort ing with prostitutes and scattering the bones of the dead.1 As would later be the case in the 197l)s, rebellion against tyranny exaccr bated the level of militarized rape, as the U.S. forces m et with arm ed resis tancc from Sandino's troops, they becam e even m ore brutal. What was seen as the justice of Sandino's cause attracted men (and a few w om en) from several different nations w ho volunteered to fight the forces of occupation along with him. His "ghost army" w as highly intem a tional, com prised of Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, Venezuelans, British, and Germans ITie occupation had understandably fostered w idespread sentim ents of anti Americanism. By the early 19311s, after sev eral years of trying to eradicate Sandino's forces, the Marines were still un successful l aced with the growing unpopularity of the occupation yet the continuing necessity of maintaining b oth U.S. prestige and what had be com e an orderly and profitable system for U S financial interests, W ashington decided that to maintain its hegem ony w ithout the presence of U.S. soldiers it would have to develop and train a native National 1 Los A ngeles Times, 11 April 1991, p. A22. Gandall actively opposed U.S. military intervention in the Third W orld until his death a few weeks after he w as allegedly knocked to the ground by police at an LA. dem on stration against the U S role in the Gulf W ar I listened to him speak once at a Solidarity gathering in San Antonio, Texas in the winter of 19S7 K H He confessed publicly to sharing in th e sexual abuse of Nicaraguan w om en which he claim ed w as w idespread am ong the U.S. forces; doing so was clearly a painful task for him. He saw it as im portant, however, insofar as history had been repeating itself in that regard throughout the Gontra W ar The fact that a m an as sensitive as himself w ho w ould go on to develop such a refined consciousness in the years that followed joined in this vio lent exploitation, is illustrative of the w ay in which it w as germ ane to the structure of military dom ination in question. 94 Guard that would remain loyal to its interests Liberal Juan Hautista Sacasa *won‘ the presidency in 1932 in a U.S. supervised election, appointing his nephew A nastasio "Tacho" Som oza Garcia as head of the U.S. trained National Guard. By 1933, the Ciuard was d eem ed strong enough to fill the pow er vacuum and U.S. troops were pulled out. Sandino's forces ceased belligerent activity, yet the Guard continued to pursue them into their m ountain strongholds, provoking them, according to Selser, by, am ong o th er things, raping the w om en in the area,1 The U.S. had claimed upon creating the guard that they would b e apolit ical, by June of 1936, however, Som oza had becom e the absolute dictator over Nicaragua After having invited Sandino and his generals to a m eet ing and assuring their safety, he had them m urdered in cold blood (according to m ost accounts, with the approval if not by order of the U.S. am bassador).2 In January of 1937 he assum ed the presidency and changed the constitution so as to allow himself to retain the office through succes sive term s until his assassination in 1956. His sons continued to rule the country as a family fiefdom until the Sandinista victory in 1979. By the tim e of their overthrow, the U.S. supported family dictatorship ow ned ap proxim ately a third of Nicaragua, the best land in the country and m any R eiser, Walker a Som oza, pp. 169 171, 200; As one North American planter understood in 1931: "Today we are hated and despised. This feeling has been created by em ploying the American m arines to hunt down and kill Nicaraguans in their own country " Q uoted by W alter l,a Leber, Inevitable Revolutions I Tie United States in C'entral Am erica {New York: Norton, 1984), p. 67. 21^Leber, Inevitable Revolutions, p. 68; For the m ost detailed account see Neill Macaulay, The Sandino A/fa/rKTiicago: Q uadrangle Books, 1967) ‘)5 major businesses. The National Guard served as a personal military force to maximize the interests of the dictator, his family, and his friends; its offi cers devoted themselves to systemic graft and corruption, much of it re volving around the exploitation of women.1 As with Central America generally, Honduran freedom from Spain in no way represented a social or economic revolution. It left colonial struc tures intact based on large agricultural plantations with a landholding elite, authoritarian governments, and corruption. After independence in 1821, regional conflicts aggravated by constant squabbling between Liberal and Conservative elites kept the country in acute political disarray Between 1824 and 1876 their were a reported 82 presidents and 170 civil wars, consti tutions having an average life span of eleven and one half years.2 Due to its failure to develop a locally owned and controlled agro export industry as occurred in neighboring countries and the dom inant position attained by 1 Throughout the period, the Somozas received elaborate financial and political support from the U.S. because they rem ained loyal supporters of its interests which fit hand in glove with their own. As F.D.R. put it, "Somoza is an S.OB. but at least he's our S.O.B," According to Selser, he was also reputed to be an admirer of and maintain good relations with Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco, despite his firm ties with the Roosevelt ad ministration Luis Mena Sol6rzano Nicaraguan Consul in New York who resigned his post in opposition to the dictatorship charges that Somoza sold Nicaraguan passports for huge sum s of money, "giving preferential treatm ent to foreigners with recognized Nazi connections who had never before been in Nicaragua." Selser, Walker a Somora, pp. 242, 259; Chomsky, Turning the Tide; p. 5. ^Folly Harrison and Orlando Hernandez A, Social and Institutional l*mfile Honduras (Washington: Agency for International Development, 1985), pp. 38 39. ()() foreign owned banana com panies after the turn of the century, Honduras cam e to be seen as the quintessential 'banana republic.’ Custodio locates the principal distinctiveness of Honduras’ economic history in its minerals which represented half of its export earnings until the early part of this century. Exploitation by the New York based Rosario Mining C Company beginning operations in 1880 and going on to com er 87% of the mineral export market- was particularly influential in the way in which Honduras becam e incorporated into the international economic structure.1 The Honduran labor m ovem ent was bom with the organiza tion of Rosario workers in 1900. W hen they protested working conditions which had led to num erous accidents, the com pany paid the local police to attack, wounding many strikers, military reinforcem ents w ere sent in fore ing the miners back to work and taking their leaders to prison.2 U S financiers began wresting economic hegem ony from Europe early in this century by servicing Honduras's European debts By 1910,80% of all banana land was under the control of U.S. financiers The banana enclaves neutralized the native bourgeoisie and depleted the land and labor force 1 Kambn Custodio l^fipez, "Derechos hum anos en hotiduras: deterioro y crisis," in Honduras: RcaUdad national y crisis regional (Tegucigalpa CEDOH (Centro de Documentacibn de Honduras) Uthopress Industrial, 1986), pp. 108 109 The com pany was originally attracted by concessions of fened by then lYesident Marco Aurelio Soto, himself a major stockholder in the com pany and one of the primary beneficiaries of the concessions which he prom ulgated Mark B . Rosenberg, "Honduras: An Introduction," in Honduras ('onfronts Its Future^ ed, Mark B . Rosenberg and Ihilip L Shepherd (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1986), p. 4 ^longino Becerra, I'volucirin histdrica d c honduras ( Tegucigalpa: Baktun, 1983), p. 151. ‘ 17 that might have been used for industrialization and diversification. According to laFeber, by 1912 Honduras was virtually indistinguishable from the U.S. fruit com panies and Honduran peasants had little if any hope of ever gaining control over their nation's soil. In 1918 the U.S. dollar becam e legal tender,1 As with the rest of the region, the U.S. military fol lowed U.S. investment. By the early 1920s it had found it necessary to send troops to Honduras six times to protect (or maximize the profits on) the investm ents of U.S. com panies.2 By the early 1920s an organized labor union m ovem ent began to reem erge out of the mutual benefit societies that had formed to provide 1 lafeber, Inevitable Revolutions, pp 45, 61, Cuyamel Fruit enjoyed what Custodio describes as a "captive market" since it insisted upon com pletely excluding the Honduran market from its plantations, workers were forced to trade entirely with the com pany store which stocked mostly ini ported goods brought into Honduras duty free. 'Ihey were generally forced to sign "individual contracts" which am ounted to a general renunciation on the part of the worker to any rights w hatsoever vis a vis the landowner. By 1925 the United Fruit Com pany (a product of merger with Cuyamal) owned a majority of the capital wealth of Honduras, By 1929 this Company alone controlled the rail system, port facilities, and nearly all of the banana and rubber producing land in the country North American interests also maintained a m onopoly over the prosperous silver mines. Custodio l^ipez, "Derechos hum anos en honduras," pp. 109 110; Liss, Radical (hought in C entral America, p 99. 2 Liss, Radical I bought in Central America, p. 100; la Leber, Inevitable Revolutions, p. 62; H onduras has never really enjoyed national civilian rule, at least with the exception of a brief period in the 1920s when the fruit com panies were squabbling amongst themselves, neutralizing the effee tiveness of the U.S. em bassy and well before the U.S. sponsored "professionalization" of the military. Philip L Shepherd, "Honduras Confronts Its Future: Some (.losing but Hardly Final Thoughts," in Honduras Confronts Its 1'uturq ed Mark B . Rosenberg and Philip L Shepherd (Boulder, Colo : Lynne Rienner, 1986), p. 238. 98 health and death benefits to workers and prom ote cultural activities. In 1927, the Honduran Communist Party was created from the ranks of orga nized labor, operating on dem ocratic principles. In 1929 the Communists started their own labor union organization, the Honduran Union l'ederation. By 1932 the owners of the fruit lands, fearing that their profits might be eroded by the continued freedom of labor to organize, incited a successful coup to install one of their hard line clients in pow er Tiburcio Carlas Andino promptly proceeded to crush the Communist party and its labor affiliates, going on to rule his country with the assistance of the U S 1 )epartm ent of State for the next seventeen years, retaining pow er until 1949,1 ITie "Cariafo," as it is known in Honduras, represented the epitom e of strong man dictatorship, ( ’ arias relentlessly persecuted his Liberal oppo nents, censured the press so thoroughly that only one new spaper was left in the country, and maintained an iron fisted control over the entire gov em m ent apparatus He was able to do this primarily because of the unflag ging support of the banana interests and his willingness to murder, im prison, or exile his opponents.2 In this context, developm ent of women's organizations that would militate for female rights was all but impossible In 19411 when the military com m ander for the Departm ent of Colbn slaughtered the residents of several entire villages, Carlas told a delegation 1 Robert J. Alexander, C om m unism in Latin America (New Brunswick, NJ.: Rutgers University lYess, 1957), p. 323; Chomsky, Turning the Tide, p. 4. ^Rosenberg, Mark B . "Honduras: An Introduction," pp. 6 7. 99 of local women who protested the action, "Would that 1 had seventeen like him " His strategy against his opposition becam e known as "encierro, d estierro y entierm ,‘(round them up, throw them out, and bury them). In 1944 a peaceful dem onstration in San Pedro Sula was fired upon by troops who killed over one hundred unarm ed civilians Plutarco Muftoz, then president of the National Congress, denied that there had been a single ca sualty and explained that the blood on the sidewalks was due to the fact that "the female dem onstrators must have been m enstruating"1 Indigenous resistance in PI Salvador as in m any other parts of the Spanish domains had rem ained fierce throughout the early colonial pe riod 2 ITiere was a resurgence of resistance and revolt on the part of the m asses following 'independence' in 1821 Kxpectations of greater freedom were raised only to be shattered by the reality of wealth distribution which becam e even more polarized between the haves’ and the h av e nots' in the years that followed. Discontent boiled over into a major uprising in 1 William Krehm, Democracies and lyrannies o f the C aribbean (W estport Conn.: I^wrence Hill, 1984), pp. 91 99. 2 According to Heriberto M ontano "by 1650 .. the struggles against the indigenous population in rebellion were becom ing m ore and m ore tense and bloody " As early as 1529, there was an indigenous uprising against the Spaniards Kstete and Pedrarias in the province of San Salvador. Montano notes that San Salvador had to be founded several different times due to the destruction of the first three attem pts, each by an indigenous attack. As with revolutionaries in general, he sees the post Conquest history of Salvador as a nearly unbroken succession of resistance struggles against colonial exploitation, "a history of uprisings against the Spanish, the ere oles, those who replaced the creoles after independence, and the landown ing descendants of the creoles" Heriberto Montano, "1932: H fin de la con quista," Aftem ativa {San Salvador), 19 October 1992, p. 9 . 100 1K33 led by the Indian leader A nastasio A quino 'against white dom ina tu rn ’ Rebellions occurred sim ultaneously in Sonsonate, Uhalatenango, San Salvador, and San Miguel. As they w ere quelled, indigenous ow ned land or ejidales was expropriated in favor of the largest landowners. In the violent afterm ath, the political elite, divided into opposing cam ps of (Conservatives and Liberals, jockeyed for position am ongst them selves1 Political pow er becam e even m ore concentrated in oligarchic hands during the first three decades of this century Ih e Catholic hierarchy stood firmly beside the elite throughout the critical period betw een 1927 and 1932, viciously attacking socialist doctrine which it saw as "antithetical to reli gion, family, and state," noting quite correctly, that class struggle and the elimination of private property would b e "damaging to the established or dcr."2 When political opposition to tyranny did ap p ear during this period even by the nescient m iddle class terror and slaughter sufficed to quell the dissent. W om en frequently stood at the forefront of political resistance and paid a high price for doing so. On D ecem ber 25,1922, for example, num er ous female supporters of opposition candidate Dr. Miguel Torres Molina m arched through the center of the capital city and w ere prom ptly cut down by rifle and machine gun fire. A calvary charge w as ordered, and, despite the fact that the officer in question refused to execute the order, there were 1 Thom as P. A nderson, M atanza 1 :1 Salvador's C om m unist Revolt o f /9.?2( I Jncoln University of Nebraska Press, 1971), pp. 16ff. 2Jorgp Arias CkSmez, l arabundo Marti lisbozo biogr&fico (San Josfc: Hditorial Universitaria Centroam ericana, 1972), pp. 39 48. 101 many victims, the majority women.1 rITie intellectual climate of 1 - 1 Salvador in the 1920s with respect to women's liberation can be seen in ref erence to its m ost prom inent philosopher of the period, Alberto Masferrer (1868 1932), a liberal humanist reform er w ho advocated state capitalism; he was branded a communist by the regime, according to Liss, "especially when he wrote about the need to liberate women from bondage"2 Anderson describes members of the upper classes of the period as tend ing to be "parasitic," the young women "purely decorative and given chiefly to gossip"; the young men, "the sefloritas, as they were derisively called, spent m ost of their time playing pool or dominoes, or with their lower class mistresses, while waiting for their fathers to die so that they could inherit the family estates." With respect to the lower class, he ob served that, "Given the marginal conditions of life of the rural worker, the frequent necessity of pulling up stakes and moving to another part of the country, and the general added expense of living with a wife and children, it is not surprising that in many cases a man, forced to go about in search of work, takes up the handiest woman he can find" He recounts seeing at one coffee plantation, "miles of cardboard shacks, mostly refrigerator cartons, which served as hom e for a large num ber of people." He was told by a cof fee planter that in the spring and sum m er these pasteboard towns were in habited exclusively by w om en and children, "waiting for the harvest, when the m en will com e who will, hopefully, support them for a time and not 1 Mariano Gastro Mordn, Funcidn polltica del cjdrcito salvadorafto cn cl pnesentc sigloiSan Salvador: UC’A Hditores, 1983), pp 42 43. 2Liss, Radical Thought in Central America, p. 67. 102 beat them to o much." A nderson was assured that this was the long stand ing custom of the region,1 While its roots are centuries deep, revolutionaries and their historians alike see the rebellion and subsequent m a ta n za (slaughter) of 1932 occur ring sim ultaneously with Sandino's struggle in Nicaragua as the begin ning of 1 - 1 Salvador's revolution. A com plex set of factors had coalesced by that tim e which accounted for the high levels of desperation and determ i nation that boiled over into this landm ark bloodbath. Coffee prices turn bled with the onset of the great depression, from $15.75 a bag in 192K to $5.97 in 1932 2 Ihe particularly desperate circum stances which this brought about for landless peasants coincided with the rise of com m unist leaders in the cities w ho were able to forge com m on cause with indigenous leader ship in the cam po? Ihe Indians could still rem em ber their com m unal 1 Anderson, Matanza, pp. 11 14. 2Robert A rm strong and Janet Shenk, Izl Salvador 7Tie /'ace o f Revolution (Boston: South I’ nd Tress, 19K2), p. 22. ^Castro Moran concludes that the com m unist leaders of the 1932 rebel lion and their im m ediate followers, "acted on their own behalf, with very little direction and aid from the international com m unist movem ent." He sees the insurrection as "essentially autonom ous" with Russia "serving as nothing m ore than inspiration" A ccording to him, the indigenous rebels w ere m otivated by the influence of "ancestral hatred," chanting "down with imperialism"; ladtnos and m estizos "represented the vile aftertaste of the Spanish dom inators in their subconsciousness." C ’ astro Mor^n, l uncidn polltica del cjdrcito salvadorafto, pp. 129,147; According to U.S. at tach6 to Central America A. R. Harris, by D ecem ber of 1931 postal authori ties in the capital city had confiscated 3,000 pounds of com m unist litera lure. It had com e from New York, however, not Moscow. Anderson, Matanza, p p K 3 K 4. 103 lands and deeply resented their expropriation by the oligarchy, leaving them landless peons.1 Among the goals sought by the revolutionaries, in addition to the nationalization of properties, free universal education, and progressive taxation: was equal opportunity for women.2 None of this was to materialize, however, as the rebels many of whom were female were crushed; approximately 30,000 Indians w ere slaughtered, including many women and children. In the aftermath of the rebellion, the United States stepped up its training and arming of Salvador's security forces in the in terests of preventing such disturbances in the future. Cieneral Hernandez Martinez cam e to power in December 1931 in a mil itary coup which deposed lYesident Arturo Araujo, winner of what is gen erally regarded as the freest and most honest election in Salvadoran history (with the exception of March April 1994). Although himself a m em ber of the elite, Araujo had allowed som e breathing space in which labor unions and the political ljeft were able to organize (which is partly why he was de posed). Shortly after the coup, Communists appeared on the ballot for mu nicipal offices for the first time in history. When they won a few seats in the western part of the country, Martinez prohibited them from taking of 1 W hile Berryman points out that the growing agitation throughout the 1920s resulted in part from the news of revolutions in Mexico, Russia, and China, and increasing labor organization, he sees it primarily as *'a sponta neous rebellion arising out of peasant and Indian resentm ent for the mis treatm ent of decades and centuries." Berryman, Religious Roots of Rebellion, pp. 92 93, 2 Anderson, Matanza, p. 67. 104 fice, which set off the rebellion of the Com m unists and their indigenous ai lies.1 While insurgent groups attacked several different small cities or tow ns in the w estern part of the country, the principal target w as the town of Sonsonate and its military garrison. The rebels drove the military into the garrison but were unable to take it since they w ere arm ed with little m ore than m achetes Despite the fact that the insurgents num bered in the thou sands and they w ere able to briefly take charge of several villages or towns, they enjoyed little real success and were unable to hold on to any of their gains due primarily to their limited w eaponry, training and experience Ibis was an insurrection bom from blind hope and desperation, doom ed to failure from the outset. The dictator waisted little time in organizing his forces of reprisal, ordering his soldiers not to take prisoners. The bodies of m any thousands w ere shoveled into huge m ass graves, men, women, and children. According to (Castro Mor2in, "thousands of dead covered the cities and the campos, and with the first rays of the new day, arm ed squads exe cuted innocent and guilty alike."2 The United States stood by ready to assist the dictatorship had it been needed 3 1 Liss, Radical thought in Central America, p. 6K 2( Castro MorAn, Funcidn polltica d el cjdrcito salvadorafto, pp. 157 159. ^Both U.S. and (Canadian naval vessels sto o d offshore during the slaughter and the U.S. Marines in Nicaragua w ere on alert. It w as "found unnecessary for the United States forces to land," however, according to Chief of Naval O perations Admiral lYatt, because "the Salvadoran (Jovem m ent had the situation in hand." M artinez, w ho claim ed that he "com m unicated telepathically with the W hite House," w as granted infor mal U.S. recognition at once in tribute to his success in "putting dow n dis 105 It is im portant to note that the rebels did commit som e atrocities, mur ders of non com batants, and, according to 'official' accounts, rape as well C ’ astro Mor£n, for example, accepts without question the claim that rape at rebel hands was widespread.1 One must exercise extreme caution here, however, in assessing this charge due to the way in which this history was recorded by the white male victors who, like white slave owners in the U.S. south, were undoubtedly influenced to som e extent by racist paranoia over the idea of sexual contact betw een slaves/natives and white women, not to mention eager to justify the retaliatory slaughter that ensued. It is also im portant to bear in mind the way in which these attacks were directed in addition to the military against large landowners While m ost were arguably undeserving of this ultimate form of chastisement, given the fact that they had been the primary force behind the violent theft of in digenous land and the destruction of indigenous life and culture, profiting from this gradual genocide, it is difficult to view them as entirely innocent It is not difficult to imagine the operant rational of the rebels who executed reprisals upon them and, morally speaking, important to acknowledge the element of self defense involved in this revolutionary violence at least when set into historical context. What is perhaps most telling is the ratio of atrocities com m itted by the belligerent parties. Historians generally put the figure at 100 to 1 with the overwhelmingly greater retaliatory slaughter orders," full recognition followed in 1934, in violation of an agreement with the Central American states that the United States would not con tinue to recognize military dictators without free elections, Chomsky, Turning the Tide, p 44; Liss, Radical Thought in Central America, p 69 1 (Castro MorAn, I'unciAn polltica del ejdrcito salvadoraho, p. 141. ]()(> coming, for the m ost part, after hostilities had already ceased. These were victims of a process of reprisal with a clear character of an ethnic cleansing operation, som ething of a large scale version of the earlier U.S. ‘ m op up' at W ounded Knee. (M assacres by the U.S. calvary w ere similarly 'justified/ in part, on the basis of the charge that the Indians had violated o r "outraged" while women).1 A similar pattern would be repeated in the contem porary conflict w here today's rebels w ere guilty of the assassination of som e non com batants (governm ent inform ers/politicians), in no w ay com parable, however, to the w holesale slaughter for which the governm ent's forces b e cam e so renowned. In the years following the matanza, M artinez consolidated his authority and was able to continue ruling with U .S. cooperation until a military coup in 1944. According to Castro MorAn (himself a career military officer), by 1937 it was clear that Martinez and his associates fully adm ired and sym pa thized with Hitler, Mussolini, and the totalitarian states that they repre sented, the official party, Fro I’ atria, m aneuvering to convert itself into "the only party within a Nazi Fascist State."2 1 Susan Brownmiller, Against O ur Will: M en W om en a n d K apci New York: Bantam Books, 1975), pp. 155 156. The Salvadoran population of to day is much m ore ethnically hom ogeneous than that of neighboring G uatem ala with only a few small scattered groups w ho still maintain strong ancestral ties to indigenous culture. While the disintegration of tra ditional indigenous com m unities w as already well under w ay by 1932, after that tim e m ost indigenous people struggled to abandon identification with indigenous culture, for obvious reasons, particularly its m ost publicly visi ble forms of dress and speech. 2Castro MorAn, Funcidn polltica del cjdreito salvadoratto, p. 162. 107 From independence in 1K21 until a progressive coup in 1944, Guatemala was ruled by military dictators who generally cam e from and owed their al legiance to the Guatemalan oligarchy. Land is power in Guatemala and the military has always served to protect that power. 'Che economic structure in the 19th century changed very little until the advent of coffee and the ar rival of large am ounts of foreign capital during the last few decades As elsewhere in Central America, both Kuropean and U.S. business concerns were pouring in by the turn of the century With a Liberal triumph over a ( Conservative government in 1871 and the installation of the dictatorship of Justo Rufino Barrios, mass cxpropria tions of both Indian and Church lands occurred, making way for King Coffee. New forced labor regulations were instituted, forms of debt bondage that forced peons to perform the labor necessary for the mushrooming agro export sector While the Germans were the first to capitalize on these opportunities, the intimate relationship betw een Guatemalan elites and U S corporations also began to take shape with the beginning of the twenty two year dictatorship of Manuel Hstrada Cabrera in 1K 9H . Under his reign the United Fruit Company began banana production, completely ex em pted from taxes for the first twenty five years. In 1904 the International Railways of Central America, a United Fruit subsidiary, obtained a 99 year lease to complete a railway from the capital city to the Atlantic Coast and acquired 170,000 acres of prime banana land. Within twenty five years, 108 United fruit had becom e Guatemala's largest landowner, employer, and exporter1 By 1923, as the country was rapidly being sold away to foreign interests and the peasant progressively stripped of h is/h er rights, a Communist party formed out of the nescient labor movement; the U.S. quickly decried the spread of Bolshevism. Despite repression, they were able to inspire the creation of the Guatemalan Regional Federation of W orkers in 1925. In 1927 the Anti Imperialist league established a chapter and a revitalized CCommunist party based at the National University advocated mild land re forms designed to retain Guatemalan control over its own resources and preserve worker rights. They enjoyed little efficacy, however; by the time that Jorge Ubico came to pow er in 1931, one third of the nation's land was already controlled by foreign interests, predom inantly U.S., all opposition was labeled "communist" and subjected to a virulent repression 2 1'1’ om Barry, Beth Wood, and Deb IYeusch, IXillars a n d Dictators A C.uide to C'cntral A m erica (Albuquerque Resource Center, 1982), p. 11K . 2 Archer C. Bush, O rganized la b o r in Guatemala, 1944 1949 A C ase S tu d y o f an A dolescent la b o r M ovem ent in an U nderdeveloped C ountry (Hamilton, N Y .: Colgate University, 1950), pt. 3, pp. 1 2; Mario M ontcforte Toledo, (Guatemala M onograffa so cio ld g ca t M6xico: Institutode Invesiigaciones Sociales, Universidad Nacional Aut6nom a do Mfcxico, 1965), p. 404; Jim Handy, CM o f th e Devil. A H istory c f (Guatemala (Boston: South Hnd I’ rcss, 1984), p. 119, Juan Jos6 Ar6valo, Guatemala's first presi dent during the dem ocratic opening of 1944 1954, would later look back at this period of U.S. commercial expansion, describing it as 'bard and ugly," and condem ning it as a form of "political, judicial, military, and econom ic imperialism, predicated on a false sense of superiority." He saw U S. busi nessm en as "virtuosos of gold" who exploited 'With intelligence, clock work precision, scientific coldness, harshness, and great arrogance" In a clear reference to the M onroe Doctrine, he referred to the "Yankee shark" who reserves for himself the right to "eat pur6e of latin American sar 1()() According to Jonas, liberalism, up to and including the Ubico period, signified a "re form ation of colonial class relations" which perm itted the incorporation of the the coffee growers and their urban counterparts into the dom inant criatlo bourgeoisie For her, the key to the m aintenance of this system was the "very tight alliance betw een the Guatem alan oligarchy and U.S. interests." Ubico cam e to pow er with overt U.S. support, begin ning his career working with the Rockefeller Foundation and forging tics with the U.S. State D epartm ent as early as 19191 Ubico ruled with an iron fist until 1944. In 1933 alone, he shot one hun dred trade union, student, and political leaders in addition to restoring laws on Indian 'Vagrancy," according to which each Indian had to carry a book listing his days of work, if they w ere deem ed insufficient, he would face time in prison or at hard labor without com pensation. Ubico granted the ow ners of coffee and banana plantations com plete exem ption from criminal responsibility including what am ounted to the legal right to kill their workers, a concession which would be revived in 1967 under the supposedly "democratic" governm ent of Julio G6sar M endez M ontenegro.2 dines," Juan Josfc ArCvalo, The Shark a n d th e Sardines (Ncw York: Lyle Stuart, 1961), pp. 1 1 ) 11, 50 51, 105 106, 149 156, 197. 1 Susanne Jonas, 77re Hattie fo r (Guatemala: Rebels, D eath Squads, a n d U.S. Tow er (Boulder, Colo.: W estview !*ress, 1991), pp. 19 20. 2Ga1eano, O pen Veins, p. 126; This 1932 decree exem pted landow ners from the legal consequences of any action taken in protecting their goods and land, which is the case, for th e m ost part, today as well. A ccording to Grieb, it allowed, in effect, a fin quero to shoot anyone he found stealing or dam aging crops, w ood, or any other item on his land, he could always shoot a recalcitrant laborer with impunity by contending that he or she had been caught pilfering Kenneth J. Grieb, G uatem alan Caudtflo The Regim e 1 10 According to Grieb, Ubico's regime was "clearly a totalitarian govern m e n t. . able to control every aspect of the life of the populace." He points out that in a country the size of Guatem ala it is difficult to hide from a well developed intelligence apparatus that routinely tortures and assassinates its opposition Secret agents w ere everyw here m onitoring gatherings Anyone put under investigation w as shunned by friends and relatives because of Ubico's policy of guilt by association. Those w ho ran afoul of the dictator ship were shot arbitrarily or disappeared into infamous prisons, "where they were routinely subjected to brutal tortures until they signed state ments, usually prc drawn." All new s com ing into the country was received on the country's only receivers at the national palace and carefully edited prior to release to the local press.1 Ubico struggled to ingratiate himself with the Yankees, constantly pro claiming G uatem ala to b e the U.S.'s closest friend in the region. He placed an Am erican officer in com m and of the F-scuela Polit6cnica or Military A cadem y of the country. W here American officers had previously served only as advisors, U.S. M ajor John A. Considine, the director, w as given the rank of Brigadier General in the G uatem alan Army Ubico said he wished to m ake the school "as near like W est Point as w as possible under condi tions here." Grieb notes, however, that a strong current of opposition to the Yankee intervention in Nicaragua was evident throughout Guatemalan o f large Ubico, G uatem ala 1931 1944 (Athens Ohio University lYess, 1979), p. 40 1 Grieb, G uatem alan (B udilin, pp. 42 43. 1 1 1 society in the Ubico era, a sentim ent which undoubtedly applied to inter vention at hom e as well.1 Under Ubico, not only did Das K apitaldisappear from library shelves, but official use of the word ‘ worker’ w as prohibited and the use of term s such as union, strike, proletariat, and lab o r justice were punishable by tor ture and im prisonm ent.2 The Guatemalan system of education rem ained abysmally underdeveloped. The dictator took great pains to stifle the propa gation of enlightened political and social doctrines that could foster at tem pts at m ass education and political participation. Under these circum stances, progress tow ards female em ancipation was virtually impossible Married wom en w ho lived in urban areas were expressly forbidden by Ubico from working outside of the home. It w as deem ed necessary for them to receive training only in "feminine arts and dom estic tasks''^ 1 Ibid., pp. 70 75. IXie to personal rivalry betw een Ubico and his strong m an counterpart M artinez in H I Salvador, Ubico balked at recognition of his government. The U.S. operated behind the scenes to coerce Ubico to go along with a U.S. initiative tow ards recognition. Ibid., pp. 94 95. 2 Hiss, Radical th o u g h t in C'entral Am erica, p 45 ^GITGU A (Ciencia y tecnnlogia para guatem ala asociacibn civil), "Situacibn d e la m ujer en Guatemala," vol. 5. (Guatemala: CITGUA, 19H H ), p. 5 112 CHAPTER THREE FEMALES AS VICTIMS In what follows, 1 attem pt to account for the prim ary w ays in which fe males in Central America have been victims of sexual violence in the post W.W.ll. period, particularly insofar as this violence has been a direct prod uct of political dom ination and exploitation. As in the preceding chapter, 1 argue that the neocolonial hegem ony exercised by the United States over each of the Central American nations under discussion has been the princi pal overriding factor in the perpetuation of structures of systemic violence against females. Here, I exam ine the particularly acute form s of this vio lence that developed over the last several decades. First, however, 1 begin with a discussion of the w ay in which the Central A m erican situation must b e seen as part of the global context of political conflict associated with the Cold War, especially with respect to Vietnam and Cuba historical prece dents for the anticom m unist crusade in Central America. The violent sex ual dom ination rape, enslavem ent, and prostitution of w om en and girls which accom panied the U.S.'s counter insurgency program in Central America, is part of a general pattern associated with U.S. military dom ina tion. The Cold W ar Context U.S. intervention in Central America, seeking to destroy revolutionary m ovem ents, w as explained, justified, and funded on the basis of anticom m unism -with so m e validity since m any Central A m erican revolutionar ies w ere trained in Russia, Vietnam, and C uba and th e Sandinistas were 113 arm ed by the Eastern Bloc. As suggested by Angela Gilliam, however, to in terpret every struggle for national equality in the Third World as a result oi 'Soviet clientism1 is "the ultimate in racist ideology" because it assum es that "oppressed peoples would b e content to continue being the world's chattel w ere it not for 'outside agitation.'"1 Still, the Central Am erican con flict represents one im portant theater of a global geopolitical confrontation which began, in its contem porary form, with the close of W.W.I1, Som e radical feminists have w ent so far as to brand contem porary capi talist pow er structures with the label of 'fascism.1 2 They d o this so as to 1 Angela Gilliam, "W om en's Equality and National Liberation," in Ih ird W orld W o m en a n d th e Politics o f Feminisrr\ ed. C handra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Kusso, and Lourdes Torres (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), p. 224. 2 A ndrea Dworkin, for example, sees "an ascendancy of fascism in this country (the U.S.] right now, in the program of th e Right." She clearly equates fascism with female sexual slavery since "opposition to this pro gram" boils down, for her, to an "opposition to men ow ning women." A ndrea Dworkin, le tte r s R o m a W ar Z one: W ritings 1976 /9#9(N ew York: E , P. Dutton, 1989), p. 167; Angela Davis, writing in the late 1980s like Dworkin, w arned that w e w ere living "in a tim e of threatened U.S. inva sions of Central America," a period in which "the threat of fascism presents unprecedented dangers." Angela Y. Davis, W om en, Culture, a n d Politics (New York: Random House, 1989), p. 21; Ihe charge of fascism in the United States has been a com m on com ponent of criticism from the left which has sought to portray the Right (particularly under R eagan/ Bush) in continuity with the fascist ethos that Am erica helped to defeat. The charge has been particularly com m on am ong those concerned with social justice for Central America. Francis Boyle, for example, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois, publicly charged that Reagan adm inistra tion officials com m itted "som e of the sam e types of international crimes" as the Nazis tried at N urem burg He referred to these officials as "war crim inals" and urged that they b e held accountable under U.S. and interna tional law for "complicity in the com m ission of international crim es in Nicaragua." Cited by Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, W ar A gainst th e /b o r lo w In ten sity C onflict a n d Christian Faith (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1989), 1 14 draw attention to the brutality that has resulted from capitalist patriarchy and the w ay in which U.S. policy has exhibited, to som e extent at least in its foreign policy- certain parallels to the fascism s of W.W.1I. While this charge is som ew hat anachronistic, it d o es have a m easure of historical va lidity d u e to the connections that developed at the close of the w ar betw een fascist and Allied ‘ intelligence.1 A s Jonas observes, U.S. intervention in G uatem ala "was the first expression in Latin Am erica of a policy initially developed in Greece” w here the U.S. poured in hundreds of millions of dollars to subvert labor organization and crush a revolutionary uprising m ilitarily.1 Greece w as part of a m ore general program w here the U.S. worked against the largely communist, antifascist resistance. The spread of a fascist ethos in Latin America w as exacerbated by a collaboration with Nazi ele m ents in response to the new com m on enem y of com m unism . N um erous Nazi officials w ere protected by the U.S. which helped m any to relocate to South Am erica w here they worked with right wing political elements, eventually training torturers w ho w ould apply their trade in Central p. 80; Even m oderate critics such as N orth Am erican theologian Robert McAfee Brown w orried that the United States might slide dow n a slippery slope to "fascism with a friendly face." Robert McAfee Brown, Saying Yes a n d Saying N o (Philadelphia: W estm inster Press, !986), pp. 16 17; H onduran historian Ventura Ramos sees "war as the norm al form of in tem ational relations" as inherent in "fascist groups of th e m onopolistic bourgeoisie w hose principal center is located in the United States," previ ously having been "Germany hitlerista" Ventura Ramos, H onduras: Guerra y anti n a d o n a lid a d (Tegucigalpa: Editorial Guaymuras, 1987), p. 11H 1 Susanne Jonas, The B attle fo r G uatemala: Rebels, D eath Squads, a n d U.S. P o w e rlBoulder, Colo.: W estview Press, 1991), p. 33. 115 America.1 According to Chomsky, "The postw ar US project of crushing the anti fascist resistance with Nazi assistance established a direct link between Nazi Germany and the killing fields in Central America."2 1 According to Chomsky. "In pursuit of its actual global geo political ob jectives, the U.S. turned at once to a m ajor post liberation task; dispersing or destroying the anti fascist resistance in favor of m ore trustworthy ele rnents, often fascist collaborators .... The 'Black International1 in Latin America, in which [Claus] Barbie w as a leading figure, included Dutch Nazi Alfons Sassen (who 'escaped' from Holland after working with US intelli gence) in Leu a dor, Friedrich Schwend (who worked with US intelligence in Austria and Italy and was sent to Latin America under false identity papers supplied by US intelligence when he was w anted for m urder in Italy) in Peru, W imsassen (who 'escaped' from US custody in Holland) in Argentina, and W alter Rauff (the inventor of the first gas chambers) in Chile. One of its leading figures was SS Obersturm fuehrer Otto Skorzeny, who had rescued Mussolini and w hose last assignment for Hitler was to train the 'Werewolves', who were to fight to the death after the Allied vie tory. He developed plans for a partisan war against the Soviet Union (sent on to Eisenhower), then was released by a US military court, then 'escaped' from US custody after he had been jailed by the Germans. He worked as co ordinator of the Latin America based Black International from fascist Spain, where his US advisor described him with great admiration as 'a gen tleman of Victorian knighthood'. The top figure was Hans Ulrich Rudel, former Luftwaffe air ace, who had close personal and business relations with dictators Stroessener in Paraguay and Pinochet in Chile Noam Chomsky, Turning th e Tide: U.S. intervention in Central A m erica and the Struggle for Peace (Boston: South End Press, 1985), pp. 194 200. ^Ibid., As he observes, the U.S. showed little concern when pro Franco, pro German elements overturned Colombian dem ocracy in 1949 creating what the New York Times described as "a totalitarian state, directly insti gated by the (fascist) Government of Spain on the very frontiers of the Panama Canal," with hundreds of people killed, even though this seizure of pow er was far m ore brutal than the Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia in 1948. Some m ajor U.S. proponents of anticommunism, m ost notably Ronald Reagan, have com e close to public sym pathy with ex plicitly fascist regimes. A few m onths prior to visiting the graves of SS vet erans in the Bitburg cemetery, Reagan criticized Americans who fought for the Spanish Republic against Franco's forces by saying “1 would say that the individuals that went over there w ere in the opinions of m ost l i b Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco provided im portant international role m odels for the U.S. supported "pocket dictators" who ruled Central Amenca in the 1930s and beyond.1 Fascist or neofascist ideology has played a central role in the politics of sexual violence and feminist critics deem it im portant to note the similarities betw een the violence m eted out towards women at Nazi hands and what they consider to be the neofascism of the Central American Right.2 Americans fighting on the wrong side." As Chomsky observes, "Reagan ap parently felt that they should have been fighting for the Fascists ... simply m ore honest than most of his cohorts." 1 Mariano Castro MorAn, FunciOn d el ejCrcito salvadorafto en el pre sen te sig lo tSan Salvador UCA Editors, 1983), p. 162. 2According to Bunster Burotto, for example: "Women now working on issues and problem s of wom en survivors of the Nazi holocaust, note many, too many, connections and particularly powerful ones with the situ ation of women in latin America; gender defined issues whether in hid ing underground actions, 'passing' in interrogation, in camps. As males were in hiding a m other and her children were often picked up for 'interrogation' a m other threatened with the m urder of her daughter, the daughter threatened with being forced to watch the torture of her m other " Ximena Bunster Burotto, "Surviving Beyond Fear W om en and Torture in Latin America" in W om en a n d C hange in Latin America, ed. June Nash, and Helen 1 Safa (South Hadley, Mass.: Bergin & Carvey, 1986), p. 320. Traditional Christian misogyny becam e harnessed to the racist structure of European fascism. Millet describes the Nazi ethos as "generally neo puritan as it applied to women, often neo pagan as it applied to men." Neofascist political ideology in Central America has functioned similarly to Italian fascism which, according to de Beauvoir, systematically hindered the progress of feminism: "in alliance with the church, it left the family un touched, continuing a tradition of feminine slavery.1 ' Simone de Beauvoir, The S eco n d S e x(New York; Alfred A. Knopf, 1953; Random House, Vintage Books Edition, 1974). p. 141; Kate Millet, Sexual Politics (London: Virago, 1985), p. 166, 1 17 I’ hc line betw een brothel and torture cham ber w as often a fine one in W.W. II. and b o th sides w ere guilty, to som e extent, of militarized rape and the institutionalization of sexual exploitation.1 Within five years after German surrender, the U.S. would b e organizing structures of sexual slav c iy /ra p e along similar lines as those of the Nazis in occupied Russia. According to a docum ent just recently declassified by the U.S. governm ent, for example, som e 300 hundred Korean w om en suspected of being Com m unist Party m em bers w ere confined to a w arehouse and repeatedly raped by U.S. forces during the fall of 1950.2 1The British and American militaries have generally sought to deny their involvem ent in militarized prostitution. A ccording to Enloe: "Although British and Am erican military establishm ents at various times have been directly involved in the organization of w om en to sexually ser vice soldiers, both traditionally deny any such direct involvement, and even deny they have any policy on prostitution at all. The British military especially likes to distinguish its 'non policy* policy from w hat is com m only referred to as the 'continental system / the French policy of the di r e d military control of brothels." The British military did bring brothels und er d ire d control, however, in Tripoli, N orth Africa, for example, putting a Royal Army Service Corps non com m issioned officer in charge of each. Ih e racist an d classist com ponents of these institutions was evident in that each of the arm y's different ranks and racial groups had its own brothel. The institutionalization of sexual exploitation continued after Allied victory. After their defeat, the Japanese governm ent set up the "Recreation and A m usem ent A ssodation/' referred to as th e RA.A., inau gurated in a cerem ony in front of the Imperial Palace on August 28,1945. The "new Japanese w om an" w as recruited for this service by advertise m ents which offered lodging clothing and food provided. Within three m onths, 25 brothels h ad sprung up. At its height, the R A .A em ployed ap proxim ately 70,000 w om en as "comfort girts" in the sexual service of U.S. forces of occupation. Cynthia Gnloe, D oes K haki B ecam e You? ih c M ilitarization o f W om en's Lives (Boston: South End Press, 1983), pp. 27 29. 2Bruce Cummings, "Silent But Deadly: Sexual Subordination in the U.S. Korean Relationship," in le t th e G ood Tim es Roll: P rostitution a n d 118 V ietnam The sexual violence/exploitation which becam e an integral part of the global anticom m unist cam paign w as particularly evident in Vietnam, w here foreign dom ination had a very long history.1 U nder the French, in digenous people were enslaved and often forced to live b elo w the level of subsistence.2 The French successively lost ground against the anticolonial revolutionaries, becom ing increasingly reliant on the United States w hose post w ar policy w as to bolster all colonial regim es in order to m eet the threat of international com munism . By 1954 the United States w as paying for 78% of the French w ar effort. Following several French defeats, peace accords w ere signed in Geneva that sam e year which prom ised free elec th e U.S. M ilitary in Asia, ed. Saundra Pollock Sturdevant and Brenda Stoltzfus (New York: The New Press, 1992), pp. 171 172. 1 Rigid patriarchal authority based on conquest ruled for at least two millennia, the subordination of w om en sanctified by Confucianism, brought by Chinese conquerors shortly before the birth of Christ. Under Confudan tradition, each wom an w as to accept her place as subject to fa ther, husband, eldest son, and king After Chinese rule of Vietnam ended in A l) 981, Vietnamese elites continued to practice Confucian ways. Imperial dom ination returned with the French in 1847, b y 1884 it was welt established. As their dom ination began to w ane in the face of fierce resis tance following W.W.ll., the United States step p ed in, resulting in w hat is perhaps the m ost devastating of all w ars fought for the sake of neocolonial hegem ony. Arlene Eisen, W o m en a n d R evo lu tio n in V ietnam (London: Zed Books, 1984). pp. 12 23. 2'Ihe dynam ics of exploitation are m ade explidt, for example, in a m em o from Desrousseaux, French Inspector of Mines: "The peasants will consent to go and work outside their villages only when they are dying of starvation. W e must, therefore; arrive at the conclusion that in o rd er to ex tricate ourselves from this difficulty of recruiting labour, we m ust see to it that the countryside is plunged into poverty. Q uoted in Ibid., p. 23. 1 1 9 tions for a unified Vietnam in 1956 The U.S., however, refused to com mit itself to these accords and, by N ovem ber of 1954, it was sending military aid direct to the French puppet regime led by Diem, sending in the first U S soldiers in 1956.1 By the end of 1966, there were approxim ately a half million U.S. sol diers in Vietnam. By the close of the war, m ore than 3 million had been deployed and several million Vietnamese had died, a majority were civil ians2 This assault, by a stronger against a much weaker nation, was not un like the fate of smaller nations in the face of Nazi and Japanese fascist ex pansion, it m ost certainly dwarfs the brutality which accom panied Soviet attem pts at enforcing hegemony. Throughout the carnage, m any thousands, tens of thousands, or hun dreds of thousands depending on how one defines it were 'raped' by U .S. soldiers. The dehum anization and destruction of women who were even ^The way in which U.S. support for dem ocratic elections was com pletely subordinated to its anticommunist agenda is dem onstrated by Ike's candid explanation that he did not allow elections to be held at that time because, if he had done so, "possibly 80% of the population would have voted for the com m unist Ho Chi Minh " Ibid., pp. 30 31, taken from Eisenhower's M andate fo r Change, p. 34. 2Nelson-Pallmeyer, W ar A gainst the Poor, p. 28; Paul Meyer once ob served that the United States was conducting the sam e kind of genocide against the Indochinese as the Nazis once ordered against European Jewry, only the m ethods had changed, "from the gas cham bers of Auschwitz to those crem atoria that rain burning death and terror from the skies, particu larly on civilians." Paul Meyer, "Jeremiah and Jesus," A m erican Report, 23 October 1972 120 rem otely suspected of being linked with or sym pathetic to the enem y rap e/to rtu re /m u tilatio n /m u rd er w as a routine function for som e G l.s1 As the num ber of com bat forces increased and the w ar dragged on, the military found it necessary to take direct control over the satisfaction of sol diers1 sexual appetites. O ne typical “recreation area" located in the base cam p of the 3rd Brigade, for example, w as surrounded by b arbed wire with an American MP standing guard at the gate. Inside w ere shops selling ham burgers, h o t dogs, and souvenirs. The main attractions, however, w ere two concrete barracks that housed approxim ately 60 Vietnam ese 'prostitutes'. Each building had its ow n b ar and a series of curtained cubicles in which the w om en o r girls w orked and lived. These cubicles generally contained only a thin m attress, one change of clothes, a Playboy center fold on the wall for the soldiers' stimulation, and a V ietnam ese female from her early teens to early twenties. They usually had garish bouffant hairdos, m any with breast enlargem ents to cater to W estern fetish. Each 'woman' typically serviced betw een eight and ten GI.'s p er day. The price w as $2.00; she got $0.75, the rest going to a variety of payoffs.2 1 Brownmiller, Susan. A g a in st O ur Will: M en, W om en, a n d R ape (N ew York; Bantam Books, 1975), pp. 108 113. She observes that the "grotesqueries and m utilations practiced by America's fam ous Boston Strangler w ere no different in concept and execution from those perform ed by American Gis in Vietnam." 2{bid., p. 97; Sexual slavery had been institutionalized earlier under French occupation. According to Truong m edical officers som etim es sent girls to a hospital not because of venereal disease, but "because they w ere in a state of very great exhaustion," having been “ obliged by the keepers of the houses to receive an excessive num ber of custom ers." Thanh dam T ruong S ex M oney, a n d M orality. P rostitution a n d Tourism in Southeast A sia (london; Zed Books, 1990), p. 86. She cites a Com m ission of Enquiry report, 1 21 The CIA used racial antagonism as a tool by recruiting m ercenaries from the m inority Chinese population. As part of the project, the agency engaged directly in the traffic of sex slaves since th e "Nungs," as they were called, dem an d ed that for rem ote and dangerous missions they b e regularly supplied with b eer and 'prostitutes.' The CIA provided flying b ar and brothel services. In this instance, because of the security risks involved, they used their own airline, Air America, to bring in fem ales from distant parts of Southeast Asia w ho had no language in com m on with the N ungs1 In 1975 the Hanoi governm ent introduced a program to rehabilitate the m any thousands of w om en w ho had been sexually exploited. Only the gov em m ents of Vietnam and China have developed com prehensive rehabili tation program s for prostituted wom en. In Vietnam, this rehabilitation in eluded m edical treatm ent for venereal diseases and drug addiction as well 1933, The French military chose to im port fem ales from other Asian lands w ho spoke neither French o r Vietnamese, thereby precluding any verbal com m unication in the interests of military security, they even had m obile brothel units staffed with Algerian w om en. The Americans, however, turned to the readily available supply of young Vietnam ese females that had been displaced, orphaned, or widowed, generally im poverished by the war. There w as an enorm ous supply since ten million out of a total of eigh teen million people becam e refugees in the south betw een 1963 and 1973. Sturdevant and Stoltzfus. Let th e G ood T im es Roll\ pp. 306 308. 1 Kathleen Barry, Fem ale Sexual Slavery (New York: New York University Press, 1984), p. 85; In addition to sexual slavery under direct mil itary control, vast networks of sexual exploitation w ere arranged by the Saigon governm ent which profited enorm ously from the flesh trade. Saigon w as often described as “ a huge American brothel “ D ocum ents dis covered at the abandoned U.S. em bassy reveal that 300,000 w om en were of ficially registered to work at "Centers of leisure," constructed and main tained by the U.S. sponsored regime. A rlene Eisen, W o m en a n d R evo lu tio n in Vietnam , pp. 4, 229. M l as jo b training. The issue w as seen as political not personal.1 After com m u nist victory, the form er Soviet Union's largest foreign military b ase after Kabul w as constructed in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam; according to Enloe, prostitution, if it did exist, h ad "not attracted sufficient attention to m ake it politically salient."2 The military forces opposing the U.S. in Vietnam raped very infre quently. Rape w as a capital offense for the Vietcong and executions of those convicted w ere published. It w as seen as an ultim ately serious military and political blunder.3 Similarly, revolutionary military forces opposing U.S. hegem ony in Central Am erica have not rap ed w om en and m urdered civil ians as a m atter of official policy o r in any routine way, at most, only in iso lated instances. From this perspective, this is because they d o not represent imperial o r extraneous interests; they w ere/a re b o m from the people, of the people, and are responsible to the interests of the people, as w ere the Vietcong and North V ietnam ese regulars. The bridge betw een Vietnam and U.S. sponsored counter insurgency warfare in Central America is not just a theoretical one. They m ust b e seen, at least to som e extent, as different fronts of the sam e geo political con frontation. The Green Berets, a principle feature of Kennedy's Alliance for Progress, saw service not only in Vietnam in the 1960s but w ere also sent 1 Sturdevant and Stoltzfus, Let the G o o d Tim es R oll p. 328. ^Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches, & B ases M aking F em inist S en se o f International Politics (London: Pandora, 1989), p. 82. 3En1oe, D oes Khaki B eco m e Y o u ?p 92. 123 on search and destroy missions in Guatemala, as well as Venezuela and Colom bia which also had nascent guerrilla organizations. There was a reg ular shuttle service betw een Vietnam and Guatem ala in the late 1960s. Som e U.S. soldiers, after their to u r of duty in the former, w ere sent to fight insurgent Indians in the latter, w here they com pared the scenery of the two.1 After Vietnam the U.S. governm ent w as forced by dom estic and inter national opinion to resort m ore on proxy forces to enforce its hegem ony, less on the direct involvem ent of U.S. troops. With U.S. troops seldom di rectly involved in com bat (generally in a clandestine fashion w here they were) and U.S. casualties rem aining very low, the counter insurgency pro ject continued. The burden now fell on peasant boys forcibly conscripted by U.S. client regimes and CIA directed /fu n d ed organizations like the N icaraguan Contra. Throughout the 1980s the U.S. m aintained approxim ately 200 military advisors in El Salvador to m anage and direct that 'low intensity" war. It d o n ated hundreds of millions of dollars to th e military m achines of Guatemala and El Salvador which utilized m ethods of w idespread state ter ror directed at popular, labor, and religious organizations in addition to the civilian population of conflictive zones in ord er to rem ain in power. The elite battalions of shock troops w ho received intensive training b y the U.S. w ere typically responsible for th e w orst atrocities. Violence against 1 Robert A rm strong and Janet Shenk, £7 S a lva d o r The Face o f R evo lu tio n (Boston: South End Press, 1982), p. 65, 124 w om en proved to be a prom inent feature of this anticom m unist front as it w as in Vietnam. Cuba as Neocolony Of even greater relevance to the Central Am erican situation has been the saga of C uba The colonial Cuban econom y was a slave econom y replete with the structures of sexual oppression germ ane to patriarchal slave econom ies. After slavery w as belatedly abolished, Cuba's colonial patriar chate turned to fem ale workers* in particular, for labor exploitation. Cuban ethnologist Fernando Ortiz argues that w om en's entry into the industrial labor force w as "intimately tied up with the abolition of slavery in 1880." With slavery giving its last gasps, industrial greed, unable to depend on slave labor any longer, but unwilling to pay the salaries of free men, created the feminine proletariat, which w as cheaper.1 As with the Philippines, as Cuba w as struggling to free itself from Spain near th e turn of the century, the U.S. stepped in and assum ed hegem ony by force, keeping control until the revolutionary victory of 1959. Prior to the revolution, 400,000 families w ere residing in shanty towns, 90% of children living in rural areas w ere infected with parasites, and m edical care w as virtually nonexistent outside the m ajor cities.2 1 Cited by Carollee Bengetsdorf and Alice Hageman, "Emerging from U nderdevelopm ent: W om en and Work in Cuba," in C apitalist Patriarchy a n d th e C ase fo r Socialist Fem inism, ed. Zillah Eisensteln (N ew York: M onthy Review Press, 1979), pp. 274 275. 2lnger Holt Seeland, W om en o f Cuba, trans. Elizabeth Hamilton Lacoste (W estport, Conn.: Lawrence Hill & Co., 1981), p. 83. 125 Colonialism and neocolonialism in Cuba generally equipped working class w om en to be uneducated servants in their own hom es and in the hom es of others. According to the 1953 census, only one wom an in seven worked outside her hom e and the only m ajor industrial sectors open to women at the time were tobacco and textiles. Bengelsdorf and Hageman es timate that at least 70,000 women worked as dom estic servants prior to the revolution, receiving as little as $5.00 a month. As they point out, dom estic work frequently led to prostitution.1 Before the revolution prostitution was one of Cuba's m ost lucrative en terprises, with bordellos in every town, Havana, of course, had the m ost The largest district alone, located at the heart of the city next to the National Capitol and the Presidential Palace, took up 20 city blocks, 2,152,782 square feet, in Holt Seeland’ s words, “ dedicated to corruption." W omen and girls who generally cam e from the countryside were lured to the capital by pim ps with promises of em ploym ent or romance. The pimps m ade m ore m oney than anyone else, except for the police who protected them. It was not unusual for pim ps to successfully run for political office. Four other districts of the capital were renowned for prostitution as well, it is estim ated that there may well have been over 100,000 prostitutes in pre revolutionary Havana alone. As would prove to be the case in subsequent 1 Bengelsdorf and Hageman, “Emerging from Underdevelopment," pp. 274 275; According to Stone, by 1959 only 9.8 % of Cuban women where em ployed outside the hom e and 70% w ere dom estic servants, “virtual slaves to their employers." Elizabeth Stone, ed., W om en a n d th e Cuban R evolution Speeches & D ocum ents b y Fidel Castro, Vilma Espin, & O thers (New York: Pathfinder, 1981), p. 6. 126 Central American revolutions, prostitution proved to be a major revolu tionary issue As would occur in Vietnam over ten years later, it was pro hibited with revolutionary victory and the Cuban W om en's Union (FMC) took charge of rehabilitating former prostitutes.1 Cuba's assertion of its autonom y from U.S. neocolonialism brought the world to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis which followed the failed attem pt to topple the revolutionary government by an invading force landed at the Bay of Pigs. The financial interests at stake in the conflict are clearly seen by the fact that that force, in addition to former soldiers and policemen of the dictator Batista, represented the previous owners of m ore than 370,000 hectares of land, nearly 10,000 buildings, 70 factories, 10 sugar mills, 3 banks, 5 mines, and 12 cabarets.2 Several women died during the invasion, Fe del Valle was killed in a sabotage fire at the H I Encanto departm ent store and Cira Maria Garcia, secretary general of the Cuban W om en's Federation (FMC) and Juliana M ontano an FMC member, “ fell under the bullets of the CIA directed mercenaries." Anyone involved 1 Holt Seeland, W om en o f Cuba, pp. 92 93; According to one Cuban rev olutionary," nobody knows how m any of our sisters were w hores in Cuba during the last years of the Batista tyranny. In Havana [in 19571 there were som e 270 overcrowded brothels, there were dozens of hotels and m o tels renting room s by the hour, and there were over 700 bars congested with m esera* or hostesses the first step tow ards prostitution. There were about 12 m esera sio each bar, and they each earned from the bar about $2.25 a day. The em ployers and the Government grafter each got about $52 a day out of it." Q uoted in Bengelsdorf and Hageman, "Emerging from Underdevelopment," pp. 274 275. 2 Eduardo Galeano, O pen Veins o f Latin Am erica: Five C enturies o f the Pillage o f a Continent, trans. Cedric Belfrage (New Yoric: Monthly Review Press, 1983), p. 90. 127 in the revolutionary restructuring of Cuban society was seen as a legitimate target for assassination by the invaders who, despite being routed, contin ued terrorist activity for som e time. According to Randall, m any of the 56,000 girls betw een the ages of ten and eighteen that participated in the lit eracy campaign, for example, living and working with peasant families in the countryside, were at risk from the counter revolutionaries, roaming the rem ote regions of the island following the foiled invasion, w ho "took the literacy campaign as a signal to rape and murder."1 Many of these young women later becam e the first rural organizers for the FMC. Nicaragua from S o m o c ism a to Sandinism a The violent sexual exploitation associated with neocolonialism was par ticularly pronounced in Nicaragua. There are regions of the country where w om en had been raped for generations, first by U.S. forces, then by the National Guard under the com m and of the U.S. puppet Somozas, and fi nally by the Contras. The Church, throughout this neocolonial period, gen erally supported these structures of domination. In 1942 the Archbishop of M anagua crowned Anastasio Somoza's daughter as the "Queen of the Army" in a cerem ony in the national stadium.2 While the Church hierar chy did not initially oppose the Sandinista revolution, they quickly m oved 1 Stone, W om en and the Cuban Revolution, p. 44; Margaret Randall, W om en in Cuba: T w enty Years Later {New York: Smyrna Press, 1981), p. 25. 2 Phillip Berryman, "El Salvador From Evangelization to Insurrection," in Religion and Political Conflict in Latin A m erica, ed. Daniel H. Ijevine (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986), p. 59. 128 to the opposition cam p following the Sandinista victory, all but publicly endorsing the C ontra cause. The Contra- w ho raped w om en while singing Christian hym m s w ere trained to see them selves as bringing Christianity back to Nicaragua, a nation that had fallen into the grasp of "atheistic tyranny " The m assive levels of rape and m urder that occurred at the hands of the Contra are of particular im portance to the continuity of this argum ent with respect to th e historical role of Catholicism in support of structures of sexual violence since they w ere jointly supported by Cardinal O bando y Bravo and President Ronald Reagan There has b een a direct col lusion throughout Nicaraguan history betw een the forces of religious and political conservatism in th e historical m aintenance of structures of insti lutionalized rape and sexual slavery. After Sandino's assassination and Som oza's consolidation of power, Nicaragua served as the United States' hatchetm an throughout Central America, through the U S-organized, region wide 'security* apparatus CONDECA which coordinated the military forces of the region under U S tutelage. Nicaragua served as a base to attack Cuba in 1%1 and to term inate dem ocracy in G uatem ala in 1954. It also sent troops to aid in the invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965 and intervened along with Guatem alan forces to defeat a reformist coup in El Salvador in 1972. The U. S. took the G uatem alan threat of self determ ination so far that it dispatched nuclear arm ed SAC bom bers to loyal Nicaragua "as a signal of American com m it ment." The Som ozas even offered tro o p s for use in Korea and Vietnam. According to LaFeber, the United States "did not support the Som ozas of Latin America out of ennui o r m isperception, b u t out of the clear under 129 standing that given W ashington's needs and reliance on military means, the dictators w ere its best bet to maintain the system."1 A nastasio Som oza Garcia had lived in the U.S. for several years; al though he failed to com plete college, h e perfected his English and distin guished himself as an athlete, dancer, and m u jerieg o (lady's man'). He rose to the position of chief of the National Guard from his p o st as transla tor and advisor to the Marines fighting Sandino. His success is also reputed to have been largely a product of his friendship with the young wife of the aging U.S. m inister to Nicaragua, M atthew Hanna Mrs. Hanna w as quite taken with Som oza's spangl& s and social skills, reportedly seeing in him "the Rudolf Valentino of the tropics.*4 Having started with virtually no property (a one tim e car salesm an in Philadelphia), by the time of his assas sination in 1956 he w as w orth an estim ated $60 million. His sons Luis and A nastasio continued the dynasty through electoral fraud and m anipula tion, m aintaining and expanding the elaborate econom ic fiefdom which also served to enrich their associates, especially loyal National Guard offi cers. Many businesses simply handed over corporate shares to the Somozas as the price of doing business in Nicaragua. Officers of the Guard ow ned 1 W alter LaFeber, Inevitable R evolutions. The U nited S ta tes in C entral A m erica (New York: Norton, 1984), p. 110; Chomsky, Turning th e Tide, pp 5, 52; Phillip Berryman, The R eligious R o o ts o f Rebellion: C hristians in C entral A m erican R evo lu tio n s (MatyknoW, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1986), pp. 55 57; John J. Johnson, The M ilitary a n d S o ciety in Latin A m erica (Stanford, Calif,: 1964), p. 5. 2Selser, Gregorio. Nicaragua d e W alker a S o m o za (CoyoacAn, M6xico: Mex Sur Editorial, 1984), pp. 230, 263. 130 m ost of the b us and taxi system of the country, raking in m oney from taxes and fines The first Som oza's attitude tow ards the Nicaraguan people is accurately sum m ed up by a statem ent m ade on a visit to Costa Rica w here his coun terparts w ere boasting of the new schools under construction by the gov em m enl. Som oza exclaimed, "1 don't w ant educated people, I want oxen." To b e sure, Som oza saw himself as imperial lord of Nicaragua and the Nicaraguan people as his subjects. He even organized grand celebrations for which h e dressed up his soldiers in sandals and helm ets like Romans.1 "Up with th e Guard ... dow n with the people” w as a popular chant am ong the students at the Guard's school of basic infantry training (EEB1).2 Between 1949 and 1964 alone, 2,969 officers w ere trained by the U.S. It trained m ore m em bers of the security forces of Nicaragua on a per capita basis than any other nation of the hem isphere, m ost in military academ ies of the Panama Canal Zone.3 An egregious polarization of wealth becam e ever m ore acute as the die tatorship w ore on. The Som oza family cam e to control as m uch as 40% of the Nicaraguan econom y, 30% of all arable land, th e fishing milk process ing and construction industries, as well as the national airline and ship 1 Q uoted by Penny Lem oux C ry o f the People: The Struggle fo r H um an R ights in Latin A m erica The C atholic C hurch in C onflict W ith US. Policy (New York: Penquin, 1982), p. 85; Galeano, O pen Veins, p. 125. ^Elizabeth Reimann, Yo fui un contra H istoria d e un pa la d in d e la lib erta d (Managua: Vanguardia, 1987), p. 26. ^LaFeber, Inevitable R evolutions, p. 109; Lemoux, C ry o f th e People, p 97. 131 ping line. By 1977, the landless labor force in som e areas was m ore than 1,000 percent larger than during the 1950s. This level of exploitation and the m isery that it generated am ong the com m on people w as the prim ary im petus for the revolution that finally overthrew the Somozas. It w as truly a people's war. As one terrified National Guard officer declared as he w atched "Tachito" Som oza flee for his life: "I'm going too. There is no way we can defend ourselves against the people. It's not th e guerrillas I'm afraid of but the people. I know they hate us and they could overwhelm u s"l Systemic rape and militarized sexual slavery w ere endem ic in Som oza's Nicaragua. The econom ic situation w as com pletely hopeless for m any w om en and girls and a large percentage w ere forced into prostitution. Lancaster's inform ants describe pre revolutionary M anagua as "a culture of despair," recalling that: There w as m uch prostitution and drug addiction. The national guard would com e around and prey off the people. They would dem and money, just because they could, and you had to give it to th e m .... The holy days, like Santo Domingo and Holy Week, had becom e perverted and corrupt They w ere little m ore than bacchanalia of public drunkenness, open prostitution, and delin quency. The prostitutes used to set up little portable houses along 1 I a Leber, Inevitable R evolutions, pp. 226 229, quotation from p. 279; M argaret Randall, Sandino's D aughters: T estim onies o f Nicaraguan W o m en in Struggle (Vancouver B.C.: New Star Books, 1981), p. v; Bernard Diederich, S o m o za a n d th e Legacy o f US. In vo lvem en t in C entral A m erica (New York: Dutton, 1981). 132 the side of the road, and the celebrants would stop in and visit them along the route.1 U nder Som oza's rule there had been no laws against prostitution which flourished throughout the country, particularly the capital. Much of what w as described as 'prostitution1 , however, w as in reality sexual slavery. Brothels flourished under the dictators primarily because the Guard took in much of the profits. Gasper Garcia Laviana, a Spanish priest, w ho joined the Sandinistas as a com batant (killed in 1978) testified that one of the prim ary reasons why h e felt morally com pelled to d o so w as the fact that Som oza's guard cam e to his parish and took aw ay young peasant girls by force to serve as prostitutes in their brothels.2 Once a w om an entered a brothel prior to the revolution, sh e b ecam e a virtual slave of the owner, she had no right to refuse service and her opportunity to leave was either severely restricted o r entirely prohibited. Several m ethods w ere used to en force this policy. In m ost instances, she becam e indebted for her room, board, clothing alcohol consum ed with clients, etc., all of which w ere de ducted from her eam ings, generally leaving her in a situation w here she could never hope to escape her 'indebtedness.' If she fled, the guard would pick her up and return her by force. As Cuevas explains: During the Somoza period, one of the biggest businesses along with drugs and alcohol -was prostitution. There w ere 1 Roger N. Lancaster, Thanks to G od a n d th e R evolution Popular Religion a n d Class C onsciousness in th e N e w Nicaragua (New Yorlc Colom bia University Press, 1988), pp. 74-75. 2M inistro d e Cultura d e Nicaragua, "Nicarauac, Revista Cultural Los Cristianos y la Revolucibn," vol. 5 (M anagua: Mfnistro de Cultura de Nicaragua, April June, 1981), p. 67. 133 prom inent families with wealth and social status that ow ned houses of prostitution. The National Guard divided the country into sectors for the purpose of getting the houses to pay protec tion money. A sliding scale was in effect: houses in the m ore ele gant sections paid the National Guard com m ander directly; the m ore m odest and sordid houses paid off lower ranking officers of the Guard. Guevas describes these women as Virtual slaves," particularly accurate since they were often sold from one sector to another with the Guard charging a sales tax.1 According to William Krehm of Time, when Somoza ordered the mass arrest of 600 people who opposed his regime in the sum m er of 1944, this re pressive action was m et by a large dem onstration of w om en in the streets of Managua, primarily wives, m others, and daughters in mourning for those who had disappeared. Somoza's deeply cynical and depreciative attitude tow ards Nicaraguan women w as evident in his response: he brought in a small army of 'prostitutes' led by a female, "blue eyed" brothel manager, "la Nicolasa," who arrived in a limousine with official plates brandishing a knife. She and the others slapped, insulted, and harassed the women to the 1 According to Cuevas: "The older prostitutes who were no longer in much dem and would be sold and a percentage of the purchase money went back to the National Guard. And there was another form of control over the women. The bordello owner would sell shoes, stockings, dresses, cigarettes, and liquor to the women. If the day cam e when the prostitute wanted to leave the profession, the owner would dem and an exorbitant am ount for the items the w om en had bought; and if the wom an tried to run away, the ow ner would call the Guard, who knew how to stop her." Jacqueline Cuevas, "Nicaraguan Prostitutes: Protagonists of Their Own Transformation," in Third W orld- S eco n d Sex, ed. Miranda Davies, vol. 2. (London: Zed Books, 1987), p. 124; INNSSBI (Instituto Nicaragiiense de Seguridad Social y Bienestar), "La prostitucidn en Nicaragua" (Managua: 1NNSSBI, 1985), pp. 38-39; Helen Collinson, W om en a n d R evolution in Nicaragua (London: Zed Books, 1990), p. 69 134 point w here they w ere forced to disperse. Nicolasa w as later received in the presidential palace for a celebration with full honors.1 O utside of the cities, the guard raped virtually at will. By the mid 1970s, faced with the new Sandinista challenge to their authority, the sexual vio lence m eted out becam e particularly ferocious: m oving from village to vil lage and hut to hut, the guard raped, tortured, and m urdered thousands of peasant w om en and children. C om m anders profited personally from the slaughter, taking over the land of those w ho had been killed A ccording to Borge, "almost all" of the peasant w om en in the northern regions of the country w ere raped by Som oza's guard M argaret jayko concurs that there w ere som e parts of Nicaragua w here there w ere "practically no women*’ w ho had not been violated b y the Guard. In 1977 in the departm ent of Zelaya, for example, the chapels and the com m unity center were taken over by the Guard w ho "used twenty six chapels as barracks and torture centers and as places to rape peasant w om en,^ In May 1974, A m anda Pineda wife of a union activist and m em ber of the Nicaraguan Socialist Party w as picked up by the Guard, beaten, tied up, and repeatedly raped for three days. According to Berryman, "Her case was unusual only in that it cam e to public attention." A s she testified: 1 Cited by Selser, W alker a Som oza, p. 250. 2 Berryman, R eligious R o o ts o f Rebellion, p. 71; TomAs Borge, C hristianity a n d R evo lu tio n Tom As Borge, Tom&s Barge's T heology o f U fe (Maryknoll N.Y.: OTbis Books, 1987), p. 22; M argaret Jayko, preface to "la m ujer y la revolucidn nicaraguense" by TomAs Borge (New York Pathfinder Press, 1982), p. 4; Lemoux, C ry o f th e People, pp. 86 87. 135 That night, several of them cam e to w here they were holding me. They raped me. 1 struggled and they began to beat me, and that's when they did all those terrible thing? to me. My legs w ere black and blue, m y thighs, m y arms. I h ad bruises all over me. That's th e w ay th e y trea ted all th e pea sa n t w o m en th e y p ic k e d up, they raped them and tortured them and com m itted atrocities, it was just three days, but those three days w ere like three years to m e three years of being raped by those animals. They cam e round w henever they wanted, all the tim e.... J ust before they captured me, there w as a young w om an who'd only b een m arried a m onth. That w om an couldn't even stand up w hen they w ere through with h e r.. . . IVe never seen anyone bleed like that. W hen they let her go she had to steady herself against the walls so she wouldn't fall down. She had to hold on to the branches of the trees till she got to her house. Later, after A m anda's husband had been captured and brutally tortured, the rape of his wife w as used for additional psychological torture. They de scribed how all of them h ad "had" his wife and that she h ad enjoyed it. W hen the couple was together again, she recounted how she felt,"... asham ed, for everything I'd been through. If w as terribly traumatic. I felt like I sm elled bad, and 1 couldn't get rid of the smell. But m y husband w as understanding he helped m e a lot."1 Rape at the hands of the guard resulted in further m oral and psycholog ical com plications w hen it resulted in pregnancy. Gloria Carrion, national coordinator of the Nicaraguan W om an's A ssociation (AMLAE) recounts how on e Nicaraguan girl, im prisoned and raped, becam e pregnant as a re suit and, upon her release, how this generated intense debate am ong the revolutionaries as to the question of abortion. Against the advice of those w ho argued that the girl should abort the child since its father w as a m ur 1 Q uoted in Randall, Sandino's D aughters, pp. 80 89 (em phasis added); Berryman, R eligious R o o ts o f Rebellion, p. 66; 130 derer and a rapist, she decided to keep it, arguing that he or she “would be a symbol of struggle and should b e the pride not only of its m other but of all of us ... the concrete manifestation of our people's fighting spirit and resis tance." According to Carrion, who lauded her decision, "the repudiation o( the child then or now would have only reflected som e backward notion of male lineage. As if paternity were all that m attered"1 In addition to the responsibility bom from having created, trained, and arm ed the Guard, the U.S. w as involved in this violence in an even m ore direct fashion. The Guard w as directly assisted by an undisclosed num ber of U. S. mercenaries. According to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Alberto Consalvi, who interviewed Nicaraguan refugees on the Costa Rican border, a num ber of atrocities w ere com m itted by U.S. mercenaries. Said Consalvi, "They are veterans of the Vietnam war, a war in which genocide was prac ticed, and are accustom ed to killing.'2 1 Q uoted in Randall, Sandina’ s Daughters, p. 37. ^Vietnam war veteran Mike Hchanis, known as "Mike the Merc," for example, according to I^emoug, “... was killed in Septem ber 1978 when his plane, piloted by his superior, General Josfe Alegrett, National Guard chief of intelligence and counterinsurgency operations, crashed into Lake Nicaragua in m ysterious circumstances. Also killed in the crash were an other U.S. citizen, Charles Sanders, and a Vietnamese, Nguyen Van Nguyen. The latter was identified by Fernando Cardenal during his testi mony before the House Subcommittee on International Organizations as an adviser to the National Guard.... "Mike the Merc" had been invited to Nicaragua by Somoza's son, Anastasio III, who had been his student at the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Beret) school at Fort Bragg North Carolina. It w as Anastasio HI who led the sacking of such rebellious cities as Fsteli and Masaya." Lemoux, Cry o f the People, pp. 100 101. 137 For Jaime W heelock Rom&n, one of the principle directors of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN) and later architect of its agrarian reform, the revolution that trium phed in 1979 shattered the clas sic m odel of U S dom ination in the A m ericas with "client governm ents supported by oligarchies, the Church, the military, and draped in pseudo dem ocratic ideology."1 As a result of their historical disenfranchisem ent under this neocolonial system, wom en, in particular, benefitted from the Sandinista reforms. Shortly after the triumph, 406,000 persons team ed to read and write for the first time, reducing the illiteracy rate from 55 to 14% With the land reform, 45,000 cam pesinos received a parcel of land to work for them selves in the first year alone. U nem ploym ent w as dram atically re duced, health care began to improve, and several diseases such as polio and malaria w ere eradicated. H undreds of program s w ere created in the first few years, generally with som e level of foreign assistance (mostly W est European), which w ere aim ed at im proving the health, productivity, level of education, consciousness, etc. of w om en and their children. The Sandinista governm ent encouraged, supported, and contributed to these program s to the extent of its ability.2 Political and cultural deb ates flowered as N icaraguans bathed in the new found freedom to take charge of their 1 Uss, Radical Thought in C entral A m erica, Latin A m erican Perspectives Series, no. 7 (Boulder, Colo.: W estview Press, 1991), pp. 185, 198, 200; Jaime W heelock Roman, Nicaragua: The G reat C hallenge (Managua: A lternative Views, 1984), pp. 58 61 2oficina d e la Mujer, "Inventario d e proyectos para la m ujer in nicaragua" (Managua: Ministerio d e la Presidencia, 1987); Tom as Borge, M Ia m ujer y la revolucibn Nicaraguense," p. 5. 1.48 own destiny. Under the Somozas, only about a half dozen books a year w ere published, under the Sandinistas in the 1980s, there w ere approxi m ately seventy titles published annually.1 In this environm ent, gender is sues becam e a subject of great discussion and debate and progress continu ally m ade tow ards the consciousness raising of both m en and w om en Since 1969, the FSLN had pronounced itself categorically opposed to dis crimination against wom en. Its historical program included a broad plan to alleviate the particular miseries which plagued them, outlining program s to provide services and protection for working m others, particularly single ones, and 'illegitimate' children through the establishm ent of day care fa cilities, m aternity leaves, etc. It dedicated itself to the progressive incorpora tion of w om en into revolutionary political structures and it vow ed to work for the eradication of prostitution, which it saw as exploitative, degrading to wom en, an d contrary, therefore, to revolutionary principles.2 Prostitution, as both reality and m etaphor, w as frequently appealed to by revolutionary Nicaraguans to describe the situation of exploitation to which they rose up in rebellion in th e 1960s and 1970s. The m etaphor, as they see it, speaks to the exploitation inherent in U.S. policy. A ccording to Lancaster, an anthropologist of religion w ho studied the working class bar n o s of Managua, prostitution served as a "m aster m etaphor" for liberation Theology as it developed in these popular sectors of the capital city. It "occupies a privileged and pivotal position in liberation theology's dis 1 Liss, Radical Thought in Central Am erica; p. 183. ^Editorial Vanguardia, "E H FSLN y la mujer" (M anagua: Editorial Vanguardia, 1987), pp. 12 13. 139 course on sin, as carried out at the m ost popular levels," serving to "link the moral conservatism of the urban peasants to their radical stance against capitalism and exploitation.”1 In particular, prostitution epitomized the corruption and injustice of the Somoza regime. Borge sees "the existence of prostitution itself as "a fact which covers the cities of the capitalist world in sh a m e . the direct re suit of econom ic discrimination against the wom an who is therefore obli gated, in order to survive and feed her children, to sell her body as if it were a piece of merchandise."2 Nicaragua's prostituted w om en had special reasons to share in the euphoria that swept over the country fallowing revolutionary victory. Many of them had been kept as prisoners and never before had had the opportunity to m ove about freely. Many in their early twenties, who had been imprisoned since the age of 12, tasted freedom for the first time and looked forward to the prospects of learning to read and finding work.3 Am ong the first actions of the new revolutionary government was to close down all of the bordellos and cantinas which had been maintained by the Guard, continuing to monitor the owners of these establishments, pe nalizing them when they found them to be profiting from the exercise of prostitution. Of crucial im portance was the fact that the Sandinista police 1 Roger N. Lancaster, God and the Revolution, pp. 71 72. 2 Helen Collin son, W om en and Revolution, p. 15. 3julia Esquivel and Luz Beatriz Arellano, ”La prostitucibn en Nicaragua: un desafio a las igl£sias," A m a n eceriManagua), May June 1988, p 17 140 were not involved in prostitution rackets prostitutes who were abused or harassed by the police were able to report them in accordance with na tional directives, these officials were to b e punished. The prostitutes stud ied by Suarez in the Camino del Oriente cam e to regard the police as their friends.1 The government, in consort with other progressive sectors, initiated several program s for the rehabilitation of prostitutes. They enjoyed consid erable success despite the low budgets that they had to operate under (due to the econom ic devastation inherited from the Somozas, produced by the revolution itself, and wrought by the Contra war and a U.S. em bargo) The participants were taught to see them selves as "active subjects of their own transformation." Collective reflection or group sessions were utilized, serv ing to heighten the consciousness of all m em bers of the group with respect to their com m on history and plight. The reeducation projects even in eluded seminars for Sandinista policemen who patrolled neighborhoods where prostitution went on and refresher courses from tim e to time. Cuevas affirmed that: "Thanks to our courses, the police are now able to analyze prostitution as a social problem, and they see themselves as part ners in the re education of these compafieras. W e go out on patrol with them at least twice a week, visiting the houses of prostitution that still exist and inviting w om en to join our classes." For Cuevas, the m ere fact that there were four projects working with prostitutes, in the midst of the disas trous econom ic situation caused by "imperialist aggression," revealed "the 1INNSSBI, "La prostitucibn en Nicaragua," p. 59; Collinson, W om en and Revolution, p. 71. 1 4 1 sensitivity and tenderness of this Revolution tow ard the m ore deprived sectors of the population.,rl The W om en's Psycho Social Rehabilitation Center run by the Nicaraguan Institute of Social Well Being (INNSSBI) and the ecum enical A ntonio Valdivieso C enter (CAV), by the en d of 1986, had rehabilitated 107 of the 168 w om en w ho participated in their program . They operated a drop in center w here w om en could go to therapy sessions several times a week. The center also helped to place them in jobs.2 The social workers w ho 1 Cuevas, "Nicaraguan Prostitutes," pp. 124 126. According to Cuevas, the re education process of a prostitute compaftera w as not an easy one. These w om en had io com e to grips with layers of abuse and exploitation which was all that m any of them had ever known. T hose w ho studied and worked with prostituted w om en in Nicaragua cam e to th e conclusion that a very large percentage of w om en involved w ere sexually abused by som e m an in their childhood household, their father, brother, another relative or a family friend. Their problem s were com pounded by the fact that the overw helm ing majority, as in the rest of Latin America, cam e from the poorest sectors of society with the highest levels of infant mortality, alco holism, drug addiction, and crime. In these situations, m any turned to al cohol in an attem pt to forget the m aladies of everyday life. Of those inter viewed by governm ent representatives, alm ost all of them w ere addicted to alcohol, originally they drank with clients, in tim e they drank alone as well. Ibid., pp. 122; INNSSBI CAV (Institute Nicaraguense de Seguridad Social y Bienestar y Centro Ecumenico A ntonio Valdivieso) "Frostitucibn en Nicaragua, una experiencia d e reeducacibn" (Managua: INNSSBI, 1986), p. 91; INNSSBI, "Reed ucacibn social para m ujeres que han ejercido la pros titucibn" (Managua: INNSSBI, 1984), pp. 4, 8; Julia Esquivel and Luz Beatriz Arellano, "La prostitucibn en Nicaragua,” p 17. 2As one successful participant observed concerning the changes in her life facilitated by the program: "In Chinandega . . . in El Viejo, in Leon, in the sugar mills of San A ntonio in Chichigalpa ... w here m en are paid in cash a wom an is m ore or less certain of work, so she goes prepared. And me, 1 used to drink a lot, I used to sm oke m arijuana and everything ... Now I don't feel the sam e. 1 feel a different person Once accepted here, they even gave m e the opportunity to teach adult education classes. I am going to prepare myself to teach. From nine to ten 1 get music lessons; from 142 worked in the reeducation programs, while recognizing their limitations, saw the revolution as profoundly beneficial for the improvem ent of the prostituted w om an's life. According to them, after the revolution she saw herself as: ... m ore sure of herself as a woman, she knows that she has rights which will prevail, she is no longer exploited by third par ties, she lives a m ore independent and autonom ous life, she is m aster of her own actions and her will.... The fact that prostitu tion today generally takes place in the street, gives these women an improved awareness of the world, concrete life experiences, and a consciousness that those who lived in a total state of servi tude, cloistered in bordellos, did not have.1 Unfortunately, these revolutionary program s w ere able to muster only very limited am ounts of resources, their impact, therefore, was also very limited. Experts estim ated in 1988 that nearly 2% of the female population of Managua betw een the ages of IS and 23, approximately 800, were still prostituted.2 Sexual slavery, however, particularly that sponsored by gov em m ent/security forces, remains a part of pre revolutionary history. Those who concerned them selves with the problem and the attem pts on behalf of the governm ent to deal with it, cite several im pedim ents to the eradication of prostitution. First, they recognized that machista double standards rem ain firmly entrenched am ong m ost Nicaraguans, buttressed two to four I get typing lessons; and from seven to nine I give adult cduca tion classes" Q uoted in Collinson, W om en and Revolution, p. 71 1 INNSSBI, “Prostitucibn en Nicaragua" (Managua: INNSSBI, 1986), pp 80 81. 2julia Esquivel and Luz Beatrtz Arellano, "La prostitucibn en Nicaragua,1 ' p. 17, 143 by traditional religious motifs concerning sexuality and gender roles Ihe problem is perpetuated by w om en as well as m en w ho argue against the suppression of prostitution for fear that w ithout an escape valve in society, their own daughters would b e in danger of being raped. Many Nicaraguans continue to see the institution of prostitution as necessary for the preserva lion of their ow n daughter's virginity,1 Nicaraguan activists also blam ed the policies of the United States, how ever, for the failures and shortcom ings of Sandinista attem pts to address the problem . IVostitution and other psycho social problem s were not con sidered or treated as priorities because of the aggression that Nicaragua suf fered from the U.S. sponsored Contra, which obligated it to m ake the de fense of the country the first priority, diverting enorm ous resources from social program s initiated with the revolution. Hy 19H2, as the Contra War got into full sw ing defense was consum ing approxim ately half of the na tional budget and the pace of revolutionary restructuring through social program s was drastically curtailed. Cuevas notes how readjustm ents in the econom y necessitated by th e war had a detrim ental effect, in particular, on the project of reeducating and retraining prostitutes. Fifteen w om en, for ex ample, w ere working in a plant nursery when the governm ent was forced by budget constraints to reclassify the nursery as no longer part of the strate gic sector of the econom y, resulting in wage cuts.2 11bid., p. 1H . 2Ibid., p. 25; Collinson, W om en e n d Revolution, p 154; Cuevas, Nicaraguan Prostitutes, p. 123. 144 Of those prostituted w om en w ho took part in the governm ent spon sored reeducation projects, 94% had been either dom estic servants, street vendors, or waitresses. Domestic workers, m ostly female, represented one quarter of all Nicaraguan w om en w ho w orked outside of the hom e before the revolution. They had long represented one of the m ost exploited of la b o r pools, receiving no protection w hatsoever under the Somozas. ITiey began to speak out after the insurrection to dem and recognition of their rights as workers and citizens With the support of AMLAK, a union of dom estic workers w as formed which boasted a national m em bership of 2,O L IO by 19H1 ,'l’ he governm ent responded with the first minimum wage law for dom estic w orkers As a result of the general pattern of resource re distribution that accom panied the revolution, the num ber of dom estic workers gradually declined through th e first years of the revolution1 Iheir num ber has again increased in the post Sandinista governm ent period On the whole, the revolution went along way tow ards redistributing rc sources and pow er in the direction of Nicaragua's m ost exploited sectors, particularly women; despite its limited resources, it had a m ajor im pact As one reform ed prostitute put it, "The revolution has taught m e that it was capitalism that m arginalized us wom en, from the com m unity and from Ck5d."2 The gains m ade through revolution were soon underm ined, how ever, by the U.S. reassertion of neocolonial hegem ony 1 INNSSBI, " la prostitucibn en Nicaragua," p. 25; Collinson, W o m en a n d Revolution, pp. 64 68. ^Q uoted in Lancaster, G od a n d the Revolution, p. 71. 145 The C ontra W ar Only a limited num ber of those individuals w ho assisted Som oza in his violent dictatorship of oppression w here im prisoned by the Sandinistas; som e were executed by the people, som e escaped, som e w ere released by the new government. TomAs Borge captured those G uardsm en w ho had raped, tortured, and m urdered his wife proclaim ing a new era of reconciliation, he let them go free. Most of the guardsm en fled to H onduras w here m any if not m ost w ere recruited by the CIA and given a new job A few m onths after the Triumph, Hnrique Bermudez, an ex business as sociate of Som oza and a Coronel in his Guard, form ed the Democratic Revolutionary Nicaraguan Alliance (ADREN) along with ex coronels Carlos Rodriquez and Guillermo Mendieta. Hie Democratic Forces of Nicaragua (FDN) em erged in 19K2, headed by Bermudez and associates along with Adolfo Calero and other form er Som ocistas) According to the testim ony of form er Contra Edgar Cham m orro, the FDN w as a "front orga nization for the CIA" and "every detail of the FDN operations, including propaganda, was stage m anaged" by that organization.2 1 Calero, who presided over Coca Cola and the Democratic Conservative Party, had been on the CIA payroll since 1961; he announced his decision to abandon Nicaragua and join the FDN at a celebrated press conference in W ashington in February of 1980. The military leaders of the Contra w ere paid a salary of approxim ately $5,000 a m onth which they were able to sup plem ent with graft through their role as dispenser of U.S. funds. The 'civilian* leadership of the FDN fared even better, A rturo Cruz, for exam pie, w as reported to enjoy a salary from the Cl A of $27,420 p er m onth Reimann, Yo fui un contra, pp. 34 37, 45. ^Chom sky, Turning the Tide, p. 131. 140 lTie form er guardsm en first received assistance from Argentine neo Nazis in 1980 with U.S. supervision from 1981 forward Nicaraguan exiles and Salvadoran arm y officers trace Salvadoran aid to the exiled Som ozists to 1979, shortly after the fall of the dictatorship. U.S. financial m uscle and training w as deem ed insufficient to accom plish th e task in mind for them, however, as m ore direct military m eans cam e to b e seen as required. In 1982 and 1983 Salvadoran pilots bom bed Nicaragua under CIA control from their sanctuaries in H onduras and FI Salvador, flying as m any as a dozen sorties a week d eep into Nicaragua to supply Contra forces Arms w ere sm uggled in from Miami where the FDN leadership operated. CIA helicopters piloted by North Am ericans provided air cover for com m ando raids, frogmen w ere sent from CIA speedboats to blow up bridges. Cl A transport planes dropped supplies in Nicaraguan territory, and a CIA "m other ship" launched additional seaborne raids to mine harbors According to CChomsky, the early goal was "not to topple the Sandinistas by force but to push them into increased dom estic repression and to spend scarce currency o n military rather than social programs." That, in turn, it was hoped, would increase dom estic opposition and quicken their dow n fall.1 The CIA w as so proud of its operations (despite the fact that they were condem ned by the W orld Court which Reagan chose to ignore) that it 11bid., p. 129 Chom sky observed that: "The Miami Herald reported 'that a secret US Army helicopter unit, a task force of th e 101st Airborne Division operating out of Kentucky, is carrying out m issions inside Nicaragua, with 17 fatalities in 1983* (35 casualties w ere reported by the en tire US Arm y that year)" 147 opened a press bureau in a Honduran Holiday Inn to brag about its ex ploils.1 Rape w as a routine practice of Reagan's "freedom fighters." They also kidnapped w om en and girls, taking them back to their cam ps for sexual abuse. Sexual mutilation w as a standard 'ritual' with respect to both male and fem ale victims num erous w itnesses testified to the w idespread C Contra practice of castrating their victims, dead as well as alive. A French priest training nurses in Nicaragua testified before the W orld C ’ourt about the Contra practice of rape and mutilation and the practice of abducting young girls into 'prostitution' in their cam ps. Som e of the descriptions of the atrocities that appeared in the foreign press (handily ignored by the U.S media) are alm ost to o gruesom e to believe. From the M anchester (Guardian lLaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions, p. 315; George Crile, "What Are We Doing With the Contras," N ew York Times, 18 May 1984, p. A31; 'The Reagan team 's anticom m unist crusade against the Nicaraguan revolution becam e m ost famous, however, at least to North Americans, through w hat cam e to b e known as Iran Scam or Contra Gate. As explained by Chomsky (writing long before the scandal broke): "W hen direct CIA supervision of the US proxy arm y w as term inated by Congress, the Reagan A dm inistration secretly transferred control to the National Security Council." This w as seen as essential, since, "according to a senior adm in is tration official, 'the CIA had to m anage alm ost every aspect of their activi ties .. when left to their own devices, they Ithe rebels] couldn't m anage them selves very well." According to this governm ent official in charge, later identified as M arine Ft. Col. Oliver North, "when the agency [Cl A) was pulled out of this program , these guys didn't know how to buy a Hand Aid." In addition to direct funding not to m ention control by the U S governm ent, the C ontras received m any tens of millions of dollars from private sources in the U. S. such as the U.S. Council for W orld Freedom supported by the World Anti Communist League and other sources. Israel the perennially loyal proxy in Central America also supplied several mil lion dollars to assist in the subversion of congressional restrictions. Chomsky, Turning the Tide, pp. 130 133. 148 W eekly on N ovem ber 25, 1984, for example: "Rosa had her breasts cut off Then they cut into her chest and took our her heart. The m en had their arm s broken, their testicles cut off, and their eyes poked out. They w ere killed by slitting their throats and pulling the tongue out through the slit" O ther press reports cited by Chom sky include: a 14 year old girl w ho w as gang raped and then decapitated, her head placed on a stake at the entrance to her village as a w arning to governm ent supporters; of nurses w ho w ere raped, then m urdered . [a woman] cut to pieces with bayonets by con tras w ho then beheaded an 11 m onth old baby in front of its m other's eyes; others w ho w ere raped to a background of reli gious music: children shot in the back o r repeatedly shot ’ as though they had been used for target practice,' according to a North American priest, along with m uch similar testim ony pro vided by American priests, nuns, and others working in the bor der areas w here the terrorist forces ram page, attacking from the Honduran bases established by their US advisers, instructors, and paymasters. The slaughter was, of course, condem ned by hum an rights organizations The Chairm an of Am ericas W atch and Helsinki W atch testified that, "There can b e no doubt, on the basis of w hat we heard and saw, that a planned strategy of terrorism is being carried out by the contras along the H onduras border" and that "the U.S. cannot avoid responsibility for these atrocities."1 1 Fven a few well paid m em bers of the Contra eventually spoke out. Former spokesperson Edgar C ham m orro testified that "by m id 1984, 46 out of 48 of the C ontra com m andantes were form er National Guardsmen." He acknow ledged that by 1985 the w ar had "left m ore than 12,000 Nicaraguans dead, 50,000 w ounded, and 300,000 hom eless” (1 in 10 Nicaraguans). In an affidavit to th e W orld Court he said that th e Contras “would arrive at an undefended village, assem ble all the residents in the tow n square and then proceed to kill in full view of the others all persons working for the Nicaraguan governm ent, including police, local militia m em bers, party 149 One w om an on the east coast recounts how she was kidnapped and gang raped atong with two other w om en as they w ere leaving a hospital in Bilwaskarmas. These Contras w ere m ostly Miskito Indians recruited and trained by the CIA although the w om en also recognized one form er guardsm an: they tied us up and beat us, when it got dark, the nurse and I w ere taken into a hut. They started praying and singing religious songs, and raped us. Then w e crossed the river into Honduras and walked for an hour to a cam p Som e of the Miskito tried to tell us why they attacked the hospital: they said it was run by com m unists, that anyone w ho w orked with the Nicaraguan gov em m ent w as a com m unist W e w ere told we would be exe cuted, but on Nicaraguan soil, so we crossed back into Nicaragua On the way, we were raped again, and they m ade us bathe in a river to rem ove any evidence. W hen w e got back to Bilwaskarmas, som e village elders recognized us and asked them not to kill us. They let us go free but told us to stop working there because they would continue their attacks.1 According to Nelson Pallmeyer, W itness for Peace docum ented hurt dreds of cases of kidnapping and rape of w om en and children similar to the following: Natividad M iranda Sosa w as kidnapped and held for nine m onths along with her four daughters, ages 20,15,13 and 11 Her oldest daughter, Aureliana, was delivered to the contra leader known as 'El Cato'. The rest of the w om en were held captive by the contra leader called 'El GavilanV They w ere given little to eat or drink, w ere constantly guarded, and raped again and again The 11 y ear old daughter, Mirlan, clung to h er m other until one day the contras split them up by telling Natividad she had to cook m em bers, health workers, teachers, and farmers" which m ade it "easy to p ersuade those left alive to join (the C ontra forces)" Chomsky, Turning the Tide, pp. 12 14; Wall Street Journal, 23 May 1985. 1 Q uoted b y Collinson, W om en a n d Revolution, p. 179. 150 for them. Kleven year old Mirian w as raped, and passed from one contra to the next1 hdgar C ham orro testified before the World Court that “the practices advo cated in the m anual [CIA manual, "Psychological O perations in Ouerrilla Warfare"] w ere em ployed by the KLIN troops w hen civilians were "tortured, mutilated, raped, robbed, or otherwise abused." One form er CIA official, John Stockwell, testified that the rape of w om en was "a cnordi naled policy of the destabilization program."2 1 W itness for Peace on the Scene Reports, "What We Have Seen and Heard in Nicaragua," 1986, p. 7; Nelson Pallmeyer, War Against the Poor, p p 34 35 ^CUed by Nelson Pallmeyer, War Against the Poar, p. 35, In addition to Nicaraguans, the Cl A paid a variety of international m ercenaries to join the operation I Tie Israeli press reported that Israeli m ercenaries were also engaged in service with the Contra, receiving salaries of $10,000 a m onth As Chom sky points out, their are at best subtle differences betw een "US and other foreign mercenaries," on the one hand, and "indigenous terror ists in Central America," on the other. They are "essentially US m ercenar ies, m uch like the native forces used to hold dow n the dom estic popula tion by the British, Prench, Russians, South African whites, and others in the past, or the forces organized by the US in South Vietnam and la o s " John Cierassi interviewed captured contra soldiers in Nicaragua w ho in form ed him that their chiefs were C uban exiles. O ne had Puerto Rican identification papers He estim ated that there w ere som e 5000 foreigners m ostly Cuban exiles from Miami am ong the Contra forces, citing reports detailing that docum ents found am ong the dead left after an attack from Costa Rica by Pastora's forces identified som e as Guatemalan, Panamanian, C uban exiles, and Puerto Rican. Chomsky, Turning the Tide, p. 133 134, In addition to U S paid mercenaries, the threat of a direct large scale invasion by regular U.S. forces constantly appeared imminent, exacting a vast psy chological tole. In 1983, for example, som e 40,000 U.S. troops engaged in joint m aneuvers with H onduran forces only 40 miles from the Nicaraguan bo rd er which included practice landings on beaches similar to Nicaragua's Atlantic coast. Borge, Christianity and Revolution, p 157. 151 Several different factors coalesced to further the Contra cause during Ihe mid 1980s During Reagan's first term, there was a purge in the State D epartm ent that rem oved m any of the Foreign Service Officers w ho were m ost experienced in Latin American affairs, replaced by Secretary of State A lexander Haig with military officers. A m ong them, General Vernon Walters, a form er deputy director of the CIA who, according to l^Feber, 'lo n g had intim ate ties with Latin Am erican dictators," Robert McFarlanc, a form er M arine C orp officer, and Lieutenant General G ordon Sumner.1 In addition to the militarization of U.S. policy to Nicaragua, an ideological w ar w as w aged on several fronts to discredit the revolution. A ccording to Borge, the U S. orchestrated a sustained propaganda campaign to “associate the Nicaraguan people with com m unism and religion with the defense of dem ocracy and the U.S. way of life,"2 Both the Nicaraguan Catholic hierarchy and the Vatican worked hand in glove with the United States to erode Sandinista pow er The Vatican sent a very clear sign in April of 1985, at the height of the Contra War, when it elevated the revolution's prim ary dom estic opponent, A rchbishop O bando y Bravo, to th e status of cardinal. On his way back from the investi ture cerem onies in Rome he stopped in Miami to celebrate a special m ass for counter revolutionaries and high ranking m em bers of the form er 1 laFeber, Inevitable Revolutions, p 277. 2Borge, Christianity a n d R evolution p. 125. 152 Som oza regime, returning to Nicaragua to cam paign for a negotiated set Dement with the Contras.1 Atong with his prom otion, the hierarchy, backed by the Vatican, called for th e resignation of four priests serving in the Sandinista governm ent u nder threat of sanction. During the Pope's fam ous visit to Nicaragua in March 1983, according to Liss, he "delivered a homily devoid of com pas sion and did not even suggest reconciliation betw een Nicaragua's conser vative Church hierarchy and the Sandinista led governm ent" W hen the m ost prom inent of the four priests, Ernesto Cardenal, revolutionary poet, Liberation Theologian, and Minister of Culture, kneeled to kiss his ring, the Pope withheld his hand and w aved a finger of adm onition in the priest's face.2 Few Christians openly supported the Contra cause in Nicaragua. While m any becam e highly critical of the Sandinistas in time, Contra attacks were generally roundly condem ned and no sector of the dom estic political o p p o sition gave uncritical loyalty to their cause. Father CesAr Jer6z, rector of Nicaragua's Catholic University read a letter signed by hundreds of the country's religious leaders at a press conference which condem ned Reagan 1 Upon his return, his supporters viciously attacked the unarm ed Sandinista police sent to maintain ord er during the celebration, an attack which, according to Nicaraguan governm ent intelligence, w as orchestrated by representatives of the counter revolution, "following directives laid out by the U.S. em bassy.'' While in the U.S., Cardinal O bando also visited the neoconservative think tank and lobbying group, Institute on Religion and D em ocracy (first appearing in 1981), which cam paigned against Christian involvem ent in N icaragua's revolutionary process and in support of Reagan's Contra war. Ibid., p. 126,136 139. 2 Liss, Radical Thought in Central America, p. 190. 153 for the proclam ation of himself a s "the defender of faith and religion of our people," charging that, "You, Mr, President, through your ’ brothers,' the heralds of terror and death, are the one w ho is persecuting Christians in Nicaragua and ordering that they b e kidnapped and killed"1 Many of the C ontras w ere im bued with religious fervor in their crusade of slaughter and subversion. This is very clearly seen in the testim onies wherein they sang religious songs while they raped women. The presence of a "background of Christian music" in the reports cited by Chom sky even suggests the existence of CIA provided musical accom panim ent. They were sim ultaneously given Bibles and bullets in their H onduran bases. N um erous North Am erican religious figures cam e to personally bless them in their cam ps, including Pat Robertson. Ih e supposed "atheism" o( the Sandinistas (many if not m ost of w hom were profoundly Christian) and their alleged "persecution of religious figures" both charges largely un founded, served as powerful sources of legitimation for the counter revo lution and helped Reagan sell his program to the American people. The C ontras represented Christian patriarchy of the extrem e Right, fighting against atheism and com m unism as they raped Nicaragua's peasant w om en and girls. H onduras under U.S. Dom ination Political violence has not been as w idespread in recent decades in H onduras as has been the case with its neighbors, revolutionary forces 1 Cited by Nelson Pallmeyer, War Against the roar, p 39. 154 never gained a broad support base, massive counter insurgency violence, therefore, has not been necessary to maintain the dom inant dasses in power. Still, the violence generally assodated with class exploitation and acute poverty singles out females in special ways According to Barry & Norsworthy, in a country like Honduras, "pervaded by base machismo,'1 wom en are: ... often regarded as little m ore than sexual prey and cheap labor 'ITie daily newspapers feature pin ups to sell papers, and the pot it ical parties show semi nude women dancing to sell their candi dates. Sexual abuse and rape of young girls by male family mem bers and neighbors is common. Indeed in many poor urban bar rios few girls make it beyond their early teens without becom ing sexual victims. As elsewhere in Central America, sexual violence is exonerated in the country's penal code which exempts a husband of culpability in the assault, battery, and even m urder of his wife if she is caught in the act of adultery Approximately 40 percent of women have no schooling at all. Only 25 per cent of high school and college graduates are women. The sam e discrimi nation is true of the paid workforce, yet almost half of all children are bom to single mothers. As of 1990, only one of 134 deputies in the National Congress was a woman.1 Honduras shares the unfortunate twin characteristics of being both the poorest country under discussion and the most economically dependent on the United States, features of "development" which Honduran historians generally focus on as the root of all evil. As in H I Salvador and Guatemala, iTom Barry and Ken Norsworthy, Honduras. A Country Guide (Albuquerque, N.Mex.: Inter Hemispheric Education Resource Center, 1990), pp. 92 93. 155 the military has traditionally run the country. Coups installed its candidate at the center of pow er in both 1963 and 1972 and they went on to occupy the presidential office directly until 1982 when they buckled to pressure from the U.S. embassy, then concerned with dem ocratic facades in the wake of the Sandinista triumph.1 Ihe civilian facade m oved into a position of only nominal power, how ever, with the Armed Forces continuing to enjoy com plete autonom y and non accountability to civilian authority The Uberal Roberto Suazo Cordova assum ed the presidency; his first important decision was to dcsig natc the hard line anticommunist General Custavo Alvarez Martinez as chief of the Armed Forces. He becam e the m aster architect of Honduras's role in U.S. strategy aim ed at rolling back the popular gains m ade in neigh boring Nicaragua. He was also the "cereb/o"of the Honduran death squad machine and founder of the far right Alliance for the Progress of Honduras (APROH), Rafael Leonardo Catlejas, Conservative President through 1993, was one of the secretaries of this organization.2 1 According to ldi£quez Sevilla: "The Military Junta saw itself as obli gated to devolve the government to a civilian administration at that time due to com bined pressure from business sectors and traditional political parties, but m ost importantly by the United States government after it had changed its policy as a result of the Sandinista revolution." Fdgardo ldidquez Sevilla, "Posibilidades y limit a clones de la democracia," in Honduras: RcaUdad national y crisis regional, ed, Centro de docu mentacibn de Honduras (Tegucigalpa: CHDOH Lithopress Industrial, 1986), p 68 69 2No6 Leiva, "Triunfo legal de las derechos hum anos en Honduras," hsta Tierra Nuestra (Mexico), Second Trimester 1992, p. 47. 15(> U.S. corporations during the 1980s continued to bribe H onduran offi cials to avoid paying taxes and to bring troops to arrest m em bers of peasant cooperatives w ho sought to avoid corporate control.1 Living standards con tinued a dow nw ard spiral and, by 1986, unem ploym ent h ad climbed to 41% 2 A typical H onduran eats o n e pound of m eat per year, a rich one over 200 It costs 1/2 lempira to produce a pound of m eat in Honduras, yet for the people in the m arketplace it cost betw een 3.5 and 5 lempiras because the price is set in New York, not Honduras. H onduran feminists are quick to blam e the country's ills on the exploitation inherent in the fact that U S interests own and exercise a dom inant control over m ost of the econom y '1 Lgregjous poverty itself militates against progressive social develop m ent tow ards respect for female dignity. Economic developm ent, generally speaking is positively correlated with gains in her autonomy. W here the overwhelm ing majority of any given society is locked into subsistence level poverty, with little o r no hope of im proving their situation, little pro grcssion can b e expected tow ards w om en's em ancipation. Of singular im portance in this regard is the question of education or the lack thereof As Cuevas points out: "The m ore m acho the m ale is, the less formal educa tion he has had, the m ore brutally he treats his wife. He considers her, 1C T o m sky, Turning the 'Tide; p. 40 2LIvia Alvarado, Don't Be Afraid Gringo: A Honduran W om an Speaks from the H eart trans. and ed, M edea Benjamin (San Francisco: Food First Books, 1987), p. xxt 3[V Hncuentro Feminista. M ujer Centm am ericana: vinlcnaa y gucrra, m em orias del taller {M6xico: Oxfam, 1987), p. 39. 157 along with their children, to b e his property. 1-et‘s say things go badly at work or in the street, he com es hom e feeling violent and beats his wife Since she can't hit him back, she hits the kids."1 While the H onduran constitution ostensibly guarantees various free doms, of religion, expression, association, etc., it quickly qualifies each lib erty with phrases like "not contrary to public policy or to public morals" and "provided they d o not violate the law and public policy" As Shepherd observes, "rITiese loopholes are as big as a ten story building"2 This is par ticularly true with respect to w om en since 'public morals' as they stand arc stridently patriarchal. While the criminal code exem pts a m an from all criminal responsibility for w ounding o r killing his wife if he catches her in the act of adultery, as m entioned above, it does not recognize a reciprocal right on behalf of the wom an The sexist character of H onduran law is es pecially blatant in its treatm ent of rape which is classified as a "private of fense" rather than an 'official' crime. If the victim is to receive any legal re dress w hatsoever, they have to pay the enorm ous costs of legal counsel them selves, way beyond the m onetary m eans of m ost victims. Moor w om en w ho are raped, therefore, have virtually no legal recourse With respect to prostitution, Honduran law do es not recognize it as a social prob 1 Cuevas, Nicaraguan in s titu te s , p 126. 2Philip L Shepherd, "H onduras Confronts its Future: Som e Closing but Hardly Final Thoughts," in H onduras C onfronts its Future, ed. Mark B . Rosenberg and Philip L Shepherd (Boulder, Colo,: Lynne Rienner, 1986), p 242 158 lem. lTie only place that it is m entioned is in th e police code, yet, according to Reyes, "it is precisely th e police w ho are m ost offensive to prostitutes."1 The sustained presence of tens of thousands of Nicaraguan C ontras throughout the 1980s resulted in m assive am ounts of violence and up heaval in the lives of H onduran w om en an d children living in the b o rd er regions. As they raped in Nicaragua, so they raped in Honduras, albeit on a som ew hat sm aller scale. According to a H onduran representative at the Encuentro conference, m any thousands of H onduran w om en and children "suffered the savage aggression of these m ercenaries paid by North A m erican imperialism."2 In addition to the Contras, thousands of U.S. troops w ere assigned to H onduras to counter the 'threat' posed by the Sandinistas As in the Philippines, brothels quickly sprang up around the bases as 'entrepreneurs' m oved to capture the American dollars represented by the increasing de m and. According to de Ochoa, the situation becam e particularly bad in the historic city of Com ayagua, w here U.S. soldiers from the neighboring base of Palmerola, the largest, "march through the streets dem anding diversion alchohol, drugs, gambling, and m ost especially, prostitutes." This has pro duced "the proliferation of every kind of cenfm dccadentc" w here com m erce results in the subjugation and abuse of cam pesina women, particu 1 Melba Reyes (M ovem ent of H onduran W om en for Peace and Sovereignty), "Situad6n d e la m ujer en Honduras," D ocum entos sabre ia mujer, vol. 5, ed. C entro d e Investigacidn d e la Realidad d e America Latina (Managua), O ctober D ecem ber 1988, p. 35. 2|V Encuentro Feminista, M ujer Centnoamericana, p. b3. 159 larly young ones. The ow ners of these centers, "corrupt people without scruples" capture w om en and girls in cam pesino villages, coercing them by force and threat. Once in the brothel, according to the testim ony of the population as well as th e victims themselves, they are "subjected to psy etiological terrorization and corporal punishm ent in ord er to m ake them drunk and d o cile" U S soldiers have been guilty of num erous sexual abuses of m inors walking in the streets of the city, th e testim ony of w hom has had a profound effect on Honduran society.1 According to Melba Reyes, spokesw om an for the M ovement of H onduran W om en for Peace and Sovereignty, w om en and children w ere the "primary victims of this im posed war": ... in addition to the repression to which she is subjected, the presence of the So m o d sta m ercenaries and ihe yanquts troops have m eant painful costs, such as w om en raped, children used for aberrant sexual practices, families stripped of their land and belongings and forced to becom e refugees in their own country, the augm entation of prostitution and drug addiction, and venc real diseases ... and finally, all types of vandalism.2 The prostitution sector of Com ayagua near the Palmerola base becam e known as "ten lem p ally" (lempiras being the national currency approxi m ately U.S. $1.70). A ccording to Dr. Juan A lm endares of the National 1 Margarita O sequera de Ochoa, Honduras hoy. so cied a d y crisis potiirca (Tegucigalpa: CEDOH (Centro d e D ocum entacidn d e Honduras) Uthopress Industrial, 1987), p. 95; North American soldiers have also killed m any H ondurans with their autom obiles that they drive at extrem ely high speeds, catching H ondurans w ho are unaccustom ed to this practice, partic ularly children, off guard. IV Encuentro Feminista. M ujer Centmamericana, p. 64 2Reyes, "SituaciOn d e la m ujer en Honduras," p. 36. 100 University, Com ayagua's prostitute population swelled to over three thou sand, nearly 60 percent of the total num ber of prostitutes in the country.1 M any of th e fem ales involved were children. Brazilian anthropologist Naomi Vasconcelos docum ented the way in which brothel proprietors bought children as young as 12 years old for approxim ately $250 to service U.S. military personnel.2 Lucy K om isaralso researched the cases of w om en 1 Mesoam6rica{ San jos6), June 1987 2Naom i A. de Vasconcelos, "Sexismo y militarismo una fatal conju gaciOn," D ocum entos sobre la mujer, vols 3 4, ed. Centro d e Investigacibn d e la Kealidad de America latina (Managua), April Septem ber 19K K , p 18; A lvarado recounts how: "There w as a big scandal w hen the gringos first came, because the level of prostitution shot up som ething terrible. I won't say there w eren't any prostitutes before, but not like this with whole streets full of bordellos." She also noted "a scandal around the sexual abuse of children by the gringos ... cases of children w ho w ere raped , . people started talking about the 'flower of Vietnam.' 1 guess it's n am ed after that country Vietnam, w here the United States fought another war. .. But the w orst thing has been AIDS in Comayagua, and the people are sure that it cam e from the gringos." With reference to how it becam e difficult to distin guish betw een the H onduran military and the Contra because the form er sold its uniform s to the latter, she lam ented: "How can the military sto o p so low as to sell its own uniforms? Doesn't it have any sense of dignity? Everything in our country is for sale now from w om en's bodies to the arm y's uni forms!” Alvarado, Don't Be Afraid Gringo, pp. 110 111; Parallels betw een H onduras and Vietnam were also noted by Vietnam veteran and physician Charles Clem ents (who volunteered his m edical services in the early 1980s treating the civilians of El Salvador's w ar zones) passing through the capital city Tegucigalpa on his way to El Salvador. He was struck by the similarity of the city to Saigon in 1970, ” a bazaar of neon lights replete with expensive North American consum er goods .. that con trasted m arkedly with the som ber aspects of the surrounding barrios" or ghettos on the periphery. Charles Clements, Guazapa: Testimonio d e guerra d e un m ddico norteam encano (San Salvador: UCA Editores, 1992), p. 30; O ther w riters m ake the explicit connection as well, Shepherd, for ex ample, refers to the "Saigonization of Honduras" that occurred in the 1980s. Shepherd, "H onduras Confronts Us Future," p. 249. 101 as young as sixteen, w ho had been virtually kidnapped and brought in as captives Som e of the brothel keepers are American, local policem en act as enforcers for the system as a whole, they answ er in turn to military officers. She also reported that American army doctors from the Palmerola base were conducting routine m edical exam s on w om en working in the broth els.1 While torture, rape, and extrajudicial assassination on the part of secu rity forces were not historically as pronounced in H onduras as in H I Salvador and Guatemala, this began to change in the early 1980s as part of an overall militarization designed to check leftist opposition, particularly to the Contra w ar and the key role of H onduras as their support base The ( ’I A and the U.S. military w orked along with Argentine and Chilean fascist el em ents in the training and coordination of the terror apparatus.2 Rorencio Caballero, a form er interrogator for the H onduran Army con fessed in 1987 to the Tribunal of the Organization of American States that in the previous ten years Chilean trainers had "instructed the H onduran Army in the tactics of kidnapping and elimination" and "in the use of to r ture and disappearance of people “ He indicated that the training from the Chileans included techniques that deprived captives of sleep subjected them to cold and isolation, the use of electric shock to their genitals, sub 1 Cited by Cynthia Enloe, "Bananas, Bases, and Patriarchy," in W om en, Militarism, a n d Wan Essays in History, PoHtics, and Social Theory, ed. Jean Bethe Elshtain and Sheila Tobias (Savage Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 199(1), pp. 200 201; H onduras U pdate (Boston), vol. 3, no. 11, 1985. 2Chomsky, Turning the Tide, p. 201. 162 m ersion in barrels of cold water, and sexual humiliation with animals, such as the introduction of rats, snakes, and cockroaches into w om en's vaginas. He ad d ed that these techniques brought results because "they all talked and they w ere all killed." His report coincided with similar reports m ade by other form er H onduran officials and H onduran hum an rights or ganizations. One tim e C ontra com m ander "Miquel," w ho confessed that he had assisted in the organization of a secret death squad in H onduras with the help of the CIA, recounted num erous assassinations ordered directly by the military with the support of the CIA. A ccording to Miquel, "the gringos knew all about it," he testified that his CIA contact, "Raymond," once con gratulated him saying “I am told that the work is being carried out very well, that not even the CIA would b e able to d o so well."1 The Contras not only participated in the death squads run by the H onduran military b u t they had their own as well. Retired General W alter I^hpez blam ed all of the death squad killing on the Contras claiming that the H onduran military was pow erless to stop them.2 Para military groups as well carried out torture and assassination throughout the 1980s, It appears to be the case that the three categories of death squads w ere linked togpther, 1 Progressive, August 1986; Ramos, Honduras, pp 95 96; Am ericas Watch, "A Death Squad Defector's Story," in "Human Rights in Honduras: Central Am erica's Sideshow," 1987, pp. 126 143; Alison Acker, Honduras: The Making o f a Banana Republic {Boston: South End Press, 1988), p 116; Lucha Struggle (New York), pub. by CIRCUS tan ecum enical collective as sociated with the specialized ministty program of the M etropolitan New York Synod of the Lutheran Church in America), Septem ber O ctober 1987, pp. 14 15. 2Acker, Banana Republic pp. 123 124. 103 with som e individuals associated with more than one squad. Most promi ncnt am ong the para military groups w as the Anticommunist Action Alliance (AAA) which resurfaced into the public eye in 1988 following a wave of anti U S. dem onstrations It distributed flyers and took out paid advertisem ents in the press vowing to kill those Hondurans which it saw as "poisoning the ideological spirit of Honduran youth"1 While Caballero (who relocated to Canada) was describing events that occurred between 1982 and 1985, the situation did not change much in the years that followed. Honduran intelligence forces continued to utilize rape as a m eans of torture, interrogation, and demoralization. At 5:31) in the morning of O ctober 6,1987, for example, the Secretary of W omen's Affairs of the National Organization of Farm Workers, Margarita Murillo (who also worked with the Catholic relief agency Caritas and had been a pastoral agent with the diocese of Santa Rosa de CopAn for 15 years), was abducted from her home. She testified that a pick up truck filled with heavily arm ed men pulled up in front of her rural dwelling in the departm ent of Yoro Identifying themselves as police officers, they apprehended her and took her in for four days of torture "They carried me upstairs and left m e hang ing by my arm s for three hours .. they hung on me, they loaded me down with w eights" After being raped by her eight torturers, she was taken to an other room and electric shock was applied all over her body.2 While this case received a great deal of notoriety due to her prom inent position and 1 BoJetin Infamiativa, April 1988, p 16; N ew s from Am ericas Watch, March 1989. 2-Lucha Struggle, Septem ber October 1987, pp. 14 15. 1(>4 the fact that she survived to testify, it by no m eans represents an isolated oc currence. Throughout the Contra war the Honduran Church hierarchy supported the U.S. sponsored aggression along with their Nicaraguan counterparts ITie episcopal Conference even refused to welcome a delegation of two hundred religious w om en from the U S and Canada who were prevented from landing at Tegucigalpa to pray for peace in November 1983. M onsignor Muldoon w as the only civilian invited to the closing cere m onies of joint U.S. Honduran military m anoeuvres in 1986, declaring that the exercises posed no contradiction to Christian faith. While the hierarchy did protest the sexual abuse of children by U.S. troops, they continued to ac tivety support their presence.1 One especially tragic feature of Honduras's location in the international econom y is the sale of its children into sexual slavery, internationally as well as locally. Evidence suggests that som e children have also been slaugh tered for their organs. As a result of international publicity, the European Parliament approved a resolution on "The Trafficking of Central American Children" in N ovem ber of 1988, which acknowledged the existence of chil dren being sold for $20.00 each. Some children were reputed to have brought as much as $75,000 per child, their organs going to American and Israeli families whose children needed transplants. Researchers uncovered 1 Acker, Banana Republic, p 98. one 'human farm' near San Pedro Sula, for example, where num erous mu tilated corpses of children were found stripped of their organs,1 With the end of the Contra War and the repatriation of the Contras to Nicaragua in 1990 and early 1991, followed by the UN. sponsored peace ac cords in E l Salvador, thing? have im proved som ewhat. Still, according to the Honduran Human Rights Commission, in 1991 the Armed Forces were responsible for 86.7% of hum an rights violations "by direct action" The commission notes how the arm ed forces maintain an iron control over the communication system of the country including the telephone com pany and com plete control over migration, allowing only those individuals to enter or to leave that they choose,2 Uss described Honduras under President Rafael Caltejas elected until 1994 as a "de facto U S, protectorate without so cial justice." Parties of the left are outlawed, the arm y has severely cracked down on independent tabor unions and socialist political parties have to work underground3 Honduras w as left with the military m onster that the U.S. created. Even the governm ent's own Human Rights Commission publicly adm itted the government's responsibility in the disappearances of at least 184 people, calling for the extradition to Honduras of form er Contra chiefs and 13 mili 1NISCUA (Network in Solidarity with the people of Guatemala), Report a n Guatemala, vol. 10, no 3, July August Septem ber 1989, p. 3 2l-sta Tierra Nuestra (Mexico), no. 6, second trimester 1992, pp 50 51 3Liss, Radical Thought in Central America, p. 107, Callejas's National Party is decidedly to the right of the political spectrum, enjoying close ties with the ARENA party in El Salvador and other right-wing groups in Central America, fbnsam iento IVopio (Managua), N ovem ber 1989, p, 36. IG(> tary officers from Argentina. Needless to say this met with a cool reception from the military w hose leader, Luis Alonso Discua, was himself cited in the report. Several military officers clearly linked to the disappearances that took place throughout the 1980s, one of them having served in the Counter Intelligence Battalion, were part of a large scale prom otion carried out in December of 1993.1 Honduras is likely to remain a miserably poor society with extremely low levels o f educational and economic opportunities, the classic banana republic' that it has been throughout the century, its people generating handsom e profits for U S financial interests that dom inate the economy. It still plays host to the thousands of U.S. security forces that com e there to train and wreak havoc on the defenseless population, particularly women and children, struggling to eke out an existence catering to their needs. It is an excellent training base for Third World readiness, cheap, pliable, and lo cated in the U.S.'s strategic backyard El Salvador Sexual Injustice and Social Class The structures of sexual violence that persist in E l Salvador operate on acute social distinctions between the powerful and the powerless, the rich and the poor, the colonizers and the colonized. The revolution represented an all out effort to break the chains of that colonial legacy, to construct a m ore egalitarian society wherein the hum an dignity and rights of every one not just an elite minority would be respected. Since its beginnings ^La Opini6n{ljos Angeles), 30 Decem ber 1993, pp. 1 A, 8A; 11 December 1993, p. 8A. 107 the Left included a progressive agenda with respect to w om en's rights. It always dream ed of ridding the nation of its neocolonial legacy which it sees as exploitative of and discrim inatory tow ards women. Broad social strata continue to be deprived of authentic political pow er and the option of legal redress, the lives of m any still resem ble those of slaves. The female children of the p o o r have always been 'taken' by m ales from m ore 'privileged' classes. Patterns of sexual abuse, institutionalized rape and sexual slavery, are m olded into Salvadoran hierarchies of class and pow er A female's sexual freedom o r violation has always been a direct product of her social location1 at birth. According to Thompson: ... sexual abuse of children and young girls is very widespread. Many local caciques or large landow ners expect to have sexual ac cess to cam pesina wom en, particularly young girls, living on or near their estates. Class relations are such that it would be very difficult for a cam pesino family to refuse Equally, cam pesina girls, working as maids, are regarded as 'fair game' by the males of the household. So w hether married o r not, child bearing b e gins at an early age. In the last general census in 1971, one third of 14 year old girls had already experienced at least one pregnancy.1 The extent to which any given female is capable of developing sexual au tonom y is determ ined, at least in part, by econom ic opportunities or the lack thereof. Sexual violence and exploitation has always been an integral part of the military's m o d u s viviendi, particularly in the revolutionary context As testified to by the late N orm a Herrera in 1983, w hen the security forces cap tured a gucrriifera, labor union m em ber, or any com paftera that they con 1 Marilyn Thom pson, W om en o f £7 Salvador. The Price o f Freedom (London: Zed Books, 1986), p. 34 108 sidered dangerous, "they would rape her and then finally kill her in cold blood." She adds that in prison: w om en suffered invasions of their physical and m oral integri ties. From th e time that they are captured, they suffer psychologi cal torture by being constantly threatened with death. rFhey [womenl are taken to distant, desolate places, blindfolded, and at tim es forced to ingest hallucinatory drugs that m ake them hear the cries of their families, children, brothers and sisters, as they are tortured. They [the security forces] sim ulate firing squad executions, give them electric shocks, withhold their food for m any days, beat them, m anhandle them, and rape them.1 In addition to rape influenced by political motives, th e military institution alized sexual slavery for its own use as well as the lucrative profits that ac crue to it. In Salvador's second largest city, Santa Ana, for example, accord ing to a representative of the Revolutionary Dem ocratic Front (FDR): ... prostitution is organized by the military and it is a very lucra tive business. Many brothels are alm ost entirely for their use W om en turn to prostitution at a very early age, 14 or even younger The youngest and the prettiest are naturally for the ex elusive use of the bourgeoisie. They live in brothels with gam bling facilities and each brothel has to obtain a special licence from the police and the nam es of the w om en must also b e regis tered. ITie w om en m ust undergo m onthly m edical check ups. If all the w om en are not registered, the police m ay m ake a raid on the brothel, taking the unregistered w om en to prison until the ow ner of the brothel prays a fine. They d o not receive a fixed in com e, but have board and lodgings free. They are regarded as the elite am ongst the prostitutes.2 1 N orm a de Herrera, La m ujer en la revolution salvadorefla ( Mexico: COPEC CEC:OPE, 1983), pp. 10 tl. ^Cited in Thom pson, W om en o f El Salvador, pp. 21 22. 10l> A ’ w om an' does not, of course, m ake the free and voluntary decision to "turn to prostitution" at the age of "14 o r even younger." Clearly, 12 ,13, or 14 years old is hardly the age of adult consent for such a choice they are es sentially incarcerated by the state as diild sex slaves. Many Salvadoran female children and teenage girls are virtually hom e less, their families having been disrupted or 'disappeared* through political violence; with n o source of incom e and little opportunity of finding one, they are easy prey. For those Salvadoran children and teens w ho end up in a brothel, they em bark on adulthood already branded as a m em ber of a spe cial caste w hose role it is to provide sexual favors to those w ho have m oney/pow er. l*he violence m eted out by security forces against prostituted w om en has som etim es been related to a broader political repression, carried out under the guise of 'cracking down* on prostitution. A ccording to this sam e testim ony with respect to Santa Ana in the early 1980s: . . . the arm y held a 'm oral clean up' campaign. r Ihey m urdered m any criminals and prostitutes It w as a decoy to hide the fact that they w ere also killing m em bers of the political opposition O ther prostitutes w ere killed because they had shown som e sym pathy tow ard the organizations. I knew 'Chilindrina/ w ho was only 17 o r 18 w hen she w as m urdered. It seem s that at a Sunday dance at the 'Kl Greco' Bar, she expressed som e sym pathy tow ards the revolutionary m ovem ent and som ebody overheard her. She was raped and then killed and a few days later her naked corpse found som ew here in th e hills.1 The case of 'CTiilindrina' is one graphic exam ple of a com m on pattern in which the Salvadoran state used sexual terror and violence to safeguard its ^Ibid 170 'right' of both sexual and political dom ination. She is also an exam ple of the way in which revolutionary solidarity com es first and forem ost from the victim. l or ITiompson, T h e hypocrisy, dual standards, graft, and paternalism of the official governm ental /m ilitary position on prostitution is immedi alely evident when one takes a com parative look at the w ay in which pros titution institutions directly controlled by the military are m anaged or dealt with in com parison to those which cater to the general population." W here the security forces enjoyed a n d /o r profited from the enterprise, it was condoned, when this was not the case, it was condem ned.'1 1 This hypocritical condem nation of prostitution on the part of the gov cm m cnt has a long history. The governm ent of Colonel Oscar Osorio (1950 56), for example, passed a law prohibiting prostitution. The leader of the Salvadoran Com m unist party at the time, Salvador C^ayetano C^arpio, in jail in 1954, noted that: "As a result of raids on the taverns and cheaper brothels (the high class brothels are not touched as they belong to the mili tary), the small w om en's cell becom es absolutely packed And the m ore crowded, the m ore satisfied the police, as that m eans they are efficiently carrying out the law against prostitution one of the present governm ent’ s m ost notable social 'contributions.' It is also one of their plans to put an end to the 'danger of com m unism ' through com bating these social blights To elim inate the problem s of prostitution, they som etim es take the w om en from the cell, put them in an am bulance and drive them over the border to Honduras." Ibid.; One key, perhaps, to understanding the ethos of sexual abuse that inheres in the National Police force, responsible for m ost of the repression m eted out against prostitutes and those suspected of being prostitutes, is that it has often done its work fueled by whiskey. They m ade sure that they would b e guaranteed an adequate and untouchable supply by constructing their own distillery (operated by women) functioning in the basem ent of the National Police Adm inistration in the center of the Capital. Ibid., p. 41; It w as com m only rum ored that when the death squads w ent on their missions, they killed on whiskey and cocaine. 171 The kidnapping of w om en and girls by the security forces has been a com m on occurrence. In June of 1991, for example, San Salvador's Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez, publicly criticized w hat he called the "violent fruits of war" which, am ong other violations of hum an rights, included the death of a 16 year old girl who, according to the Bishop, was assassinated by the National Police because "she resisted their dishonest propositions" The Bishop went on to accuse the State's security forces of forcing other civilians to "accom pany them during their operations," adding that his de nouncem ent w as "am ply docum ented."1 The violence resulting from m a ch ism o in El Salvador is not, of course, all related to the military; it is a deeply ingrained legacy of the colonial era, wherein it w as seen as appropriate if not obligatory to adm inister physical punishm ent to one's wife. According to Licenciada M ercedes Caftas, socio logical studies dem onstrate that 57 out of every 100 w om en are the victim of physical violence from their m ates.2 Machista double standards are also written into Salvadoran law, providing a certain legitim ation' for this vio lence As T hom pson puts it, according to the legal code, "While w om en m ust not b e unfaithful, m en m ust not m ake a scandal of their affairs." The institutionalization of this double standard helps to account for the com m on practice am ong rich men of supporting tw o houses, the official rcsi dence with wife and children and the mistress, often also with children, in the renow ned casa chica or little house. The presence of such an over Opini6n {I o s Angeles), 10 June 1991. 2A ltem ativa {San Salvador), 1 D ecem ber 1992, p. 6, 172 whelming num ber of single m other headed households, nearly 70%, dearly represents a response, at least in part, to this d em an d 1 The sexual exploitation built into Salvador's econom y is especially evi dent in the case of dom estic servants. They generally work from 6 00 A M to 10:00 P.M. six days a week, living 24 hours a day in the m aster’ s home; they are generally allowed to leave on personal m atters only once or twice a m onth There is no minimum wage, they are typically paid between $30.00 and $50.00 per month, and there are no other benefits. In addition to economic servitude, they are frequently expected to sexually service their bosses and the sons of the family, losing their source of subsistence upon refusal. As noted by Herrera, the situation of dom estic laborers "has its roots in medieval slavery " Even many nurses and secretaries are coerced into the surrender of their sexual integrity in exchange for job security.2 There are no statistics on sexual harassm ent in the Salvadoran workplace, in fact, women are not even counted in statistics which detail figures of 1 According to Article 265 of the Salvadoran Penal Code, sentences of from six m onths to two years are to be handed down to "a married woman who has had carnal access to any man other than her husband and the man if he does so in the knowledge that she is m arried" Conversely, a man guilty of adultery is to be similarly punished only if he "keeps a concubine in contem pt of his wife or good custom s or who fails to m eet his obliga tions to maintain his family." Thompson, W om en o f El Salvador, pp 3 1 1 31; New Americas Press, eds., A Dream Compels Us: Voices o f Salvadoran Women, with a Preface by Grace Paley (Boston: South End Press, 1989), p 27 ^New Americas Press. A Dream Com pels Us, p. 37; CEMUJER (Centro de Estudios de la Mujer "Norma Virginia Guirola de Herrera"), Norma: Vida insurgcntcy fem inistaiSan Salvador UCA Editores, 1992), pp. S O 51 173 unem ploym ent and under em ploym ent because w om en are not consid ered as part of the 'active papulation' only as housewives.1 Street vendors, predom inantly female, are especially victimized. They work out of doors am ong the m ost m iserable of conditions and are nierci lessly exploited by policem en and loan sharks, am ong others. They d o not generally earn enough to adequately feed them selves and their children, let atone pay for shelter, medicine, etc. Often, they live on the edges of prosti tution, resorting to it when necessary as a last resort for survival. They are often obligated to pay daily taxes1 to the police, forced to leave prohibited zones occupied by public buildings and large businesses, and m any tim es the police use violent m ethods against them, following them and scatter ing their wares on the street as well as arresting them to force them to pay fines."2 U.S. sponsored and directed bom bardm ents and m assacres in the coun tryside forced thousands of desperate w om en to flee to the cities for refuge. lYostitution w as a direct result, in m any cases, of counter insurgency at tacks.3 It is alm ost always a choice bom from desperation, with other viable options nonexistent or unattainable. M ost w om en and girls involved are functionally illiterate, unskilled, or untrained for other form s of em ploy m ent as well as bridled with the responsibility of supporting their children, 1 £7 Diaria Latina (San Salvador), 8 March 1993, p. 12. 2New Am ericas Press, A Dream C om pels Us, p. 37; (JEMUJLR, Norma, pp. 50 51. 3New Am ericas Press, A Dream C om pels Us, p. 37. 174 the fathers of w hom are unknown, dead, absent, or contribute little or nothing to their m aintenance. Salvador’ s revolutionary w om en see prostitution a s originating in eco nom ic injustice, grounded in a grueling poverty and the dysfunctional family structures which result from that misery. They are quick to point out that the w ay in which the State shares in the profits serves to under score the root of the problem. D espite the fact that prostitution has tradi tionally been seen as a 'necessary' evil, w om en of th e revolution: “raise our voice and say Basta*![ Enough I"1 The Revolution's opposition to the militarization of prostitution /sexual slavery was expressed m ost graphi cally by their attack on a military controlled center in San Salvador in the Spring of 19K9, for which they took public responsibility claiming that it represented an affront to the dignity of Salvadorans. There w ere no casual ties, only dam age to the structure as was planned.2 Spokespersons for the revolution in the early 1980s stressed that the problem of prostitution would b e one of the top priorities of the revolutionary forces after they cam e to pow er They h oped to im prove the situation through training and new work possibilities.3 1 CI'MU j ER, Norma, pp. 43 44 2I visited this location several w eeks afterward and it had been com pletely repaired by the military as well as reinforced so as to guard against future attacks. My friends at the National University later told m e that this attack w as not isolated, that in fact the rebels had attacked military run brothels on several occasions. 3 Revolutionary structures afforded new form s of com m unity for som e prostituted w om en w ho collaborated with its organizations. One nevolu tionary cited the exam ple of a 19 year old from Santa Ana w ho could not 175 U nem ploym ent and underem ploym ent have always been acute in 1 1 Salvador and, in an econom ic system with virtually no governm ental safe guards for those without access to the material o r econom ic requisites of subsistence, this results in profound suffering, frequently death, particu larly am ong w om en and children. A ccording to one study, 57% of all chil dren bom in El Salvador die before reaching the age of five. Few female w orkers enjoy protection from labor unions partly because of the system atic cam paign of intimidation, harassm ent, torture an d assassination car ried out against the labor m ovem ent As with repression directed against popular and w om en's m ovem ents in general, U.S. policy either winked at or directly participated in the governm ent's attem pts to keep labor organi nations as weak as possible. Female labor continues to play a key role in this exploitative strategy; m any North Am erican factories like Texas Instrum ents, ARIS, and M aidcnform, for examples, have hired only w om en because they believe that this will help prevent union organizing. Many thousands of w om en toil under horrendous working conditions in Salvador's "free trade" zones. M ore than tw o thirds of the firms in these areas are U.S. owned. They don't pay taxes, and trade unions are not al lowed.1 d o her political work in that city "because of her bad reputation," leaving her child with her m other, she m oved to San Salvador to work with a m ass organization Cited in Thom pson, W om en o f H I Salvador, p. 23 1 New Americas IVess, A Dream C om pels Us, pp. 28, 37 38; Between 197U and 1975 alone, foreign investm ent in El Salvador nearly doubled, with U.S. firms leading the way New businesses flocked in to take advantage of this 'favorable climate.' As one U.S. m anufacturer told a U.S. journalist: "The Salvadoran is pleased to work; it is a national trait." A rm strong and Shenk, Face o f Revolution, pp. 67 68. 1 7(> State Violence Popular protest has always been m et with by violent repression in hi Salvador. By the early 1960s cyclical waves of protest against military dicta torship had begun to reach a crescendo; then President Lem us, concerned with "com m unist threats" to political stability, outlaw ed the C om m unist as well as several other leftist parties. Students at the National University protested these restrictions on political organization and expression The military invaded the university, jailed the protesters, and to re the univer sity apart, raping fem ale students and killing a librarian. The student protest continued and Ijemus ordered the arm y to open fire, at which point m oderate military officers rebelled and overthrew him, establishing a new governing junta. It failed to receive U .S. recognition, however, because it w as believed that som e of its leaders adm ired (-astro and it was prom ptly overthrow n in a right wing coup the leaders of which prom ised to cut rcla lions with (Castro, punish the students, and warm ly w elcom e U S invest ment. They w ere quickly recognized by the U.S. Fabio Castillo, rector of the National University, testified before the U S. Congress that the U.S. had openly participated in the counter coup and had opposed the holding of free elections.1 Kennedy's Alliance for Progress of the early 1960s issued in the infa m ous Salvadoran death squads, com posed of security officials operating out of uniform w hose task w as to routinely torture and execute anyone 1 LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions, p. 173; T. Sue. M ontgomery, R evolution in B Salvador(Boulder, Colo.: 1982), pp. 71 75; Chomsky, Turning the Tide, pp. 95 96. 177 who w as suspected of being "subversive" or potentially subversive. In the words of the U S am bassador to El Salvador from 1961 to 1964, the death squads were "trained in the sophisticated tactics of violence often by our own military advisers"1 The military recruited men and expertise for its death squads from those directly trained by Nazis in Argentina, (Tiile, and Bolivia. Neo Nazi Argentine generals passed on arms, equipment, and men.2 These squads functioned continuously for over two decades. 1 Q uoted by Chomsky, Turning the Tide, p. 6. In May 1984, Dennis Volman of the Christian Science M onitor published an in depth report showing how the C M A financed and trained Salvadoran death squads, LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions, p. 312; Former Senior Salvadoran National Guard Officer, (ieneral )os6 Alberto Medrano, testified that "ORDEN and ANSESAI, a civilian group on the governm ent payroll which provided m em bers to the death squads and the Salvadoran National Security Agency respectively grew out of the State Department, the C M A, and the Green Berets during the time of Kennedy." He candidly acknowl edged that, "in this revolutionary war, the enem y com es from our people I'hey don't have the rights of Geneva. What can the troops do? When they find them, they kill them." Q uoted in the I*rogressivet May 1984. 2According to Chomsky: "The US provided coordination and training (including training in terrorist and torture techniques, according to Salvadoran intelligence officers and form er police agents) both in E l Salvador and the US; the CIA also provided information about suspected dissidents and Salvadorans abroad, many of whom were assassinated." Chomsky sees this as "a natural if not inevitable outgrowth of the coun terinsurgency ideology of the New Frontier, itself a concom itant of the Alliance for Progress program s of strengthening production for export at the expense of dom estic consum ption ... and ... necessary to prevent such 'subversive' activities as distribution of propaganda and organizing." General William Yarborough of Kennedy's Special Forces suggested that secret paramilitary groups capable of carrying out violent covert actions against the dom estic opposition would be an effective mechanism "to counter subversion," advising that the structure be used to "execute paramilitary, sabotage, a n d /o r terrorist activities against known Communist pro p o n en ts" A U S. Army handbook suggested that security forces im personate guerrillas while carrying out terrorist actions against 178 According to the Wall Street journal in Septem ber of 1983 alone, death squads, "associated with the national security forces and right wing parties, kidnapped 5 university professors, assassinated 15 m em bers and leaders of labor unions, and planted bom bs in a radio station and the house of several Jesuit priests."1 1979 m arked a crucial turning point in Salvadoran history. Political re sistance to oligarchic/military dictatorship had becom e highly organized and visible, guerrilla fronts preparing for m assive arm ed struggle were re ceiving steady if still minimal reinforcem ents and violent repression on the part of governm ent forces w as becom ing m uch m ore blatant. Ihe Sandinista trium ph in July of that year, like the C uban victory twenty years prior, sent shock waves through the elite sectors. After news of the Sandinista victory was absorbed by the popular organizationsy thousands m arched through the streets of the capital city's center chanting "Hom cro the population Chomsky, Turning the Tide, pp. 98 99. Rand C orporation terrorism expert Brian Jenkins acknow ledged that Argentina "acted as a proxy for the United States in Central America." Ibid., p. 201. 1 Brenton R. Schlender, Wall Street Journal 7 O ctober 1983; quoted in Clements, Guaxapa. p. 242; In 1984, Robert White, am bassador to in Salvador under Carter, accused the Reagan governm ent of deliberately ig noring detailed and specific information that he had furnished them con corning six Salvadoran exiles living in Miami who, according to him, had been "directing the activities of the death squads in their country of origin." He also testified that the U.S. governm ent had known for three years that right wing ideologue and death squad chieftain Roberto d'A ubuisson planned and ordered the assassination of A rchbishop Rom ero in March of 1980. He claimed that W ashington w as provided with information about the six exiles and the A rchbishop's assassin by cable in 1981 but that "the Reagan governm ent suppressed the information." Joel Brinkley, N ew York limes, 3 February 1984; quoted in Clements, Guaxapa, p 250 179 (Cieneral Romero, then military dictator of the country) y Sam ara sa n la m ism a cosa (Rom ero and Som oza are the sam e thing). Kven before the Sandinista victory, security forces had begun alm ost routinely opening fire on political dem onstrations, a practice in which they would becom e even m ore distinguished in the three years that followed, shooting hundreds of unarm ed people in broad daylight in the capital city streets.1 Far from having th e desired effect of cowing political resistance into docility, however, these m assacres served to drive the opposition un dergm und and into th e cam ps of the arm ed insurgency which had already abandoned hopes of a nonviolent path tow ards social justice While the Carter adm inistration displayed a m odicum of concern for hum an rights abuses, the Reagan team em phasized military solutions to popular unrest. Keagan w as understandably popular with Salvador's rcac tionary political forces. Cunshots could b e heard throughout the wealthy barrios of the capital with the new s of his victory in N ovem ber of 1980. A few days later, the five m ost im portant opposition politicians in the coun try, leaders of the D em ocratic Revolutionary Front (FDK), w ere taken from their m eeting in a Jesuit high school located three blocks from the U.S. em bassy in broad daylight on Ihanksgiving day, forcibly abducted by heavily arm ed m en in plain clothes in full view of soldiers outside. Iheir bodies w ere later found m utilated and dum ped on the shores of a lake several miles from the capital. A nother corpse found on the streets of the capital at 1 Thom pson, W om en o f & Salvador, p. 74 180 the sam e tim e bore a sign which read, "With Keagan, we will elim inate the m iscreants and subversives in El Salvador and Central America."1 As Reagan's new policy directions were im plem ented, the m assacres in creased in both scale and sadism. Human rights groups m onitoring the sit uation described "many thousands of bodies . showing signs of torture including dism em berm ent, beating acid bum s, flaying scalping castration, strangulation, sexual violation and evisceration."2 Between the military coup of O ctober 1979 and D ecem ber of 1983, the Salvadoran ( ’ ommission on Human Rights recorded 49,162 civilian assassinations and 3,896 disap peared. In this period alone, 1% of the population w as assassinated o r dis appeared.3 U.S. econom ic assistance to the Salvadoran regime leapt from $9.5 mil lion for fiscal 1979 to $149 million in 1981 and $189 million in 1982. $1.5 bil lion of capital fled the country for U.S. and Swiss banks during the sam e period.4 In effect, a large part of U.S. aid resulted in a direct subsidy to Salvador’s rich and powerful. By 1986 annual aid reached $625.4 million, by 1988, it exceeded the governm ent's contribution to its own budget.5 1 A rm strong and Shenk, Face o f Revolution, pp. 171 174 2( Chomsky, Turning the Tide, p. 18. ^Thom pson, W om en o f El Salvador, p. 1. 4Richard Fagen, Forging Peace. The Challenge o f Central Am erica {New York: Basil Blackwell, 1987), pp. 79 80; Lafeber, Inevitable Revolutions, p. 286. 5New Americas Press, A Dream C om pels Us, p. 15; The U.S. govern m ent w as undoubtedly aw are of, yet oblivious to, the graft and cynicism surrounding the dispensation of this support. Coronet M anuel Rodriquez, 181 M ost arm y officers received at least part of their training directly from the United States Of particular im portance w as the infam ous "School ot the Americas" in Panama, relocated to Ft, Benning Georgia in 1985. It of fered courses in psychological operations o r "psy ops"as part of its standard curriculum, 'throughout th e 1980s, m ore than 6,000 elite Salvadoran forces including several soldiers convicted of the now famous m urder of six Jesuit priests and two civilians in N ovem ber 1989 w ere trained at the school. In the early 1980s the military focused its efforts on m assive invasions of th e countryside which resulted primarily in the slaughter of civilians, they som etim es included as many as 7000 men. In 1981 alone, there were 21 m ass killings by governm ent forces in which the num ber of dead ranged from 35 to 950.1 Unable to exterm inate the rebels them selves, the military sought to destroy and dem oralize their civilian support base, thereby deny ingthem both a material basis for subsistence and the m oral legitimacy gained from successful protection of the civilian population. The strategy becam e popularized as the "fish" m etaphor, the idea being that the best way to kill it w as to drain its environment. It m et with som e success, m any thousands of civilians were killed, thousands m ore fled the country, m ost to neighboring Honduras. for example, one tim e head of the A rm ed Forces, had already been found guilty in the United States in 1976 of arranging the sale of 10,000 subm a chine guns m ade in the U.S. to U S. gangsters. G em ents, Guazapa, p. 130. 1 Phillip Russell, bl Salvador In C-hsis (Austin, 'lex.: C olorado River Press, 1984), p. 135. 182 A congressional delegation visiting refugee cam ps of Salvadorans in H onduras in January of 19H1 reported that, according to refugee testi monies, this m ethod involved "a com bination of m urder, torture, rape, the burning of crops, in order to create starvation conditions, and a pro gram of general terrorism and harassm ent. The refugees described: ... children around the age of 8 being raped, and then they would take their b ayonets an d m ake m incem eat of them; the arm y would cut people up and put soap and coffee in their stom achs as a m ocking They would slit the stom ach of a pregnant w om an and take the child out, as if they w ere taking eggs out of an iguana. Llite battalions fresh from their U.S. training were regularly responsible for the worst atrocities.1 Much of the torture and mutilation was m eted out along gender lines. Klizabeth Hanly, w ho also visited a refugee cam p in Honduras, recorded the following description by one Salvadoran peasant of a 19H3 m assacre when th e National Guard cam e to her village in U.S. supplied helicopters . . . killing her three children am ong others, chopping the chil dren to pieces and throwing them to the village pigs: 'The sol diers laughed all the while,' she said. Like her, o th er w om en 'still had tears to cry as they told stories of sons, brothers, and hus bands gathered into a circle and set on fire after their leg$ had been broken; or of trees heavy with w om en hanging from their wrists, all with breasts cut off and facial skin peeled back, all slowly bleeding to death/2 While the terror surrounding these invasions w as alm ost unspeakably horrific, m any of those w ho survived the w ar in the countryside recall an 1 Chomsky, Turning the flde, p. 18. 2|bid„ p 22 18: t even greater trepidation with respect to the air attacks carried out by sophis ticated U S m ade aircraft often equiped with chemical w eapons ITie use of Napalm , arriving from Israel until at least 1981, w as repeatedly confirmed.1 In O ctober of 1983, provisional IVesident Alvaro M agana announced that the dialogue which had been held interm ittently betw een his govern m ent and the opposition had been suspended and that he now had hopes of a military solution to the war.2 Well o ver 400 civilians a m onth w ere killed by governm ent forces in 1983. Catholic authorities charged that civil ians killed in bom bing operations alone reached three hundred per m onth by early 1984. North American advisors planned the overall strategy as well as illegally flying in the bom bing m issions themselves. Colonel Sigifredo Ochoa, w ho claim ed that the military "represents the Judeo Christian W estern civilization," told a reporter in January of 1985 that he had estab lished 12 free fire zones in Chalatenango w here, "air strikes and artillery bom bardm ents are being carried out indiscriminately " He added that, lln 1982, there were 111 recorded bom bing raids carried out on civilian populations, by 1983 the figure reached 227. Most of these were chemical at tacks using substances such as white phosphorous. Journalists invcstigat ing one indiscriminate bom bardm ent in 1983 spoke with various North American officials assigned to El Salvador w ho excused the attack on the basis that the margin of error was, according to one coronel, "acceptable in relation to w hat we did in Vietnam." Peter Arnett, A tlanta Constitution, 2 O ctober, 1983, cited in Clements, Cuazapa, p 241; Chomsky, Turning the Tide, pp. 6,122 123. ^Sarn Dillon, M iami Herald 8 O ctober 1983; cited in Clements, Cuarapa, p. 242 184 "W ithout a civilian b ase of support, the guerrillas are nothing but out laws,"1 The com plete disregard for internationally recognized standards of con duct in warfare on the part of the A rm ed Forces is graphically illustrated by their treatm ent of medical personnel. Far from being spared or granted imm unity in accordance with Ceneva conventions, those w ho operated in conflictive zones treating rebels or civilian sym pathizers were routinely tortured an d m urdered. In the case of fem ale doctors and nurses, this was generally accom panied by gang-rape, foreigners as well as nationals. As one nursing student w ho fled the country in 1982 explained: "Providing health care to people w ho need it the m ost is a crime in El Salvador." lh e repres sion w as not limited to personnel working in conflictive zones. Margarita Aleman, President of the Association of Salvadoran W om en (ADEMUSA) herself captured and tortured by the Salvadoran military in April of 1989 testified that N urses were also targeted in the governm ent controlled zones: "Some nurses reported those w ho spoke out about the abom inable conditions of medical practice in El Salvador and the offending nurses w ere frequently kidnapped right from the hospitals b y death squads, inter rogated, tortured, and then murdered."2 1 Ochoa cited in Chomsky, Turning the Tide, p. 24; I^al'eber, Inevitable Revolutions, p. 313; Berryman, Religious R oots o f Rebellion, p 269; Com m ission on U.S. Central Am erican Relations, U.S. Military Intervention in Central Am erica (W ashington: 1984), pp. 2 8. 2 New Am ericas Press, A Dream C 'ompeis Us, pp. 40 41, 215. 185 Religious workers w ere also specially targeted. While the rape and m ur d er of four U.S. churchw om en in D ecem ber 1980 received the most de tailed press coverage, num erous Salvadoran nuns and lay workers were also raped and m any m urdered. Convents such as that of Sister Asunci6n were completely destroyed by bombs. Teachers were also am ong the hardest hit By 1985, 309 teachers had been m urdered, 33 w ere political prisoners, 24 had disappeared, 4,300 w ere displaced and som e 4,000 in exile1 Most teach crs and nurses are female in L I Salvador, subjected on that basis to singular brutalities. W hen a wom an w as kidnapped by the A rm ed Forces, she was generally "stripped of all her clothing, paraded in front of soldiers or po liceman, and raped." During “interrogation," w om en were "beaten and tor lured with electric shock, and raped with foreign objects," w hen they were pregnant, the torture often resulted in abortion.2 ITie w ar m ad e survival increasingly difficult. While the elite profited by the conflict, sending their children to study in the U.S. and their m oney to safe havens outside the country, the m isery of the overwhelm ing majority becam e yet m ore intensified Already in the early 1980s, 1.5% of landow n ers were in control of at least half of the cultivatable land. For those with out land, survival becam e next to im possible in the campa, still eking out an existence through migratory labor on the large haciendas or coffee plan tations 'Hie increasing landlessness of rural residents com bined with the repression in the countryside induced m any to flee to the m ajor cities, par 1 Thom pson, W om en o f El Salvador, pp. 52, 75. 2New Am ericas Press, A Dream C om pels Us, p. 47. 18(> ticularly the capital, w here they greatly expanded the already m assive onion skinned rings of card b o a rd /tin shanty dwellings, w ithout water, electricity or floors rings of filth, garbage, disease, hunger, desperation and death By the mid 1980s, the unem ploym ent figures for the departm ent of San Salvador w ere over 70%1 The Rebels Between early 1981 and 1984, the rebels, the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN), grew from approxim ately 3,000 to about 10,000. A bout 40% of the arm s sent from W ashington to the military in the 1980s ended up in the hands of the rebels through sale or capture. Indirectly, the U.S. actually provided m ore help on a p er capita basis to the rebels than they did to governm ent forces.2 Throughout the 1980s rebel forces controlled betw een one third and one half of El Salvador. While they w ere never able to prevent incursions by large units of the govern m ent's forces, they retained control over day to day political structures. Revolutionary patterns in gender relations took shape in these areas. A ccording to Malena Gir6n, in charge of international relations for the Salvadoran W om en’ s Association (AMES) chapter in M anagua in 1983, w om en living in the zones controlled by the FMLN led com pletely differ ent lives. Ih e re w as freedom, elections, and popular dem ocracy. Life was 1 Pablo Gonzalez Casanova, coord., Hisiaria palUica d e las cam pesinas latinoam ericanos (M6xico: Siglo Veintiuno, 1985), pp. 85, 92 2LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions, pp 304, 313; N ew York Times, 28 March 1984, p A3. 187 organized collectively. It was "another world." The revolution created col lective organizations called com m on houses w here m other's organized child care, food production, and defense, with com m unal b o m b shelters necessary to survive the air attacks. Life rem ained extremely difficult, how ever, with invasions and air attacks aim ed specifically at the destruction of civilians, the burning of hillsides so as to leave now here for them to flee, and the destruction of crops and livestock to starve out insurgents and their families/1 The com paratively high levels of respect which w om en were accorded in guerrilla structures was particularly evident in the way in which the question of rape w as dealt with. According to Garcia and Gomariz, the crime was com pared with that of assassination and violators frequently re ceived the death penalty.2 One Claribel, a film maker w ho spent extensive tim e in the zones, testified with respect to the Chalatenango area that rape was: . . a crim e which is very severely punished. Ib e man involved has to go before a tribunal com posed of the military units of the man and w om an involved, which decides on the punishm ent. It's a form of popular tribunal. Normally the m an is im prisoned in a hole in the ground for 15 days, with nothing m ore than his head out of the ground. 'Ibey do this so he will think ab o u t his crime and also to show the whole com m unity that the revolu tion considers rape as a criminal act and not just som ething that happens as part of daily life, which is still the attitude of many 1 New Am ericas Press, A Dream C om pels Us, pp. 95 96. 2Ana Isabel Garcia and Knrique Gomariz, Mujeres centmamericanas, vol. 2, h'fectos d el conflict a (San Jos6: Fiasco, 1989), p. 94; Salvadoran W om en's Union "Melida A naya Montes," "El Salvador is Winning," July August 1988, pp. 2 3. 188 people- I d o n ’ t know of any case where the man has com m itted rape for a second time. His ca m p a ftem s speak to him, explain why such behavior is not acceptable. We aren't in a position to give psychiatric treatm ent and neither is it possible to tell the culprit to leave the cam p. But w e have to show that w e are not like the arm y of the governm ent, which as a m atter of routine, always rapes w om en when carrying out a military operation. ITieir military com m anders not only tolerate such behavior but actively p rom ote it. W e have a totally different attitude tow ards w om en.1 Cases of m isconduct and criminal action, including rape, were handled by local people’ s tribunals which determ ined both guilt and sentence. Doctor Clem ents was im pressed by the absence of cases involving sexual violence that w ere brought before these tribunals in the rebel stronghold of Guazapa: .. these tribunals did not receive cases of conjugal violence or the abuse of children which, in the United States are som e of the m ost frequent problem s dealt with by the police, in a typical North American county hospital, for example, it is suspected that m any of th e traum atism s of children are a result of physical abuse or neglect on the part of the parents. In Guazapa, on the contrary, I never treated a w om an battered by her m ate or a child beaten by its parents in all the tim e that 1 w as there. These people d o not seem as violent as thought by those w ho say that the cur rent levels of assassination and disorder are part of a culture of violence inherited from the past. He w as also im pressed by the way in which the civilian populations of dis puted zones would bring food and w ater to the rebels traveling through their vicinity even though it w as not asked for o r dem anded, and the way in which the guerrillas insisted in paying for these provisions. He observed that: "Such a scene, it w as clear to me, would have been unthinkable in 1 Q uoted in Thom pson, W om en o f I'l Salvador, p. 131. 189 Vietnam with a group of North American soldiers or soldiers from the South Vietnamese army These campesinos, at least, regarded the com patterns as their friends and partners."1 While the w ar is now over following successful mediation by the U N. and som e progress has been made tow ards a respect for civil rights and the developm ent of dem ocratic institutions, the violence of poverty itself which was partly responsible for the desperation of the rebels remains. Salvadoran m others must still watch their children die of gastroenteritis because their is only filthy w ater to drink and virtually no medical care for many if not m ost poor people. Peasant wom en still raise their children while traveling as migrant farmworkers, seeking work on the big planta tions that provide coffee for the North American market and rich divi dends for the those who own the land and control those markets. 'ITie women who pick the coffee work long hours exposed to poisonous pesti cides and sleep out in the open, all to earn a few cents a day. It is for good reason that militant Salvadoran w om en such as the late Norma Herrera directly blam e the United States government, particularly the Reagan administration, for the miseries of her people that resulted from the "yankee intervention" dedicated to the maintenance of "out dated structures of domination, oppression and death in our country.'2 1 Clements, Guazapa, pp. 90, 218. 2CBMUJKK, Norma, p. 54. 190 Guatem ala Racism. Exploitation, and Death In G uatem ala the institutionalization of militarized sexual violence has been the m ost pronounced and genocidal attacks against civilians the m ost vicious. 'Ihe revolution has been less successful (to date) than in Nicaragua or even El Salvador. Structures of power, sexual violence, and death are also the m ost clearly based along racial lines. As with South Africa, its m ost prom inent international allies in the 'w ar on com m unism 1 have been the United States and Israel. South Africa itself assisted the military with its technological expertise in m onitoring the population. Unlike South Africa, however, tittle progress has yet been m ade through negotiation tow ards the creation of a m ore just society and an end to the arm ed conflict. What is m ost unusual about the continuing repression is the vast net work of population control centers o r concentration cam ps set up through out the country along with the coerced recruitm ent and deploym ent of ap proxim ately one tenth of the population in th e Civil Patrols Ihe concen tration cam p system and the general ethos of violence pervasive through out the militarized zones have been accom panied by a situation of w idespread, violent exploitation of w om en and fem ale children Ihe G uatem alan w om an or girl of the popular classes, particularly if she is in digenous, represents what is arguably the m ost oppressed sector of hum an ity in the hem isphere. Indigenous w om en and female children, as the m ost vulnerable mem bers of a subjugated and colonized people, have never enjoyed authentic legal recourse against their assailants Security officials are alm ost never punished for the violence that they com m it against the civilian population 1 9 1 in general and w om en in particular. According to the Organic I-aw of the National Police, any officer who has been fired or suspended for rape on duty can be rehired.1 As in H onduras and R l Salvador, the country's consti tution discrim inates against w om en in a variety of w ays which leave them vulnerable to patriarchal violence.2 Sexual exploitation is built into the unjust distribution of resources, particularly land, the rich constantly preying on the poor, the landed on the landless. Indigenous activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kigoberta Menchti recounts the story of one young mother, for example, Petrona Chona, w ho courageously resisted the persistent sexual advances of the land ow ner's son. Having been spum ed, he called his father's bodyguard and ordered her assassination The bodyguard cam e to her hut and 1 A m nesty International, "Guatemala: Extrajudicial Executions and Hum an Rights A buses Against Street Children" (New York: Am nesty International, 1990), p 12. ^A ccording to Jim6nez Mufioz, the G uatem alan constitution views a w om an as guilty of adultery as a result of sim ple accusation, the man only when he is flagrantly caught in the act in the marital bed. A w om an's rights are restricted vis a vis men with respect to her pow er over a m ar riage's m aterial resources, paternal authority over children, and the right to remarry. The constitution also recognizes the right of a husband to pro hibit his wife from dedicating herself to activities outside the hom e. With respect to kidnaping those violations which have a sexual m otivation are not officially castigated with even half the severity of those m otivated by other factors. Olga Jim6nez Munoz, "La mujer guatem alteca: Quinientos a nos de patriarcado capitalista," Noticias d e (luatemala (Guatemala), O ctober 1992, p. 20; In an ironic twist of patriarchal paternalism, it is against the constitution for a wom an to b e "fusflada" or executed by firing squad (Article 54 of the Guatem alan constitution of 1965). Juan Luis Pineda Quiroa, “La discrim inacidn feminina en el codigo civil guatem alteco" {Tests d e licenciado, University of San Carlos, Guatemala, 1982), p. 6 1 l) l chopped her up with his m achete into num erous pieces, injuring the child that she carried on her back. W hen her neighbors com plained to the Mayor, he appeared the next day and put the bodyguard in jail for fifteen days.1 Capitalism, (Guatemalan style, itself does violence to women, who are concentrated in low wage jobs that are the least secure, the least covered by contractual obligations, rendering 'equality before the law' m ere rhetoric. The material suffering so pronounced am ong w om en as a class is en hanced by the fact that 38% of urban w om en, and 56% in the countryside are widows. I h e m orbidity rate is higher am ong Guatem alan w om en than anyw here in th e hem isphere illiteracy am ong rural w om en rem ains at K 5 percent.2 (Grinding poverty and extrem ely exploitative labor relations bordering on outright slavery have rendered the lifestyle of the majority o( (Guatemalans an acute struggle for life itself an d the lives of one's children: 41 8% of children weigh less than 5.51 pounds at birth. Of every 1,000 births, 161.5 die at that time. Only 35 of every 100 children live to b e as old as 15 Ihe tragedy associated with m otherhood is generally shouldered by the w om an alone since seventy percent of children are bom to single m others Ihe counter insurgency w ar has left over 210 thousand indigenous chil 1 Kigoberta Menchu, /... Rigobcrta M enchu A n Indian W om an in Guatcmala,ued. with an Introduction, Elisabeth Burgos Debray, trans. Ann Wright (New York: Verso, 1983^ pp. 150 152. 2Jonas, Hattie for Guatemala, p. 110. 193 dren orphaned.1 Guatem alan arm y officers have been quoted as saying that killing Indian w om en and children was part of a deliberate strategy because of the im portance of the "family nuclei" to the indigenous guerrilla effort2 Life has been m ost difficult for those w om en displaced from the coun tryside in the conflictive zones; m any thousands sought refuge in M6xico or the larger cities of Guatemala. With no longer so much as a small plot upon which to grow a few vegetables and raise a few chickens, displaced w om en are frequently forced into prostitution because they cannot find any other m eans of assistance.3 Indian and p o o r la d in g w om en that com e to the cities seeking dom estic em ploym ent work alm ost constantly from early morning to late at night for (25 a m onth and are frequently subjected to a variety of forms of sexual abuse. There are no laws that protect them or perm it them to organize Indigenous w om en working as dom estics are also obligated to becom e la d in o ized "forced to abandon much of their tradi tional identity. A ccording to o n e estimate, 64% of all w om en working for 1 Marilyn A nderson and Johnathan Garlock, Granddaughters o f C o m Portraits o f Guatemalan W om en (Willimantic, Conn.: C urbstone Press, 1988), p. 67; Pineda Quiroa, "La discrim inacibn feminina en el codigo civil guatemalteco," p. 112; IV Encuentro Feminista, M ujer Centroamericana, p. 56 ^Knloe, "Bananas, Bases, and Patriarchy," p. 21)2; Michael McClintock, The A m erican C onnection State Terror and Popular Resistance in Guatemala, vol. 2 (lo n d o n Zed Press, 1985), p. 245. 3|V Encuentro Feminista, M ujer C entroamericana, p. 58. 4A ladino' refers to anyone w ho is not regarded as indigenous, includ ing ‘Indians' w ho have abandoned indigenous custom and culture and have m ade every attem pt to assimilate into non indigenous culture and society. 194 wages in G uatem ala city are em ployed as dom estic workers. Guatem alan feminists also charge that m any indigenous w om en have been sterilized w ithout their co n sen t1 Rape has been an integral com ponent of the governm ent's genocidal cam paigns against the highlands Indians. This was particularly evident in the reports detailing the atrocities of the Spring and Sum m er of 1982. To cite one description of hundreds: in one village troops "forced all the in habitants into the courthouse, raped the w om en and beheaded the men, and then battered the children to death against rocks in a nearby river " A Survival International delegation taking depositions from refugees in M6xico reported large num bers of pregnant w om en and children killed, the w om en raped, tortured, and burned alive In one 1982 m assacre, perpe trated by the elite U.S. trained "Kaibiles" (the Ixil w ord for 'tigers') located at the Chel garrison, the entire population of the Chel Amajchel zone w as annihilated on April 3 The soldiers set fire to the village while the people were still inside their hom es. On the bridge over the Chel river, the troops decapitated over 20U people (men, women, and children) with m achetes 1 A ccording to the Canadian based Latin American Working Group, it is very com m on for dom estic workers to have children “as a result of being forced to have relationships with their bosses." In m any cases, the wom en will have the children and then give them to the grandparents to care for, going back to work for the em ployer and "often becom ing pregnant again, sending a little m oney hom e when they can to help care for the children." l^atin Am erican W orking Group (Canada), in Third W orld S eco n d Sex, vol. 2, ed. M iranda Davies (london: Zed Books, 1987), p. 64; MenchCi, / Kigoberta MenchO, p 94; A nderson and Garlock, Granddaughters o f Com, p 45; IV Encuentro Feminista, M ujer Centroamericana, p 57; Enloe, Bananas, Bases, and Patriarchy, p. 196. l ‘)5 w ho w ere returning from m arket day at I,a Perla.1 It is during this period that the Kaibiles earned their reputation as cannibals, literally drinking and eating ’ com m unist' blood and flesh in militaristic rituals, an experience heightened perhaps through the use of the pastillitas blancas (little white pills) often taken before entering com bat,2 While the w orst slaughter w as taking place in the highlands in 1982, [^resident/ General Efratn Rios M ontt m ade his born again Protestant iden tity a national issue. In his Sunday night TV "fireside chats" he becam e a national moralizer, w eaving together them es of political problem s and family life, as though all were a m atter of personal morality; fundam ental ist and electronic gospel organizations in the U.S. raised funds and preach ers w ent on speaking tours showing how God w as at work in Guatemala, urging support for "Brother Kphraim." Reagan described Rios Montt as "a man of great personal integrity" w ho w as "com m itted to dem ocracy for all G uatem alans" According to Reagan, "He simply had received a bum rap" In the Spring of 1982, M ontt declared on Guatemalan television that he had "declared a state of siege so that w e could kill legally." By December, when Reagan publicly heaped this praise on him, six to nine m onths had elapsed after the destruction of at least 400 villages and the slaughterer 10,000 innocent civilians and three m onths since the O ctober 1982 publica 1 A nderson and Garlock, Granddaughters o f Com, p. 28, Guatem alan Church In Exile, Guatemala. Security, D evelopm ent, a n d D em ocracy (Location of publication withheld: GCE, April 1989), p. 70. 2Rafael M ondragon, De in d to sy cristianos en g u a tem a la tM6xico: COPEC CECOPE, 1983), p p 34 36 1% tion of A m nesty International's extensive report on the situation, detailing w idespread m assacres in which entire villages w ere destroyed.1 This violence is a direct product of colonialism and neocolonialism, the political dom ination and exploitation to which the G uatem alan people have been subjected over the last five centuries. As pointed out by Angela Gilliam, for Menchti and others like her, "the struggle in G uatem ala is m erely a continuation of a 450 year long battle against dom ination in G uatem ala ," w here "the m ultinational corporation is the inheritor of the original invading arm ies from Spain W hen Pedro d e A lvarado and his m en cam e to Guatemala, according to legend, they "killed so m any Indians that it m ade a river of b lood which is called the O lim tepeque"3 Political violence has always had an ethnocidal color, the indigenous people the perennial victim Indigenous people have bom th e brunt of the governm ent's violence; they are also the m ost no table victims of structures of econom ic violence. An Indian has a life ex pectancy of only 45 years 15 years less than his or her ladino counterpart Power, wealth, and opportunity for life itself have always been determ ined along color lines 4 1 C.Tiomsky, Turning the Tide, p. 31. 2Gitliam, "W om en's Equality and N ational Liberation," p. 228. ^Galeano, O pen Veins, p p 29 30; He cites Le6n Portilla, hi revenso d e la conquista nelactones aztecas, m ayas e incas (Mexico, 1964) ^A ccording to Galeano, "Expropriation of the Indians usurpation of their lands and their labor has gone hand in hand with racist attitudes which are in turn fed by the objective degradation of civilizations broken by the Conquest." While racism has been a prom inent factor in each 197 'Ihe way in which the oppression of w om en in Guatem ala is intimately bound up with the five hundred year history of racist conquest and ex ploitation is illustrated by a com m on w edding vow taken by indigenous brides in the highlands of B Quichfe 1 will b e a m other, I will suffer, my children will suffer, m any of my children will die young because of circum stances created for us by the white man. It will b e hard for m e to accept my chil dren's death but I will bear it because our ancestors b ore it with out giving up. W e will not give up either.1 While overwhelmingly sad, it dem onstrates th e dignity which abides in a people w ho have not entirely lost h o p e and are aw are of the fact that jus tice is on their side. Indigenous com m unities, laws, and custom s, have served as protec lions for w om en in im portant ways, as is bom out by laws concerning m ar ital separation. A ccording to MenchCi, it is against both "ladino law" and the laws of the Catholic Church for a w om an to leave her husband even it he is abusing her, yet this is not the case with respect to indigenous custom because, "the Indian feels responsible for every m em ber of his community, and it's hard for him to accept that, if a w om an is suffering the com m unity can d o nothing for her because the law says she cannot leave h er h u sb a n d " Central American revolution, it is particularly pronounced in CGuatemala Racism is w idespread down to the lowest econom ic strata of the papula tion, a fact which has never been lost on the indigenous poor. According to MenchCi, it is a source of pride to p o o r ladinos that, while they are poor, at least they are not Indians. Galeano, Open Veins, p. 62; MenchO, / .. Kigoberta MenchO, p. 119; CITGUA (Ciencia y tecnologia para Guatemala asociacibn civil), "Situacibn de la m ujer en Guatemala," vol. 3 (M6xico: CITGUA, 1988), p. 1; Fagen, Forging Peace, p. 90, 1 MenchCi, I Kigoberta MenchO, p. 70. 198 I Tie powerlessness of m ost indigenous women is exacerbated by the fact that only 10% are literate. Indigenous w om en depend upon their com mu nities to protect them from both society at large and their own husbands when they becom e abusive, a situation generally aggravated when men turn to alcohol as a futile escape from their desperate situations.1 After having subjected indigenous women to centuries of sexual abuse, murder, and forced labor, the Guatemalan government now uses them to prom ote tourism. The mayors of many Guatemalan tow ns sponsor indige nous festivals which generate income for the government. One of the at tractions of these events is the "Indigenous Queen" of the festival. The military also has its Indigenous Queens which serve as m ascots for its cele brations.2 The Democratic Opening. 1944 1954 As in Nicaragua and El Salvador, revolutionaries see the contem porary phase of their insurrection as several decades old, grounded in the events surrounding the progressive administrations of 1944 1954 and the coup that destroyed these gains. As mentioned in the previous chapter, the regime of Jorge Ubico, overthrown in 1944, was brutally repressive, with the free m ovem ent of women severely restricted by law as well as custom. It was ended by a military coup led by progressive junior officers who pro cecded to hold what are generally regarded as the most free and democratic 11bid , p. 76; IV Encuentro Feminista, Mujer Centnoamerica, pp 85, 90. 2 MenchCi, I... Kigoberta Menchu, pp. 208 209. 19<) elections in Guatem alan history. Fxiled professor and popular leader Arevalo w as elected and im m ediately proceeded to institute far reaching plans in education and new labor codes under which labor unions prolifer ated. From its outset, the "revolution of 1944" ad o p ted an independent stance vis a vis the United States and sought to assert Guatem alan sovereignty over its own affairs. Those who rebelled against Ubico harbored nebulous anti U.S. sentim ents heightened by boyhood tales of Sandino's heroic deeds in Nicaragua, bolstered by resentm ent over the presence of khaki clad G.l.s w ho sw arm ed over the capital on Saturday nights searching for prostitutes in drunken revelries.1 At the time that Ar6valo took the reins of power, plantations larger than 1,100 acres constituted only .03% of the total num ber of farms yet rep resented over half of the nation's farm land including that which w as m ost productive. The need for land reform in G uatem ala had been universally recognized by scholars for decades. As a Minnesota professor reported in 1940, "all but a very small proportion of the people are landless ... in spile of the fact that land is still available to buyers in large am o u n ts... ,q 1 l.iss, Radical 17)ought in Central America, p. 46. 2 As another North American scholar w ho published a Ubrary of Congress study in 1949 sum m ed it up, ". .. raising the standard of living through diversification and m echanization is greatly dependent upon changes in the distribution of the profits a n d /o r land. The foreign corpora tions and the native large landow ners o p p o se diversification and the de velopm cnt of a dom estic market. To increase production (without land re fo rm j... only benefits the owners w ho spend their profits abroad during trips or by the purchase of foreign luxury item s or, as in the case of the United Fruit Com pany, the m ajor portion of the profits goes abroad to for 2 0 0 Ar6valo nationalized land ow ned by foreign com panies that w as lying dorm ant, offering indemnification in the am ount which the com panies them selves had declared to b e the value of the property for purposes of tax ation. Linder his adm inistration and that of his successor Arbenz, w ho con tinued and broadened his reforms, over 11)0,000 families b en efited from the redistribution of land.1 Ar6valo also im m ediately enacted a num ber of wide ranging reforms, speaking of his program s for the country as “spiritual socialism " Voting rights were extended for the first tim e to w om en and illiterate men, free dom of speech and assem bly w ere perm itted, and unionization grew rapidly Social security program s were begun and new expenditures w ere m ade on education and public health.2 Arevalo's reform s continued, how ever, to deny suffrage to illiterate wom en. W hy this w as the case is not im m ediately clear From this perspective, this is the m ost serious blem ish on the record of his regime. Still, this was nearly a decade before any w om en received the vote in H onduras or FI Salvador, His governm ent initiated progression in the right directions, instituting changes which gave com m on people m any w om en included authentic power, for the first time, to exercise th e liberties that com e with even limited literacy and suf frage, especially the organization of women. cign stockholders." Both scholars cited by Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer, Bitter Fruit The U ntold Story o f th e A m erican C oup in Guatemala (New York: A nchor Press/D oubleday, 1983), pp. 40 41 1 (ialeano, O pen Veins, p 127. 2 Berryman, Religious R oots o f R ebel lion, p 166 201 'ITie privileged position of Guatem ala's (Catholic Church had been duli fully safeguarded under Ubico and the hierarchy felt its position threatened under the reformist governm ent. The Society for the Propagation of the Faith and its offshoot, (Catholic Action, w orked in consonance with A rchbishop M ariano Rossell y Arellano against the govem m ents's pro gressive policies. The Archbishop, w ho believed that it was "dangerous" to educate Indians, advised Christians to wait for the afterlife for relief from life's problem s. Known to his o pponents as the "Fruit C om pany Bishop," he delivered serm ons inciting the people to save Guatemala from those (com m unists) w ho would abolish the (Catholic religion. A ccording to l.iss, while Ar£valo noted that the Church abided by the theory that "the devil w as the first leftist," he did not advocate "substituting antireligious teach ings for the dogm a of the church" W hat he did d o w as condem n the "aura of servitude" that existed in G uatem ala including the "sexual servility that m akes m en dom inate w om en"1 W om en w ere not even recognized as citizens by the G uatem alan Constitution until the decree of the Junta of the Revolutionary (Government on N ovem ber 18,1944 which also gave them the vote.2 This progress tow ards the recognition of w om en's rights was part of a broader program aim ed at putting pow er back into the hands of the average 1 Uss, Radical Thought in Central America, pp. 30, 39, 50. ^Danilo Rodriguez, "S61o con la participacibn d e los pueblos indigenas se construira la nacibn guatemalteca," Tinamit {(Guatemala), 2 D ecem ber 1992, p 36 202 (Guatemalan, m ale and female.1 Between 1944 and 1954, the educational system w as reform ed on every level, with constitutional guarantees for the com plete autonom y of the National University and increased expenditures for university education, the training of teachers, and the developm ent of new prim ary school program s. It w as during this period w hen wom en, par ticularly cam pesinas, began to receive literacy training, and fem ale children w ere enrolled in prim ary school in large num bers for the first time. After 1954, these trends w ere dramatically reversed.2 1 1 is notew orthy that the first Inter American Congress of W om en chose to convene in C uatem ala City in August of 1947, undoubtedly as a result of the political openness and progressive agenda of the reformist adm inistra tion While m ost of latin America’ s m ale political forces w ere already busy laying out anticom m unist agendas of militarization in cooperation with the United States, the first press release from this conference denounced "the hem ispheric arm am ent plan," asking that the cost of the arm s pro 1 As A revalo explained: "Our revolution is not explained by the hunger of the m asses but by their thirst for dignity.... O ur socialism do cs not, therefore, aim at ingenious distribution of m aterial wealth to econom ically equalize m en w ho are econom ically different. O ur socialism aims at liber ating m an psychologically and spiritually. W e aim to give each and every citizen not only the superficial right to vote, but the fundam ental right to live in peace with his ow n conscience, with his family, with his property and with his destiny." Q uoted by Samuel Guy Inman, A N ew IJay in G uatem ala (Wilton, Conn.: W orldover Press, 1951), p. 38, ^CITGUA, "Situacibn d e la m ujer en Guatemala," vol. 3, pp. 3 10. 2(M . gram b e used to support industry, agriculture, health and education for our people.1 In his farewell speech in 1951, Arevalo revealed that he had had to thwart no less than thirty tw o conspiracies financed by United Fruit during his adm inistration. W hen the desperate governm ent of his successor Arbenz, cut off from arm s sales by the U.S. and its allies, sought to purchase military hard w are from the Soviet Union, this helped to seal its fate (in addition to voting against the U.S. and along with the Socialist Bloc in the United Nations on several occasions). Just before the coup, Guatemala's foreign m inister Toriello charged that U.S. policy am ounts to, "cataloguing as 'com m unism ' every m anifestation of nationalism or econom ic inde pendence, any desire for social progress, any intellectual curiosity, and any interest in progressive o r liberal reform s.. . "2 Nine years after the coup of 1954 that ended Guatemala's bid for sovereignty and dem ocracy, Dwight Kisenhower reflected that it had been necessary in order to "get rid of a Com m unist governm ent which had taken over."3 The U.S. position to w ards the organization of Guatem alan w om en w as evident in the attitude of the U.S. A m bassador at the time of the coup, John Peurifoy, w ho re H ran cesca Miller, "Latin American Feminism and the Transnational Arena," in W omen, Culture, a n d Politics in Latin America: Sem inar on Feminism and Culture in Latin America, ed. Emile Bergmann (Berkeley Calif.: University of California Press, 1990), p. 23. ^Q uoted by Chomsky, Turning the Hide, p. 52. ^Galeano, O pen Vctns, p. 127. He cites Eisenhower's "Speech to the Am erican Booksellers Association," W ashington, D C, 10 June 1963; also cited by David Wise and Thom as B . Ross, The Invisible (Government (New York: Random House, 1964), p. 166. 204 ferred to the w om en's organization (along with that of the university stu dents) as "Com m unist front" organizations.1 The U.S. C oup and the Military State Colonel Rodolfo Castillo Armas, a graduate of Port leaven worth, was chosen to invade his own country at the head of a band of mercenaries, all funded by the U.S. and trained for the operation in Honduras. Using a repertoire of tactics, military, political, and econom ic, the U.S. destroyed (Guatemalan dem ocracy so as to set up a police slate that it could control, thereby ensuring its interests in the region.2 The Church hierarchy con tributed its crucial and unequivocal support. 'ITie CIA air dropped thou sands of copies of A rchbishop Kossell's pastoral letter of April 1954, "On the A dvance of Com m unism in Guatemala," on rural tow ns and villages Ijo h n H . Peurifoy, "W hose Intervention in Guatemala? W hose Conspiracy?" in Guatemala in Rebellion: U nfinished History, ed. Jonathan L Fried, Marvin K . Cattleman, D eborah T. Levenson, and Nancy Peckenham (New York: Grove Press, 1985), p. 73. 2 As Berryman describes the 1954 c o u p ,".., the United States secured the the cooperation of other Central Am erican countries, which allowed their territory to b e used (Anastasio Som oza was intimately involved); diplom atic action by the United States isolated the Guatem alan regime in temationally; the Cl A trained and equipped a m ercenary arm y and pro m oted psychological warfare inside Guatem ala (rumors, leaflets, radio pro grams); and military officers were convinced (or bribed) to desert Arbenz. Although the actual ‘ Invasion force1 led by Colonel Carlos (Castillo Arm as (seemingly chosen by the Cl A) w as only 160 to 2U0 m en and stopped just inside the H onduran border, the desertion of the military officers and the bom bardm ent of Guatemala City by CIA planes led Arbenz, w ho had been unwilling to give arm s to the people, to resign on June 27,1954. Castillo Arm as w as flown into Guatemala City on the United States em bassy plane on July 3." Berryman, Religious R oots o f Rebellion, pp. 168 169. 2 0 5 When Arm as cam e to power, the Archbishop, w ho once referred to him as a "legitimate saint" sent him the following telegram: "1 send you w arm greetings and fervent congratulations in the nam e of the nation which awaits you with open arms, recognizing and adm iring your sincere patrio tism. May our lo rd God guide you and your heroic com panions in your liberating cam paign against atheistic com m unism . You all have m y pas toral benediction."1 The Papal Nuncio, G ennaro Verrolino, worked along with A m bassador Peurifoy in prodding and bribing G uatem alan arm y offi cers to sell out.2 "Uberation" sources suggest that the U.S. spent approxi m ately $7 million on the operation as a whole.3 As Arm as took power, hundreds if not thousands w ere executed by his firing squads. Peasant and union leaders, in particular, were targeted, a pat tern which has continued until today. He sought to com pletely destroy all dem ocratic forms of opposition. The U.S. em bassy helped the governm ent hunt "communists" by supplying lists. 533 labor unions had their registra tion canceled Over 99 percent of expropriated lands w ere returned to their form er owners. Literacy program s were ended and hundreds of rural teach ers were fired. Industrial and agricultural diversification, of such desperate im portance for the developm ent of an internal market, cam e to a grinding halt.4 As the United States reasserted control over the army, equipping it 1Ibid. ^Liss, Radical I bought in Central America, p. 47. 3 Jon as, HatUe for Guatemala, p. 30. 4I.iss, Radical Ihought in Central America, p. 31; Berryman, Religious R oots o f Rebellion, p. 169; LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions, p. 125. 2 0 0 and modernizing it under the Mutual Security Acts, officers attended U.S. staff and com m and schools receiving heavy doses of anticommunist ideol ogy. Guatemala resum ed diplomatic ties to fascist Spain and moved closer to I-atin America's anticommunist dictators.1 Throughout the late 1950s, Guatemala's economy, despite increased U.S. aid, slid deeper into bankruptcy; three years of favorable trade balances achieved under Arbenz slipped far onto the negative side, the militarism ol the Ubico era returned. With the help of U.S. advisors, the military becam e increasingly "professionalized" resulting in even m ore brutal and sophisti cated forms of dom ination of the civilian population. When Roy Kubottom, head of the State Departm ent's Division of latin American Affairs, visited the capital city in 1957, one reporter com pared it to the visit of the Spanish viceroy 100 years earlier.2 1 Uss, Radical Ihought in Central America, p. 51; Although he was as sassinated in 1957, the party which Castillo Armas founded, the Movement for National Liberation (MLN), rem ains the political party of the Guatemalan extreme Right and much of the military to this day. Armas has continued to serve as a symbol of central im portance to the party. Blaise Bon pane, Guerrillas o f Peace: IJberation Theology and the Central Am erican Revolution (Boston: South End Press, 1987), p. 29. ^LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions, p. 134; As the U.S. reasserted its hegemony, it began to pum p in money, for the military in particular, and 'development* assistance that facilitated the creation of infrastructure and a climate favorable to U.S. investment. Between 1944 and 1954, when its hegem ony was threatened, U.S. assistance totaled only $600,000 dollars for the entire period After the coup, it soon reached the level of $45 million annuatly. By 1970 forty six Fortune 500 com panies were operating in Guatemala. Schlesinger and Kinzer, Bitter Fruit, p. 233; Berryman, Religious Roots o f Rebellion, p. 170. 207 By 1962 political and econom ic conditions had deteriorated to a point of such despair that even a num ber of bishops signed a pastoral tetter attacking the governm ent for creating a situation in which peasants received "salaries that hardly permit (them) to avoid death by starvation" with plan tation workers living "in situations closely resembling concentration camps."1 Severe repression was unsuccessful at preventing new waves of protest m ovem ents by students, government employees, and some profes sionals. Guerrilla groups were gaining strength in their mountain hide aways. In 1966, Mario M6ndez Montenegro, the only civilian to be ’ elected' president between 1954 and 1986, was allowed to take office on the condi lion that h e allow the arm y (both Guatemalan and U.S.) a free hand in the counter insurgency war. It was under his governm ent that direct U.S. mili tary intervention reached its high w ater mark. In Septem ber 1967, Montenegro's vice president, Clemente Marroquin Rojas, acknowledged that: In recent m onths a squadron of United States aircraft piloted by U.S. personnel had flown from bases in Panama, delivered loads of napalm on targets suspected of being guerrilla haunts, and flown back to their b ases without landing on Guatemalan soil United States Special Forces are carrying out intensive training of local personnel in anti guerrilla warfare, interrogation of prisoners, and jungle survival. The United States advisers are also currently accompanying Guatemalan patrols on anti guer rilla duty2 1 Cited by Schlesinger and Kinzer, Bitter Fruit, p. 242; Ihom as and Marjorie Melville, Guatemala. The Politics o f Land Ownership (New York: Free Press, 1971), pp 119,122 123,146, 148. 2Q uoted in Schlesinger and Kinzer, Bitter Fruit, p. 247 208 Toriello refers to a "Vietnamization of G uatem ala” occurring betw een 1964 and 1973, with the utilization of the U S 's "O peration Phoenix" plan from Vietnam under which assassination team s w ere organized for the extemii nation of those sym pathetic to anti governm ent guerrillas.The similarities with techniques used in Vietnam w ere com plem ented by som e twenty five State d ep artm en t people working in the U. S. em bassy in Guatemala dur ing the 1960s w ho had previously seen service in Vietnam. The Agency for International D evelopm ent assisted in the organization and finance of param ilitary organizations such as the National Anti Com m unist M ovem ent and the New Anti Com m unist Organization which proceeded to initiate a bloodbath in the country. A bout this time, the term “disappearance" entered th e international hum an rights vocabulary from Guatem ala.1 Ihe Green Berets w ere unsuccessful in w iping out the guerrilla forces operating during M ontenegro's adm inistration; m any survived and re treated into seclusion to rebuild and regroup, reem erging a few years later as a viable fighting force. U S, initiatives did succeed, however, in killing 1 Guillermo Toriello Garrido, (Guatemala, m as d e 20 anas d e traicidn (Caracas: Editorial A teneo d e Caracas, 1980), pp. 70 72. A rm strong and Shenk, Face o f Revolution (Boston: South Hnd, 1982), p. 50; Berryman, Religious R oots o f Rebellion; pp. 171 173; Schlesinger and Kinzer, Bitter Ftuit, p. 228; 'Ihe crim e associated with 'disappearance1 has an especially cruel im pact on the loved ones w ho survive. Society buries its dead and has funeral rights for them, of m ost foundational im portance is the 'naming' of the dead. The psychological ramifications for the family of som eone w ho has 'disappeared1 , therefore, are especially tragic. A nderson and Garlock, Granddaughters o f Com, p. 26 209 thousands of peasants in the "pacification" program . Hven though, accord ing to som e sources, the guerrillas never num bered m ore than 300 during the 1960s, an estim ated 6,000 to 8,000 people lost their lives betw een 1966 and 1968 alone as Colonel Carlos Arana sent his forces on m assacres in zones w here the rebels were active and Am erican pilots instituted a scorched earth policy.1 By the late 1960s the United States had created a very efficient fighting force, It also helped to increase the size of the national police force from 3,000 to 11,000 men. By 1970, over 30,000 Guatem alan police had received training from the U.S. Office of Public Safety Program (OPS), the second largest American police assistance program in the hem isphere after Brazil which had twenty tim es the population.2 This period also saw the begin ning of G uatem ala's death squads in their contem porary form, with the M ano Blanca (White Hand) founded by Sandoval Alarcbn, the leader of 1 laFeber, Inevitable Revolutions, pp. 169 70; Berryman, Religious Roots o f Rebellion, pp. 171 173. ^According to 1^1’ e b e r "The U.S. military provided help of an unusual but essential kind: it developed the G uatem alan arm y into an institutional force that could use m odem North American w eapons. The process had begun in the m id fifties when U.S. advisors took a rag tag force and through reorganization, the teaching of political as well as military tactics, and the developm ent of a centralized com m unications and transport sys tern, created a mobile, m ore efficient arm y that had growing institutional pride and allegiance. This transform ation explains why the military stood ready to govern the country in 1963, and why the United States accepted its ru le A military w hose officers before 1954 had been attached to indi viduat politicians b ecam e by the sixties an institutional force dedicated to its own preservation and prosperity." LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions, p. 167; Schlesinger and Kinzer, Bitter Fruit, p. 247 210 the MLN, becom ing particularly efficient. In addition to funding and train ing the U.S. provided man pow er with the CIA sending in anti-Castro Cuban exiles on its payroll to staff the Guatem alan National Police. Under IYesident/(General Arana (1970 1974), at least 2,000 people were victims of extrajudicial assassination from N ovem ber 1970 to June 1971 alone, m ost w ere tortured. He w as succeeded in 1974 by his Defense Minister, General Kjell Eugenio Laugerud. During the first six m onths of his rule, assassinations of students, teachers, and labor union leaders in creased K4% and torture and mutilations 152%. Prom January to D ecem ber of 1979, according to new spaper accounts, political violence claimed the lives of 114 victims per m onth and only a handful were governm ent secu rity forces assassinated by the Left. Of particular note w as the process of se lective decapitation of leaders of legal opposition political parties, gunned dow n in broad daylight.1 As Kigoberta MenchCi describes the effects of the rise to pow er of lY esident/General Rom eo Lucas Garcia in 1978: It was in 1978, when Lucas Garcia cam e to pow er with such a lust for killing that the repression really began in H I Quich6 It w as like a piece of rag in his hands. He set up military bases in many of the villages and there w ere rapes, tortures, kidnaping And m assacres. The villages of Chajul, Cotzal, and Nebaj suffered m assacres as the repression fell on them again. It felt above all on the Indian population Every day new clandestine cemeteries, as they call them, w ould ap p ear in different parts of the country. That is they'd kidnap people from a village, torture them , and then som e thirty bodies would appear in one place. On a hillside, for exam ple Then they'd tell the people to go and get their rela 1 Berryman, Religious R oots o f Rebellion, pp. 171 173,192 194. 211 lives there. Bui they didn't dare look for the bodies because they knew they'll b e taken away too. So the bodies just stayed there.1 1 MenchCi, I . .. Rigaberta Menchti, p. 161; Of the num erous m assacres com m itted by the Army in th e late 1970s, that which occurred in the village of Panzos on May 29,1978 is the m ost famous. As A nderson and Car lock recount the event, Kekchi Indians living in the village of C^ahaboncito, w ho had been progressively kicked off their la n d ," , .. received a military order to go to Panzos where they were to have supposedly received a doc um ent answering their com plaints about land seizures. W hen approxi mately 800 of them arrived, they w ere directed to the plaza which w as sur rounded by soldiers. The soldiers blocked the exits and the people were met by a delegation of landlords which began insulting them and threatening them with death. O ne said that he h ad authorization 'from the President and Minister of G overnm ent to kill you all.' After som e Kekchis asked to speak, which w as forbidden, soldiers and landlords' henchm en alike began firing on the civilians from rooftops. Men, w om en, and children fell w here they stood. Som e died in the park, others in side streets, som e were found bleeding in the cornfields. ITie m op up operation which followed the ini tial volleys w as directed by a large landow ner w ho rode around in a jeep with the lieutenant of the army. The area w as sealed off to both the press and any form of medical assistance. Ih e bodies were loaded into garbage trucks and dum ped in pits. Over 140 persons are known to have died, at least 300 w ere injured, the number, however, can never be accurately d e term ined because the arm y pursued the survivors in the air and on the land, com bing the m ountainsides for the w ounded in order to finish them off " A nderson and Oarlock, Granddaughters o f Com, p. 54; In Septem ber of 1979, Garcia's occupying force in the region decided to provide a public spectacle of torture and assassination apparently to serve as a deterrent to those cam pesinos w ho w ere inclined tow ards 'communism* or collective organization. Several peasant prisoners, McnchO's b rother am ong them, w ere brought to the public square in Chajul. People from the surrounding villages had all been given notification that their presence w as expected by the military at this event. Several people (still alive) w ho had been niuti lated from a variety of different tortures w ere paraded in front of the peo pie gathered in the tow n square and the different forms of torture which had been em ployed on them w as pointed out by the com m anding officer. He explained that this is what happens to "all com m unists and subver sives" w ho had "com e from the Soviet Union to Cuba, and then to Nicaragua “ During his speech the captain kept saying that "his govern men! w as dem ocratic and g£ve us everything. W hat m ore could w e want*’ " At the end of the ceremony, the tortured indtgenas w ere do u sed with petrol and set on fire. MenchCi, / . . . Kigoberta Menchu, pp. 175 178. 1 1 L Almost all of MenchCTs family was killed by the government, with the exception of her siblings w ho joined the guerrillas Her m other was ab ducted and tortured to death by the army in April of 1980. Ihe sadism in volved in her account of what happened to her m other stretches the limits of imagination: They put her under a tree and left her there, alive but dying. They didn't let my m other turn over, and her face was so disfigured, cut and infected; she could barely make any m ovem ent by her self. They left her there dying for four or five days, enduring the sun, the rain, and the night. My m other was covered in worms* because in the mountains there is a fly which gets straight into any wound, and if the wound isn't tended within two days, there are worm s where the fly has been Since all of m y mother's w ounds were open, there were worms in all of them. She was still alive. My m other died in terrible agony. When m y m other died, the soldiers stood over her and urinated in her mouth; even after she was dead! 'Ihen they left a perm anent sentry there to guard her body so that no one could take it away, not even what was left of it.1 Until the mid 1970s the military elite who ruled Guatemala served pri marily to protect the economic interests and enforce the expansion of Cualemala's land owning class. After that time, however, the most pow er ful military officials began to acquire vast reserves of their own land, par Licularly in the largely unsettled Pet6n to the north Of the lands opened up for "colonization" in the 1960s in this region, m ost of them ended up in the hands of generals and colonels, in the late 1970s, oil, nickle, and other mineral resources were discovered on vast tracts of land that had been held by a variety of indigenous groups ever since the Conquest. Lucas Uarcia 1 MenchCi, / . Kigoberta Menchu, p 199. 21;* himself ow ned 79,000 acres in the Northern Transversal Strip, an area which he quickly declared the governm ents "number one priority " Garcia is now one of Guatemla's largest landowners. ITiose indigenous people who stood in the way of this acquisition were chased off of their land or massacred.1 U S military aid to Guatemala w as supposedly halted under the Garter administration in 1977 because Guatemala's generals refused to meet (barter's requests to "reduce the shootings, beheadings, and torturing of po litical opponents." While a great deal of fanfare was m ade over congres sional restrictions on military aid to Guatemala during the Garter years, ac cording to Ghomsky, it never ceased, remaining close to the norm, with the two militaries retaining warm relations. Keagan radically increased U S aid to Guatemala, both military and "military related" in 1982 and 1983, which served to compliment the large am ounts of hardw are and training that had been regularly flowing in from Israel.2 Since 1954, the police state that was designed to safeguard the politico economic hegem ony that triumphed at that time found it necessary or ex pedient to not only routinely torture and assassinate broad sectors of the civilian population, but to institute a 'rapist State,' the security forces of which have raped as a m atter erf routine, with com plete impunity Army 1 Berryman, Religious Roots o f Rebellion, pp. 172,191; Anderson and Garlock, Granddaughters o f Com, p. 13; Mondragon, De indios y cristianos, p. 17 ^Chomsky, Turning the Tide, pp. 156 157, LaKeber, Inevitable Revolutions, p. 280; Mondragon, De indios y cristianos, p, 191. 214 incursions and m assacres, especially from the late 197Us through the mid 198Us, cut sw aths of devastation and destruction through large parts of Guatemala, particularly the indigenous dom inated N orthern states. Men, children, w om en (even pregnant) w ere abused, tortured, m utilated before death, burnt alive, m achine gunned (often from U.S. furnished heli copters), buried alive; children w ere throw n in the air and caught on bayo nets. H ouses w ere plundered and vandalized, m oney and household goods taken, w om en and young girls raped in front of their families before being killed. O o p s w ere sprayed with toxins or burned, w ater and food supplies were poisoned. From this perspective, as the prim ary author and financier of G uatem ala's counter insurgency program , it is the U.S. governm ent that must b e seen as the principal ‘ rapist state'. As Blaise Bonpane charges: "In a very real way, the G uatem alan army is our army. We A m ericans have supplied the arm y with w eapons, with training, with helicopters, with planes. We have helped the national police to hire new personnel and provided them new carbines, so that pairs of policem en are now found on every street com er. We have bought the police cars for the secret police Ihe CIA coup of 1954 left state terrorism as its result. No w here is this offi cial terror represented m ore clearly than in the act of rape. A ccording to the Guatem alan Church in Exile (GCF), the Guatemalan arm y barracks are known as centers of "brutality, repression, torture, drug addiction, and prostitution, where the destruction of ones own culture is 1 Bonpane, Guerrillas o f f ’ eace, p. 65; Ramos, Honduras, p. 6. 215 guaranteed " They em phasize that Guatemala's counter insurgency war has m eant massive and frequent rape and humiliation for Indian women, especially by officials and troops of the army. While this happens princi pally in the the 'developm ent poles,' 'reeducation centers/ and 'model vil lages,1 the army also enters homes, and in front of husbands, children, and other family members, rapes women, and brings them to army quarters for the soldier's am usem ent.1 It has been a generally acknowledged fact that when the military makes incursions into conflictive zones, they catch girls and gang rape them; it is an integral part of the process of intimidation for which they have been trained.2 Over 800 women, for example, were raped repeatedly by the mili tary from its dcstacamcntas or bases of Zaragoza and Chimaltenango dur ing August and Septem ber of 1984 alone. According to a secret army report, hundreds of them were left pregnant, the majority minors. Approximately K U were treated at a private hospital in Guatemala Gity for injuries from rape,3 Torture and mutilation (often following upon rape) have been systemic in army attacks. According to Anderson and Garlock: (Cadavers are found without eyes, testicles, or with hands cut off. Bodies are found without fingernails, teeth, or nipples. W omen's bodies appear with chests burned, brands from hot iron on their 1 Guatemalan Church in Exile, "Guatemalan Indians Beyond the Myth" (Managua: GCE, February March 1984), p. 21 (emphasis mine). 2Mench0, / ... Rigoberta Menchu, p. 137. 3(W A buj Ri /xoc|The Voice of the Womenl, Guatemala, Fall 1984, p 13; cited by Anderson and Garlock, Granddaughters o f C'om, p. 52. 210 skin, and with their scalp pulled off. A m putated parts are placed on to p of bodies ... needles through the tongue, in the testicles, stuck in the bottom s of the feet. Chests crushed by people jum p ing on them. Spikes driven and screw ed into the heads. Suspending the victim with nylon cord tied to his sexual organ. A m putation of the tongue ... ears cut off. Drowned in gasoline. Face mutilated. H ands cut off the children of victims . genitals swollen like footballs.1 The bishop of San (TistObal de Las Casas across the Mexican border, Samuel Ruiz, also charges the Guatemalan military with cannibalism. He testifies that the reports m ade by the refugees are too num erous and well docu m ented to discount and that the abuses of the Guatem alan military include a long sordid list of heinous m ass crimes against indigenous people, such as th e m assacre of the people of the village of Cuarto Pueblo, “ w here m ore than one hundred people w ere burned alive and the smell of roasted flesh lasted for K days " 2 While this violence is directed at both sexes, only fem ales are taken in to militaty bases to b e raped. According to one testim ony given to Americas Watch: In the d esta ca m en to ... they rape w om en the soldiers,... They didn't d o anything Lo me. But there was a girl they brought in there w ho they w ere raping every night. Fifteen soldiers m ore or less would rape her. I h e poor girl scream ed; she w as unm ar ried. They raped her, they even kicked her m other three tim es in her mouth. Ih ey dragged the m other and the daughter . . the m other didn't w ant to let them (rape her| but they said, ‘ Get off ladyl* Because here w e're going to split her a p a rt....' 'Ihat's how they took her off. A nother soldier was sleeping there and another 1 A nderson and Garlock, Granddaughters o f Cam, p. 134. ^Guatem alan Church In Exile, “Refugees and Repatriation" (M anagua: GCE. August 1987), p. 12 1 17 over here and they put another soldier in between in front of th e m .... 'Ihey don't feel any sham e anymore. So one woke up another and said, 'Get up, stick it in' W hen he finished, he would put on his pants again and go, and then the other [would do| it to the gri. I h e poor thing was shouting all night long I was crying and praying because if my daughter should com e down the one who fled I hope she isn't brought down to the destacam ento because there they'll kill her Ihe/11 kill her by raping her Ih e /re not people anymore. MenchO em phasizes that rape is not directed only against women of child bearing age, many children and old people are raped as well.1 Sexual coercion has also been related to the most vile cases of psycho logical torture. In a case reported by Americas Watch, for example, which occurred in early 1985, "a woman was told by an army officer that her hus band was still alive, and that if she slept with the officer, he would arrange for her husband's release." She complied and her husband turned up dead shortly afterw ards2 Menchti recounts having seen "hundreds of women, young girls, wid ows being pregnant because the soldiers had used them sexually." She re counts the story of one of her friends in this predicam ent who told her: "I hate this child inside me. 1 don't know what to do with it. Ihis child is not m y child": She was very distressed and cried all the time But I told hen ‘ You m ust love the child. It was not your fault ’ She said: '1 hate that soldier. How can I feed the child of a soldier?' Ihe m m paftera aborted her child. She was from a different ethnic group 1 America's Watch Committee, "Guatemala: A Nation of Prisoners" (New York: 1984), p. 211, McnchCi, / .. Rigobcrta MenchO, p. 145. ^America's Watch Committee, "Guatemala: Ihe Group for Mutual Support, 1984 1985" (New York, 1985), p. 7 218 than ours. Her community helped her by telling her that it wasn't unusual, that our ancestors did the sam e thing when they were raped, when they had children without wishing to, without any love for the child/* According to the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (HGP), the I )epartm ent of Technical Investigations of the Police (l)IT) and "other repressive bodies" have been guilty of massive levels of rape, assault, and robbery in Guatemala city itself, particularly the fam ous Avenue of Americas According to them, the assassinations and sexual aggressions have gencr ated a "terror psychosis" am ong residents of the capital, they pointed out how even the press had denounced elem ents of the government's security forces in this regard.2 The Guatemalan army look full advantage of every attem pt to demoral ize the people residing in the conflictive zones To this end it resorted to the occupation and desecration of m any (Catholic churches, particularly in 1 : 1 Quichfe. ITie Church buildings were particularly significant since they frequently served as bases of organization and mobilization for indigenous people. The military chose to occupy them and use them as centers of lor lure, murder, and rape. According to the Church in Lixile, the occupation and destruction of churches is the army's way of telling the people that, "they have no hope of leading a life of dignity unless they recognize the 1 Menchu, / ... Rigoberta Mcnchu, pp. 142 143. 2 Guerrilla Army of the Poor, Inform ador CjuerriUcro, D ecem ber 1984, p. 9. 2\<) suprem acy of Ihe army which has pow er over (them) and even controls their m ost sacred symbols.1 '1 In the three years from 1980 through 1983, the Church in Exile reported "400 catechists sequestered, tortured, and quartered" in hi Quich6, 60 m ore assassinated in San Marcos, SoloWi, and Hscuintla. They also reported the bom bardm ents of convents in Uspant&n and Izabdl, the assassination of six priests and religious from Izab£l, H I Quichg, Quezaltenango, Hscuintla, San Marcos, SololA, Verapaces, and the forced abandonm ent of 35 parishes 2 In May of 1982, the Guatemalan Conference of Bishops acknowledged that, "never in our history have such extrem es been reached, with the assassina tions now falling into the category of genocide.'^ On August 8,1983, Rios Montt was overthrown in yet another coup, once again the defense minister, this time General Mejia Victores, took power. As with his predecessors, his regime was a bloody one. In the wake of the Sandinista triumph, the U.S. had begun to push for 'civilian' control of the executive branch of Central American governments, succeeding in Honduras in 1982 A result of international pressure generally, and that of the U.S. in particular, the advent of a 'civilian' president, Venecio Cerezo, in 1986 inspired many Guatemalans with new hopes for democracy. Assistant Secretary of State for latin American affairs, Langhome Motley, 1 Guatemalan Church In Hxile, "Guatemalan Indians Beyond the Myth," p. 30. ^Guatemalan Church In Hxile, "Compendio 1980 1982" (Managua: GCH, August 1984), p. 9 3Chomsky, Turning the Tide, p, 156. 220 referred lo the upcom ing elections of 1986 as "clearly representing the posi live tendencies in Central America that effectively serve the strategic inter ests o f the United States"^ While civilians were appointed to governm ent posts in growing num bers, the military retained absolute power, bolstered by the omnipresent threat of the military coup. The presence of the civilian facade did facilitate large increases in U.S. aid. Inuring the Carter years when U.S. aid to the military was restricted over a concern for hum an rights, military leaders developed a certain stance of independance vis-a-vis the U.S. and its presi dent (whom they derisively referred lo as "jimmy Castro"), By the end of the 1970s, the military machine was obtaining the bulk of its weapons, sup plies, and foreign training from U.S. allies, Taiwan, for example, but cspe cially Israel Although Reagan unilaterally lifted the arms em bargo against Guatemala, U S. aid rem ained much sm aller than the sum s going to lil Salvador in the early 1980s.2 When Cerezo cam e to pow er in 1986, how ever, this began to change, with U.S. aid reaching $153.8 million for that year, by 1987, $193.1 million. In addition to econom ic aid, the U.S. assisted the Guatemalan military in m ore direct ways throughout the late 1980s. In May 1987, for example, U S. Army helicopters stationed in Honduras were called to Guatemala to transport troops from the capitol to the Ixtan for an offensive in June. In O ctober of that year, to p level U.S. officers flew from 1 Q uoted by the Guerrilla army of the Poor, Informador GuemUcro, April 1985, p. 8 (em phasis theirs). 2|onas, Battle for Guatemala, pp. 195-201. 221 the Southern Com m and headquarters in Manama to Nebaj, where they "evaluated" that area of conflict.1 Two years into Cerezo's presidency, little had changed. In the Spring of 1988 m em bers of the Central American Commission of Human Rights called for the im m ediate suspension of all foreign aid to the Guatemalan police because of what they saw as a pattern of "extra judicial executions, torture, and forced disappearances," which they characterized as an "institutionalized and systematic policy."2 Fven som e concerned civilian officials in the U.S. took note; Andrew Young, m ayor of Atlanta, for exam pie, denied permission for a training project for Guatemalan police to pro ceed in the police academ y of his city.3 For the period of January to June of 1988, the Center for the Investigation, Study, and Promotion of Human Lights, a private organization, recorded over 800 violations with over half culminating in assassination; these represent only those violations which happened to be recorded. 'Hie victims w ere predom inantly "students, workers, and activists of popular organizations." By August of that year, the monthly rate had tripled.4 Desperately concerned with its international image, the military resorted to ever increasing stealth and disinformation. Peasants from FI Quich6 told Amnesty International in July 1988 that on 1 Guatemalan Church In Kxile, Guatemala Security, Development, and Democracy, pp. 126 127. ^Guatemalan Church In Fxile, Hechos y poHticas, p. 99. 3lbid. ^Cronica (Guatemala), 22 Septem ber 1988, p. 24 I I I sem e occasions soldiers had carried oul robberies and attacks in the area while pretending to be guerrillas (in accordance with the printed advice of U.S. counter insurgency manuals). They would then return to the village in uniform to press people into participating in the Civil Patrols, arguing that these attacks showed that the patrols were still needed.1 Despite opposition, the U. S. Congress approved $148 4 million in aid for the Cuatemalan government as part of its 1989 foreign aid bill which included money earm arked for training the security forces.2 Amnesty International reported by the middle of that year that: "People from all sec tors of society have been victims of human rights abuses in recent m onths apparently because they were suspected of being opponents of the govern ment. t rade unionists, academics, students, clergy, and peasants appear to have been particularly targeted." They pointed out how: "Members of all branches of the Guatemalan police and military have been responsible for human rights violations. Sometimes they have been in uniform, som e times in plain clothes in the guise of so called 'death squads.1 " Amnesty concluded that the death squads are m ade up of regular police and military personnel acting out of uniform but under orders and that the vast major ity of peasants killed in the countryside were noncom balant civilians extra judicially executed by the Guatemalan army."3 1 Am nesty International, "Guatemala Human Rights Violations Under the Civilian Government" (New York: Am nesty International, June 1989), p. 25. 2 Worker's Advocate, 1 October 1988, p. 9. 3 A m nesty International, "Guatemala Human Rights Violations Under the Civilian Government," pp. 1 5. 2 2 $ Ihe kidnapping, rape, torture, and assassination of w om en by the secu rity forces that has continued under 'civilian' governm ents has not been lim ited to w om en in the conflictive areas. To cite one of m any similar cases, a form er econom ics student from the National University, Ana Paniagua, w as detained at a bakery in the capital city in the early morning hours of February 9,1988. According to eye witnesses w ho were to o fright ened to intervene, she w as beaten and forced into a white van with dark ened w indow s Her body w as found two days later bearing num erous stab w ounds and her head nearly decapitated. Ihe while van reappeared at her wake and her family subsequently w ent into exile abroad. liven som e of Guatem ala's m ost prom inent w om en have been victims, such as Dr. Carm en Valenzuela, Professor of Pediatrics at the National University, kid napped by five or six men with m achine guns in February of 1990.1 hike Cerezo, his successor Jorge Serrano Elias understood and accepted the nature and limitations of his role. As he was casting his vote on N ovem ber 11,1990, he told journalist Koberto Q uezada that: " Ihe arm y is a highly professional institution with which 1 have always had the b est of relations. I don't expect to have problem s with them."2 Throughout his I*residency, Serrano (who served as the Guatem alan Counsel of Stale under Rios Montt)3 used his political pow er to obtain land for himself, coercing 1 Ibid.; Guatem ala Human Rights C om m ission/ USA, H um an Rights Alert, 11 February 1990. 2 Guatemala Review (I o s Angeles), January 1991, p 3. ^Tinamit (Guatemala), 2 D ecem ber 1992, p. 15. 224 small property owners lo sell their parcels adjoining his already extensive holdings in different parts of the country.1 The genocide continued in the highlands. In an open letter lo Serrano of January 21,1991, the Delegation of the Com m unities in Resistance of the Mountains (CPRs) those continu ing to resist internment in the military's concentration cam ps by eeking out an existence on the run in the m ost remote, m ountainous regions of the country accused him of responsibility for the "machine gunning, bom bing destruction, and persecution unleashed against us by planes and soldiers from the detachm ents of Cimientos, Amacchel, the Chajul lake and Cotzal lake, Chajul, and San Francisco.'^ Cuatemala remains a fascist type state where torture and political assas sination are institutionalized by the military bureaucracy; what civilian au thority does exist is virtually im potent to initiate progressive change (if it so desired). The army's absolute control over civilian authorities was strengthened by the creation under the Mejta Victores government of the Law of the National System of Interinstitutional Coordination for Reconstruction and Development which took effect in December of 19K 4, invalidating civil authority at every level, resting it in the hands of mili tary "Coordinators" alone. The Guatemalan army is so powerful that there is virtually no political force in Guatemala that can challenge it on any level. As one Guatemalan priest characterized the situation in 1985: “ Iliis army is untouchable ,.. they are mightier than God They are everywhere, 1 Sigla Veinduno (Guatemala), 21 N ovem ber 1992. 2Guatemala /fewew(Los Angeles), March 1991, p 8 1 1 5 they see everything, they know everything" The absolute power of the military's Coordinators even troubles sectors of the Right who are con cem ed with the way in which the military has now becom e so powerful that it threatens the econom ic m onopolies traditionally enjoyed by civilian elites In the words of one witty observer, "The army that entered the part nership as the bride, gradually grew whiskers and developed huge mus cles."1 The Concentration Camp System The 'developm ent poles' located throughout the country, particularly in zones of conflict, generally include special bases for counter insurgency troops, 'm odel villages,' and ideological reeducation centers Hie civilians that are interned in these cam ps have either been captured by the military or turned themselves in due to starvation, exhaustion, and fear. The over whelming majority of the occupants are wom en and children Hie army maintains com plete and strict control over the population who are not free to leave, at least without army permission. As defined by the army itself, a developm ent pole is "an organized population c e n te r. . that guarantees the adherence of the population and their support and participation with the Armed Institution against com munist subversion.'2 It has been the 1 Guatemalan Church In Exile, "Refugees and Repatriation," p. 35; Guatemalan Church In Exile, "By His Excellency's Com mand" (Managua: GCE, August 1985), pp. 13, 34. ^Guatemalan Army, 7 b /o s de dcsarrolla, filasofia desarm liisttf (Guatemala: Guatemalan Army Publishing Office, 1984). 2 2 b army's continuous practice to keep the populations of developm ent poles diversified with people originating from different places, of different eth nicities, and different religions in order to prevent the groups from orga nizing or constituting themselves as authentic communities. A m ost prom inent part of the system is the way in which the people are also forced to serve in the Civil Patrols. Elected civilian authority has no jurisdiction w hatsoever over the cam ps and their occupants.1 Hie political strategy which resulted in the construction of the devel opm ent poles must be seen in the general context of what many scholars and activists describe as a ’Vietnamization1 of Central America. Guatemala's network of population control centers was begun and ex panded rapidly during the two term presidency of Reagan, who appointed num erous veterans of the Vietnam campaign to posts of authority in or concerning Central America. Thomas Endecs, Assistant Secretary of Stale for Inter American Affairs had been in charge of the U.S. em bassy in Kampuchea at the time of the secret bom bings that w ere hid from the view of the public and Congress. Craig johnson, Reagan’ s director of the Office on Central American affairs, was an assistant to the director of the Cl A, William Colby, in the program s of "rural developm ent" in Vietnam. Che 1 Guatemalan Church In Exile, Guatemala: Security, Development, and Democracy, p. 34; The 'model villages' were inspired by the "strategic ham lets" utilized by the U.S. in Vietnam to "pacify” several million people sympathetic to or supporting the resistance. The purpose of these cam ps was succinctly expressed in a USAIL) report of 1963: " ITie ultimate target is the human mind. It may be changed, it m ay be rendered impotent for ex pression or it may be extinguished, but it still remains the critical target." Chomsky, Turning the Tide, p. 30. 227 North American am b assad o r to H onduras under Reagan, John N egroponte, was in charge of the “ political section" of the North American em bassy in Saigon, to nam e but a few exam ples1 IVesidenl C erezo pointed out to a group of European hum an rights workers in 19B9 that the m odel villages w ere not a new phenom ena in Guatemala, that in fact they represent "refined" versions of the reduc dories, 'reductions' o r supervised Indian villages established by sectors of the Church during the first decades of Spanish colonization.2 The question of institutionalized sexual violence in these reductions of the 16th or 17th century is not clear, som e accounts indicated that priests attem pted lo shield indigenous w om en from violation by Spaniards. It is very clear, however, that today's "refined" versions are centers of institutionalized sexual torture. W omen, men, the elderly, and children living nearby pay tribute lo the military by delivering firewood or part of their harvest to the garrison. If a w om an is a widow, as m any if not as m ost of them are, she has to pay som eone to take the firewood to the garrison in her name, or she has to d o it herself. If she does so, she runs the risk of sexual abuse at the hands of the military. One peasant described an incident where: An officer gave orders to the Civil Patrol m em bers that a w om an was n eed ed in the garrison to wash clothes But the pa 1 Chomsky, Turning the Tide, p. 30; M ondragon, Ate in d io s y cristianos, p. 195 2G uatem alan Church In Exile, Guatemala: Security, D evelopm ent, and Democracy, p. 40; TTiey cite the Rainbow Group, European Parliament, "Guatemala after the Democratic O pening" pp. 19 20. 228 Lrolmen did not want to obey. 'How can we send a w om an there?* the patrollers com plained. Ihen the patrol leader told them: 'Go com plain to the officer.' But the people w ere afraid. Ihey knew that if they went to the garrison they would b e pun ished. Ihen the patrol leader sent for a widow woman. Ihe poor w om an went to the officer in the garrison. She w asn't w anted for washing clothes. As soon as she arrived, the officer put her into a room . W hen m orning cam e the p oor lady could not even walk. Later, she told how they did not let her get one m om ent's sleep, because they raped her continuously there in the garrison. Ihe officer w arned her: 'if you tell what happened, you will b e kid napped during the night.1 A military hierarchy of rape surrounds the poles w here the youngest fe m ales are often reserved for the chiefs of the detachm ents.1 As with the developm ent poles, it w as during the governm ent of (General M ontt that the system of Civil Batrols w as instituted in the c o u n tryside. Ihese patrols represent a system of nearly com plete militarized dom ination that extends throughout m ost of Guatemala. In areas w ere the guerrilla is active, they serve not only to keep track of the population but also to create a buffer zone betw een the military and the rebels so that if the guerrillas attem pt to take over a village, th e patrollers are on the arm y's front lines. A nyone w ho objects to service in these patrols is labeled a sub versive and "sooner o r later is assassinated.*^ On Septem ber 30,19K3 the new spaper II Im pacto reported that m ore than 500,000 patrolm en w ere organized according to the arm y's own 1 Guatem alan Church In Exile, Guatemala: Security, D evelopm ent, a n d D em ocracy; pp. 40 41; G uatem alan Church In Exile, "Guatemalan Indians Beyond th e Myth," p. 21. ^Guatemalan Church In Exile, "Guatemalan Indians Beyond the Myth," p. 24 sources. By January 24,1984, the f*nensa U btv edition announced that there w ere 8110,000 people organized in these patrols including w om en and chil dren w ho are also forced to serve. This represents roughly one tenth of the population of Guatem ala including children. Ihe patrols are directly con trolled by and carry out their activities under the vigilance of the army Ihey are, therefore, part of the arm y despite official declarations lo the con trary. Bishop Samuel Kuiz charged that cam pesinos in the Civil Patrols are "forced to directly participate in the policy of death and destruction carried out by the governm ent ”1 Ihe "Special branch" of the Guatem alan arm y carefully m onitors dis sent am ong civil patrollers through an elaborate system of informers In Chuizalic, a village in the departm ent of San Pedro, for example, the forces of the Special Branch arrived on August 19,1983 in three cars arm ed with Biretta m achine pistols. While som e slept in the chapel, others did the rounds with the Civil Patrols and raped m any w om en and young girls through the course of the evening. In the m orning six patrollers suspected of being subversives w ere assassinated in cerem onial fashion in front ol the rest of the people. This particular occasion is atypical only insofar as o n e valiant villager had a small tape recorder on which he captured the en tire cerem ony that preceded the execution. According to the testim ony of ano th er patroller "'ITie patrol com m anders punish the people. When you don't d o patrol duty, you are punished for 24 hours The com m ander pun 1 Guatemalan Church In Exile, "Refugees and Repatriation," pp. 14, 34. 230 ishes us and lakes advantage of his position to dem and bribes." He added that: "ITie com m anders are always raping the w om en "1 in an open letter to Cerezo in 1986, peasants from Joy aba), El Quiche de m anded the dissolution of the Civil Patrols because, am ong other abuses, the m em bers are "forced to hand over their younger daughters whom they [the military) abuse sexually."2 W om en w hose husbands w ere kilted or ‘ disappeared1 by the arm y have th e choice of either paying a tax or serving in the patrols themselves. As one officer told several w om en patrollers: "You know that the w ar is not over. You know very well that when the husband dies the w om an has lo take up arm s to confront the guerrilla because if we don't defend our rights here in Guatemala, the com m unists will com e and take aw ay our land." To add insult to injury, the Civil Patrols of each municipality have their own "Indian Queens" which ride on floats in municipal festivals and serve as the "mascot" of each local pa trol.3 The tens of thousands of refugees in exile in Mexico have always longed to return lo their hom eland. While som e have been repatriated, m any have been afraid to return. ITiey repeatedly rejected offers by the G uatem alan governm ent to d o so, ostensibly with their safety guaranteed, 1 G uatem alan Church In hxile, "Guatem alan Indians Beyond the Myth," pp. 30 32; G uatem alan Church In Exile, G uatem ala. Security, D evelopm ent, a n d D em ocracy, pp. 44 48. ^G uatem alan Church In Hxile, G uatem ala: Security, D evelopm ent, a n d D em ocracy pp. 44 48. 3lbid 231 because they refused lo live in the model village system In a letter to U N (General Secretary javier P6rez de Cuellar, they asserted: We do not agree to go the the model villages which are now prisons for Guatemalans ... we do not want them to enclose us in State sites, we are not animals, we are human beings. We want to be free to live happily with our families ... because we, the m others of families, do not want to com e back to live in them, nor be raped by the soldiers along with our daughters.1 Several large groups of refugees have been repatriated over the last several years, sometim es speaking out forcefully against the army's abuses. Hie statistics concerning U.S. aid to the Guatemalan government do not reveal the full penetration of U.S. investm ent into Guatemala's system of state terror. More than in any other Central American country, numer ous private institutions or non governm ental agencies (NGOs) have also contributed directly o r indirectly to counter insurgency projects. 'ITiis aid is much harder to trace as well as to quantify. By 1989, there were at least 153 NGOs and foreign sponsored churches in Guatemala linked to the 'anticommunist' crusade receiving money or other resources from either private U.S. organizations or directly from the U.S. governm ent2 Some of 1 Guatemalan Church In l-Jrile, "Refugees and Repatriation/' p. 60, They cite the "Letter to the United Nations and to the U N.," sent to General Secretary javier P6rez de Cuellar from the refugees in Mexico in 1986 2 lhe Guatemalan Church In Hxile provides extensive research on many of these organizations such as A m igos de! f’ ais (Association of Friends of the Country), one of the oldest NGOs in Guatemala, which m ade financial contributions to Reagan's 1980 campaign on the condition that if he were elected he would renew military assistance to Guatemala and support the counterinsurgency program, including the use of U.S. troops if necessary. In earlier years, it channelled funds to death squads. In 1987, it received $1.5 million from USAID for a four year education project. Two additional NGOs sprang from Amigos del Pais: FU NDHSA and the Cham ber of Free 232 these NGOs are directly involved with the counter insurgency war and the developm ent pole system.1 Hntcrprisc. The latter is financed almost entirely by the United States Information Agency (USIAJ, It maintained ties with and support from President Bush. In April of 1988, the Cham ber hosted a political visit to Guatemala by Jeb Bush, the president's son. The American Chamber o( Com m erce in Guatemala (AMCHAM), also represents the interests of U.S. investors and Guatemalan com panies that d o business with the U S It de fines itself as an anticommunist organization and supports the military regime. It is funded directly from USAID in Washington. Guatemalan Church In Hxile, Guatemala. Security, D evelopm ent, and D emocracy, pp 127 132 1 Among the m ost notorious is the Air C 'om m ando Association (ACA), representing a 'private' military presence insofar as it is not funded directly by the U S government ACA serves as a medical support system for the counter insurgency project. Its m em bers are current or former m em bers o( the U. S. Air Force's Special Operations team of the sam e name. They maintain close relations with the Guatemalan army which provides them with office space, storage facilities, housing, transportation, and body guards. ACA also kept close ties with Operation Blessing headed by Pat Robertson and his 7 1 IU Club, USAID, and the National Defense Council Foundation ITie Guatemalan branch of this latter organization, according to its president Carlos Ramirez (pastor of the H I Verbo ( ITie Word! Church of General Montt), is com posed of anticommunist factory owners Ibis group obtained £22 million in medicines, medical equipment, food, and clothing for distribution in Central America. It has assisted the Air Com m andos and the Guatemalan Army in their program s in model vil lages. Many NGOs such as Free Central America obtain funding from Christian groups in the United States. It also has an office in H I Salvador Another, the Foundation For Aid To Indian People, operated closely with Monti's 'pacification' program in the Ixil area; they built the airstrip in Chajul used to carry out bom bing raids against the Communities of Resistance in rem ote regions In 1983 alone, they invested $15 million in the program in Nebaj. Living Water Teaching which develops evangelical missions in the conflictive zones, handles large am ounts of funds from conservative Protestant organizations in the U.S. and has close relations with U.S. televangelist Oral Roberts. Facts of Faith, has worked closely with the army's Civil Affairs section which provides the group with transporta tion and equipm ent for their food distribution projects, ibid. 233 Hie aid which flows through Protestant organizations to the conflict zones of Guatemala is used like that of the food supplies ol the govern ment, as a w eapon and an ideological tool, an inducem ent to adhere to the apolitical doctrine of the lYotestant sects that the governm ent approves of, mostly im ported from the U.S.1 Even when such reputable charitable orga nizations as U.S. based CAKE provide foodstuffs, m any of those provisions go directly to arm y barracks and end up in the m ouths of soldiers rather than civilians.2 In addition, since m uch of the m alnourished population in 1 Many people, in fact, voluntarily enter the poles precisely because they arc starving to death. Missionary Ventures, for example, which receives food and m edicines from CARE and MAP International and m ajor fund ing from evangelical churches in the U.S., declares that "evangelical cduca tion is the best defense against com m unism " The lxil Fund which receives donations from the Billy Graham Association, am ong others, also channels resources directly into the model village system. Still another lYotestant or ganizalion founded in the United Slates, the Central American Mission (CAM International) has at least 775 churches in Guatemala. CAM was founded by Cyrus Scofield, one of the intellectual founders of fundanien talism and author of the Scofield Reference Bible. CAM 's Cam eron Tow nsend cam e lo G uatem ala during the First W orld W ar to avoid indue tion into the army. He later founded the Wycliffe Bible Translators' Sum m er Institute of Linguistics. CAM entered the conflictive zone of Ixcan in the mid 1970s at the urging of the Guatem alan arm y with w hom it has collaborated ever since, taking an active role in the ideological cam paign associated with the arm y's re population efforts. It is im portant to note, however, that som e U.S. based or funded Protestant organizations operate with greater independence from the arm y than others, the Primitive M ethodist Church, for example, supports program s for displaced persons, widows, and orphans in the lxil area which are not under control of the arm y's netw ork of operations. Ibid., p. 10; Also see "Private Organizations with U.S. C onnections/ Guatemala" (Albuquerque, N.Mex.: Inter Hemispheric Resource Center, 198H). ^Guatemalan Church In Exile, "Guatemalan Indians Beyond the Myth," p 26 2 S 4 conflictive zones are forced lo labor under construction projects for the military, the food donated by international agencies assures the army of an abundant labor supply for its construction projects.1 As with Honduras, one of the m ost sordid and gruesome aspects of the neocolonial dom ination of the Guatemalan people is the sale of its chil dren on the international marketplace. Attorney (General Telesforo Guerra Cahn reports 2 1 ) kidnapping ring^ and at least 65 "fattening up" houses op eratingin Guatemala preparing children for sale to First World buyers. While som e of these children end up in legitimate adoption situations, others are sold into international networks of sexual slaveiy. It appears lo be the case (while the stories have so far alluded com plete confirmation, with respect to Guatemala) that they are being purchased for their organs as well. I’ hese reports have surfaced throughout the last decade. Several of these human farms were reportedly discovered in Guatemala, and som e of those involved have confessed their guilt in child trafficking, the extent or volum e of this negotiation is not, however, fully known. According lo Marta Gloria Torres, of the Representation of the United Guatemalan Opposition (KUOG), "the majority (of child sales] are for organ transplants or for prostitution."2 'those w ho have researched this trade highly suspect 1 Guatemalan Church In Exile, Guatemala: Security, D evelopm ent, and Democracy, p. 34. 2ln January of 1988 an Israeli couple, Jos£ Luis and Michel Koittman, were arrested on charges of kidnapping children for sale to foreign buyers; at the time of being detained, they had 7 Infants in their possession They were set free along with several of their collaborators the following month. Mario Taraccna Diaz, who serves in the Guatemalan Congress, charged in June of 1988 that the traffic in children in Guatemala is a S10 million a year business controlled by what he called "an organized m a fia S e e ftv n sa 245 that military and para military elem ents are also involved in the traffick ingl In the years following the U.S. coup in Guatemala, form er lYesident Arevalo, looking back (he rem ained obsessed and angered with the issue for the rest of his life in exile), pondered how it was possible that "the U.S. could prosecute a w ar against Hitler and Mussolini and then adopt Francisco Franco as an ally, defending dem ocracy and supporting Falangists, destroying Nazism in Furope and perpetuating it in Latin A m erica.'2 looking back from our perspective today, one can b e tem pted to see this as a conscious program lo prom ote fascist regimes in Latin America. Arfcvalo cam e to see the role of Ike's Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, as an imitation of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda min /./bn? (Guatemala), 24 January; 19 February; 24 June 1988; /:7 (M6xico), 20 June 1988, cited by the Guatemalan Church In Exile, H e c h o sy Polfticas, pp. 97 98, Also see Victor Perera, "Behind the Kidnapping of Children for Their Organs," Los A n g eles Times, 1 May 1994, pp. Ml, M6. 1 In 1988 the press reported the kidnapping of an 8 m onth old infant by six arm ed men in Guatem ala City and the kidnapping of 3 m onth old Reyna Isabel Pichi w ho was taken that March by men dressed in the mili ta iy s olive green. Prensa lJb re{Guatemala), 16 January 1988; Diario L7 G raphico (M6xico), 7 March 1988; cited by the Guatem alan Church In Fbcilc, H echos y Polfticas, pp. 97 98, March 8,1994 saw a huge popular revolt in Santa Lucia Cotzum altgua against security forces suspected of being in volved in this traffic. It began w hen an angry m o b tried to lynch a U.S. w om an they suspected of trafficking in organs. Fifty people w ere injured and m any arrested a s the arm y put dow n the disturbance. 'The Mutual Support G roup (GAM) estim ates that as m any as five children a day are taken from this area and that authorities d o nothing to repress the traffic. La O p in io n( \ jos Angeles), 30 D ecem ber 1993, p. 3A; 12 March 1994, p 1C 2juan Jos6 Ardvalo, A n ti K om m u n ism in iM in A m erica [New York: Lyle Stewart, 1963), pp. 23 24. isler, in his condem nation of Guatemala, a nation of 3 million people, as a Soviet sateltite w hen "only seven com m unists had positions of visibility there." As he realized early on, o n e has to distinguish betw een com m u nism with a "C" and com m unism with a "K," the form er representing real com m unism and the latter "every political and social dem ocratic m ove m enl that tries to defend the interests of the working masses, the humble, and the exploited all over the world, or speaks of sovereignty and national ism, o r dares to criticize the United States.'1 Despite the continuation of w idespread repression in Guatemala, many popular m ovem ents rem ain strong. Jonas describes an "ebb in the lpopular| m ovem ent" following the "terror cam paign against popular leaders in the fall of 1989"2 O pposition m ovem ents have recovered som ew hat, however, and new spaces have opened up. Manz sees a greater freedom of m ove m ent existing today as com pared with the 1980s. She argues that the lighter military control of earlier years has proved to be unsustainable over the long term, that the military has had little recourse but to allow the presence of international organizations such as M6dicos del Mundo, as well as newly form ed net works of catechists, and som e cooperative enterprises.3 1 Liss, R adical th o u g h t in C entral Am erica, p. 42; Ar6valo, A n ti K om m unism , pp. 23 24. 2jonas, Hattie fo r Cuatem ala, p 186, ^Beatriz Manz, epilogue to M assacres in th e Jungle: IxcAn, Cuatem ala, 1975 19R2. by Ricardo Falla, trans. Julia Howland (Boulder, Colo.: W estview Press, 1994), p 201. I M Guatemala's concentration cam ps continue to function as before, how ever; the people are still forced to serve in the Civil Patrols. By many indi caters, scores of people are still the victim of extrajudicial assassination ev ery month. As jonas points out, while the U.S. cut back and even tern porarily suspended military aid toward the end of 1990, the basic policy framework of neoliberalism and counterinsurgency did not change, nor did the ongoing, strategic, close relationship with the army. She stresses the im portance of the fact that, while the U.S. has spoke out against human rights violations under the civilian governments, it has not linked these concerns to any restructuring of the army, demilitarization of the country, or punishm ent for responsible parties in the military1 What appears most hopeful is the reinitiation of negotiations between the governm ent and the rebel umbrella group, the Guatemalan National Kevoutionary Union (UKNG). Rebel leaders have been seeking a settle men! to the conflict along similar lines as what occurred in H I Salvador, with U N m onitors of a cease fire and a fact finding mission to establish responsibility for past hum an rights abuses. While the military continues lo resist the idea of international m onitors of its behavior, past or present, it may eventually be forced by international pressure to allow a greater U N presence in the country. 1 jonas, Battle fo r CJuatemala, p. 231. 238 CHAPTER POUR WOMEN AS MILITANTS Because sh e is d o u b ly exploited, th e w om an m u st b e d o u b ly revolu tionary. Camilo Torres1 The female as victim, the principal focus of this discussion so far, is only one side of the dialectic of gender and violence under exploration; the woman or girl as com batant, protagonist of violence, represents the other. W omen have not, generally speaking, assum ed com bat roles in warfare. In conflicts where they have, therefore, an explanation is called for as to why, politically and psychologically, this exception to the general rule occurs. [his is particularly in order where w om en are com pletely absent in the ranks of one belligerent force and quite prevalent in the ranks of the other in any given confrontation. In Central America, w om en have entered into combat, alm ost without exception, only as m em bers of revolutionary armies, they have been noticeably absent from the ranks of the forces of the Right. The reason for this is suggested when one sets the issue in a global and historical context. Generally speaking, wom en fight only in defense of their hom es, families, communities, etc. while limited exceptions d o exist, they have not generally assum ed com bat roles in forces of aggression. According 1 Quoted by Margaret Benston, D iscussiones sobre la libcracibn d e la m u je r (Medellin: Editorial La Pdlga, 1975), p. 7; Torres is one of the m ost Im portant, perhaps ranking only behind Che Guevara, sym bol/ ideologue of revolution in Latin America, particularly am ong youth and revolutionary Christians. Colombian Priest, University Dean, left wing politician, he joined Colombia's Revolutionary Army of the People (ERP) and died in com bat in 1967. 2M) to Stiehm, "even w om en fight when the w ar is in their ow n country"1 In short, w om en tend to fight only in self-defense. In the Third World, they have entered into com bat, generally speaking, only on behalf of anticolo nialist or anti neocolonialist causes. From early in this century, while international w om en's organizations in latin America o p p o sed militarization in general,2 they have been gener ally sym pathetic to revolutionary causes in Cuba and Central America. Feminists and neocolonial military m achines have generally been at odds as in the Philippines w ere the Philippines Feminist Coalition w as banned in June of 1989 by the governm ent und er pressure from sectors of the mili tary 3 In E l Salvador and Guatemala, w om en's organizations have been subject to severe and sustained repression by right wing military govern m ents, while they have enjoyed great solidarity with organizations of the Left. W omen. C ounter Violence, and Liberation The extent to which, if any, that com bat runs counter to 'natural' ten dencies of fem aleness, as with any topic dealing with 'hum an nature', is 1 Judith Stiehm, "W omen and Citizenship," in W om en, Power, a n d Political System s, ed. M argherila Rendel(N ew York: St. Marlin's Press, 1981), p. 53. ^Francesca Miller, "l^rtin American Feminism an d th e Transnational Arena," in W om en, Culture, a n d Politics in Latin A m erica: Sem inar on F em inism a n d C ulture in I a t in A m erica, ed Emile Bergman (Berkeley Calif.: University of California Press, 1990), pp. 10 26. 3 N ew s & Letters (Chicago), A ugust-Septem ber 1989, p. 9, 2 4 0 m ost controversial. M endieta Alatorrc, historian of fem ale participation in the Mexican revolution, argues that fem ale participation in w arfare repre sents a "violent division in her nature." For her, the w ar heroine repre sents a "double sacrifice," therefore, since “only exterior exigencies of groat m agnitude" are able to reverse her "naturally conservative attitude" in this regard. W hatever violation, if any, is d o n e to her nature, there is a p ro found sociological im pact of key m oral significance in the presence of the female com batant. W om an with w eapon is threatening to patriarchal sys terns, tending to break down hierarchical structures of power. M endieta A latorre refers to the Mexican revolution, for example, as a "struggle against the father, socio culturally speaking" A ccording to her, the Mexican m an "joined with the w om an authorizing her (perhaps for the first time) the status of "cam paflerd' o r com rade." As she sees it, "for the first tim e in the history of M6xico, w om an developed her possibilities at the side of man, in a social struggle, separating herself from the cradle of her child The possibility of contact betw een m an and w om an acquired its maxim expression during the Revolution."1 For de Beauvoir, the role of w om an as fighter w as intimately linked to the question of female dignity. She described her historical exclusion from com bat as a "curse." Subsequently, m uch feminist ink w as to b e spilled in the debate over this passage in The S eco n d Sex: The w arrior put his life in jeopardy to elevate the prestige of the horde, the clan to which he belonged and in this he proved dra 1 Angeles M endieta Alatorre, La m u je re n la re va lu d d n m exicana (Mexico: Talleres GrAficos d e la N adon, 1961), pp. 21 27. 2 4 1 matically that life is not the suprem e value for man, but on the contrary, that it should b e m ade to serve ends m ore im portant than itself. The w orst curse that w as laid upon w om an w as that she should b e excluded from these warlike forays. For it is not in giving life but in risking life that m an is raised ab o v e th e animal; that is why superiority has been accorded in hum anity not to the sex that brings forth life but to th at which kills.1 l)e Beauvoir is not, however, singling out violence com m itted in the act of self defense; the "war like forays" to which d e she lam ents the lack of fe male participation could refer to acts of aggression as well as defense, the term 'foray1 even seem s to imply th e latter. It is clearly the case, however, as history has dem onstrated both prior to and particularly since the writing of I h e Second .Sex; that females have b eco m e the lak ers of life* in military settings, generally speaking only in the context of self defense, not territo rial aggression. This is a m ost crucial distinction since the m oral defense of w arfare p e r se turns on the notion of self-defense which provides th e 'just cause.’ The presence of w om en in com bat, therefore, particularly in large num bers facing an all m ale enemy, is an earm ark of the just w ar or, in this case, the just insurrection. Som e feminists are critical of d e Beauvoir's endorsem ent of the fem ale role of 'taker of life.' Sandra H arding for example, accuses her of thinking within the perim eters of 'abstract m asculinity w hen she posited risking death as the paradigmatically hum an act rather than the act of reproduc tion. For her, this represented a "substitution of abstract for concrete real 1 Sim one d e Beauvoir, The S e c o n d S ex (New York; Alfred A Knopf, 1953; Random House, Vintage Books Edition, 1974), p. 72 IA I ity."1 Revolutionary feminists are also critical of de Beauvoir's treatm ent of the subject of w om en as protagonists of violence. LXinayevskaya, for ex ample, protests that never once in the entire text of the Second Sex. .. . d o w e see w om an as active, thinking subject. W om an is al ways the object that terrible things are d o n e to and primarily be cause she supposedly allows it to b e that way. Indeed, she tells us that the slaves were always conscious of their oppression, the proletariat has always been in revolt, but wom an? N o desire for revolution dwells within her.2 To the extent that this interpretation is correct, de Beauvoir ap p ears to have erred, since it is precisely revolutionary w arfare in which w om en have b een m ost active. This has been particularly true, however, since 1950 when The S e c o n d Sex w as published. W om en have joined with men in large num bers as the 'takers of life' in recent history, m ost prom inently, in the context of anticolonial o r anti neocolonial revolutions and this has been of key im portance to th e general gains m ade in female autonom y in these contexts. S£kou Tour6, the leader of Guinea's revolution, understood well the way in which th e disenfranchisem ent of indigenous w om en in colonial so cieties m ade their support crucial to the revolutionary process. As he put it: ''In the revolutionary type of action which w e have conducted in order to substitute our regim e for the colonial reg im e... we w ere only able to base 1 Sandra H arding 77ie Science Q uestion in F em inism (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1986). p. 148. 2Raya Dunayevskaya, R osa Luxem burg, W om en's Liberation, a n d M arx's IT tilosophy o f R evolution (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1991)), p. 103; d e Beauvoir, 7?»e S e c o n d S e x p 520. 24.4 our efforts on the m ost disinherited levels of society those w ho had every thing to gain b y a revolution. A nd so there are, above all, the women."1 History has dem onstrated that the m ost disenfranchised sectors of society generally im prove their lot only through their ow n initiative, their own struggle, in m any if not m ost cases, this has proved to b e a violent process. W om en are no exception and w om en in colonial societies are a particu larly good exam ple of the historical im portance of violent struggle in the quest for justice and equality. To the extent that the m oral legitimacy of counter or revolutionary violence in Latin America rem ains controversial, the w idespread presence of w om en strengthens its justification, tending sim ultaneously to legitim ate both the greater autonom y of wom en and the advancem ent of revolutionary m ovem ents. From a feminist perspective, the militant action of Third World w om en has broad ramifications for society in general and w om en's loca tion in society in particular. For Davis, "The forw ard m ovem ent of w om en of color alm ost always initiates progressive change for all women." She stresses that a focus "on working class w om en, and w om en of color in par ticular,” is of particular im portance because they "confront sexist oppres sion in a w ay that reflects the real and com plex objective interconnections betw een econom ic, racial, and sexual oppression.^ The im portance of mil 1 Q uoted by Kathleen Newland and Patricia McGrath, La m u je r y e lp m g reso (M6xico: Ediciones Tres Tiempos, 19?), p. 19. 2Angela Y. Davis, W om en Culture, a n d I’ olftics, (New York: Random House, 1989), p. 31. While Davis has in m ind First W orld w om en of color of the working classes, h er com m ent applies equally well, if not m ore so, to those in the Third World. O ne could argue, in addition, that militant ac tion on the part of w om en of color ultim ately has progressive ramifica 2 4 4 itant action on the part of women of color is clearly illustrated in the con text of the revolutionary Third World w here indigenous w om en have en tered into com bat with predom inantly white, all male arm ies in both Africa and Asia, and, to a lesser extent, Latin America as well. On som e oc casions, armies fighting on behalf of forces seeking to perpetuate or rein force structures of neocolonial domination have been defeated by forces which included large num bers of female com batants, as w as the United States in Vietnam, South Africa and its allies in Angola and Namibia, and the U.S. backed Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua. Dunayevskaya claims that Marx saw a "feminine ferment" in every rev olution.1 She sees socialist revolution as inherently threatening to capital ist patriarchy, lauding therefore, female participation in proletarian and anti colonial pow er struggles. Fen .ale militancy was cleatly evident in the Marxist inspired revolutionary processes of both Russia and China. Similarly, anticolonial struggles have seen vast female participation throughout the Third World. Vietnamese women, in particular, provided especially powerful examples for women of other lands w ho chose to join rebellions against colonial authorities. As Barry observes, "Revolution against colonization is m ade possible when the colonized are able to see others w ho are physically like them selves living free from colonization,"2 tions for a// people, not just women, since, on som e level, oppression is harmful to everyone m en and children as well victimizers and victims alike. 1 Dunayevskaya, Rosa Luxemburg, p 201. ^Kathleen Barry, Female Sexual Slavery (New York N.Y. University Press, 1984). p. 201 245 The presence of female fighters in anticolonial warfare is not limited to the 20th century context of the Cold War, it has a long history. Namibian women, for example, fought alongside their men ever since their nation had been subject to foreign domination; thousands of women died in com bat against German forces towards the end of the 19th century.1 In the Philippines, Cabriela Silang led 2000 m en in an uprising against Spain in the eighteenth century and Salud Algabre becam e a general of the Sakdalistas, a peasant arm y that waged war on the American forces in the 1930s. Aguilar San Juan notes how the term s 'feudal' and bourgeois' as used in the Philippines, H must be understood as em anating from 350 years of Spanish rule followed by the takeover by U S imperialism in 1898," wherein "foreign dom ination resulted in a loss of rights women formerly possessed.'2 As anticolonial resistance becam e m ore widespread following World W ar II, so did the participation of women in militant organizations. Algerian women, for example, hid m achine guns in their clothing and plastic bom bs in their babies' diapers in order to pass through French checkpoints and deliver them to rebel forces. They also "passed them selves off as prostitutes" in order to dynamite cafes frequented by the French mili taiy.3 1SWAPO W omen's Solidarity Campaign (UK), in Third W orld S eco n d Sex, vol. 2, ed. Miranda Davies (London: Zed Books, 1987), p. 69 2Delia Aguilar San Juan, "Feminism and the National Liberation Struggle in the Philippines," in W om en a n d M en's Wars, ed. Judith Stiehm (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1983), pp. 255 256. ^Newland and McGrath, La m u je r y elprogreso, p. 37. 2 4 b Feminists w ho address the issue of w om en and military structures gen orally stress the im portance of w om en participating in, o r at least not being excluded from, com bat roles in the military. For Enloe, for example, dis crimination against w om en with respect to com bat helps to perpetuate the false dichotom y betw een 'hearth and hom e front', on th e one hand, and the all masculine preserve of the b a ttle front' on the other.1 W om en gain respect from their m ale counterparts through their militancy. Female par ticipation in the Palestinian National Liberation Front, for example, accord ing to Schiff and Rothstein, "deeply im pressed the m acho oriented m ental ities of m any simple Arabs" and, subsequently, changing traditional percep tions about wom en becam e a stated goal of the Front.2 Enloe also argues, however, that, historically speaking, revolutions have resulted in only limited gains with respect to w om en's liberation and that the record of w om en's participation in liberation arm ies in this cen tury is "not especially encouraging." She points out that m ost liberation arm ies have them selves been bialt on sexual divisions of labor and that m any of the strides m ade in overcom ing these divisions during the revo lution are reversed as the form er guerrilla arm y develops into an official 'state' force after revolutionary victory. In the post revolutionary phase, the central im portance of th e family is generally reaffirmed and w om en are 1 Cynthia Enloe, D oes Khaki Becom e You? The M ilitarization o t W om en's Lives (Boston: South End Press, 1983), p. 218. 2 (’ited by Sandra C Danforth, "The Social and Political Implications of Muslim M iddle Eastern W om en's Participation in Violent Political Conflict," in U nited N ations D ecade fo r W om en W orld C onference, ed. Naom i B . Lynn (New York: Hayworth, 1984), p. 41. 247 again relegated to 'support' roles that free' m en for the m ore im portant and prestigious tasks.1 Enloe w arns w om en in revolutionary contexts, therefore, of the need to b e politically self conscious, organized, and vocal as wom en, in order to safeguard the gains in w om en's status that the revo lution brings about prior to revolutionary victory, otherwise, "those gains will b e eroded as the society passes from the em ergency setting of revolu tionary conflict back into a state of 'normality' characterized by patriarchal p o w er"2 The history of gender relations in the context of socialist or antiimperi alist revolutions testifies to the w ay in which they have not been successful at eradicating sexual divisions of labor In China, for example, despite the w idespread participation of w om en in revolutionary forces prior to the vie ^This is related to a m ore general trend with respect to w om en's roles during w ar tim e and its afterm ath. Reuther notes h o w ," . . in w artim e all the ideological m edia of com m unication of society reverse their usual m es sages and call w om en to b eco m e truck drivers and w orkers in heavy indus tty, to fill th e em pty seats m the universities, and even the pulpits, as their 'patriotic duty'. But w hen the war is over the old m essages return, w om en are told to go hom e, to m ake room for the returning m ales w ho have prior rights to the jobs, and to produce babies to replace the slaughtered papula tion." Rosem ary Radford Reuther, S exism a n d G od T alk Tow ard a F em inist ih e o lo g y (Boston Beacon Press, 1983), p. 218. ^Enloe follows Maxine M olyneaux in h er criticism of the w idespread sym bolism found in Third World, revolutionary contexts of a fem ale guer rilla fighter carrying both a baby and a rifle. M olyneaux com plains that rev olutionary arm ies have d o n e little, if anything to erode the w om an's "special" relationship to children. Enloe observes that, "military dem obi lization (following revolutionary victory] m ay m ean that only w om en will b e expected to nurture the society's children, while the m en keep their ri fles and the public authority those rifles symbolize." W hat is seen as lack ing in this scenario is the symbol of the m ale guerrilla holding both rifle and baby. Enloe, D o es Khaki Becom e Vbu.?pp. 16V167. 248 tory, four decades later, while w om en w ere active in local militias, the reg uiar arm ed forces included only a token num ber of w om en. In her discus sion of Guinea Bissau's liberation arm y which defeated the Portuguese colonial forces in 1974, Enloe criticizes the leadership for making the expul sion of the Portuguese the first priority, refraining from any social change which w as seen as possibly detrim ental to this effort. While she acknowl edges that by the late 1970s Guinea Bissau w om en w ere occupying posi tions of authority in society which they had never done before, she points out that they w ere still burdened with prim ary responsibility for child care and hom e m anagem ent tasks. A nother exam ple is Zim babwe, where w om en w ere very active in the anticolonial revolution as soldiers, spies, supply carriers, nurses, etc. M ost of these w om en w ere dem obilized after the establishm ent of peace, m any returned to farming and yet w ere not given access to redistributed lands in an egalitarian fashion with men. The wom en w ho fought in the revolution expected that gender as well as race relations would be reorganized and this did not prove to b e the case, at least to the extent to which it w as hoped.1 1 Ibid , Algeria represents still another prom inent exam ple of this ten dency of anticolonialist struggles to first enfranchise w om en into positions of political pow er previously unattainable for them, only far the trend to be reversed later on. In 1982, Algeria's socialist regime, under pressure from orthodox Muslims, alm ost instituted a new family code which w ould have reduced w om en's status to th at of a legal minor. The protest against the m easure w as led b y those w om en w ho had fought against the French in the w ar of liberation, and the legislation w as narrowly defeated. Newland & McGrath argue that w om en w ere not rew arded for their role in the liber ation struggle with progressive legislation. Divorce by repudiation was re instated in 1970 and in 1975 polygam y w as still perm itted, with w om en bound by Algerian family law to show deference and obedience to the des ignated family head. Newland and McGrath, La m v je r y e l progreso, p. 21; 2 4 9 Of critical im portance to the debate is the way in which warfare in these contexts often turns into m ore traditional state to state warfare following on the heels of revolutionary victory Most trium phant revolutionary states have com e under attack from outside and have had to struggle to safeguard their newly found sovereignty. Enloe sees post revolutionary conflict as one of the factors generally responsible for the return to m ore traditional forms of gender relations, citing the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Mozambique, and Nicaragua as examples. According to her, post revolu tionary conflicts generally result in a "centralization of military com m and, an infusion of m ore technologically sophisticated weaponry, a clearer de lineation betw een h o m e front* and *battle field', and the dem obilization of m ost wom en from the regular active forces."1 One central issue in this controversy is military conscription. Vietnam, for example, after 25 years of revolutionary warfare in which female fighters w ere of instrumental im portance, passed a law in 1981 which m ade only men eligible for conscrip tion. In Nicaragua the post revolutionary state decided to conscript only males for defense against the Contras while allowing continued yet limited female participation in the military on a voluntary basis. Women involved in revolutionary processes do need, as Enloe sug gests, to becom e well organized 'as w om en1 , conscious and vocal with re sp e d to safeguarding the gains that they have m ade from post revolution Enloe, D oes Khaki B ecom e You?pp 163 165; It is important to acknowl edge, however, the way in which the central factor in this political regres sion has been the strength of Islamic patriarchal influence over the Algerian political process. 1 Enloe, D oes Khaki B ecom e You? p. 165. 250 ary erosion. For Johnson Odim, "Even in socialist revolutions w here w om en's position has been greatly im proved an d continues solidly tow ard a goal of equality, such as in Cuba, Nicaragua, Angola, and M ozambique, the changes have required not only the com m itm ent of m en but also the constant vigilance and organization of women," She adds, "The need for feminist theory and organization is clear."1 While feminist gains through participation in liberation m ovem ents have generally fallen short of w hat w as sought by w om en's organizations, it is still im portant to recognize that they have, generally speaking resulted in structures of gender relations w herein w om en as a class enjoyed m uch greater freedom and m ore political pow er than w as the case under colonial o r neocolonial rule. Since there is virtually no extant society w here w om en share political pow er with m en in a com pletely egalitarian fashion or are dom inant as a class, pragm atism and realism suggest the im portance of ac knowledging the achievem ents which have been m ade in revolutionary contexts. While Enloe is justified, for example, in h er criticism of the post revolutionary Zim babw ean Parliament on the basis of the fact that it con tained only eight w om en in an African dom inated legislature of one hun dred,2 it is im portant to recognize that the presence of indigenous w om en 1 Cheryl Johnson Odim, "Com m on Themes, Different Contexts: Third W orld W om en and Feminism," in Third W orld W o m en a n d th e Politics o f Fem inism , ed. Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), p. 319. 2 Enloe, D oes Khaki B eco m e You?p 165. 251 in the legislature at all, even in small num bers, represented a profound im provem ent over the colonial situation. Also, it is im portant to take into account the w ay in which the post tri um ph situation has often b een characterized by the need to defend the rev olution from outside aggression at the sam e tim e that the revolutionary governm ent is attem pting large-scale reorganizations of societal structures, putting them under enorm ous pressure from b o th within and without. Nicaragua is a particularly clear example. This threat to the very survival of th e revolution was undoubtedly responsible for at least som e of the m ore conservative tendencies adopted by Sandinista leaders with respect to w om en's roles. In other words, while m ale revolutionaries m ay b ear par tial responsibility for the failure to 'fast track1 reform of gender relations, som e of this responsibility m ust b e attributed to the reactionary and con servative forces both dom estic and international which sought to contain if not roll back what revolutionary gains had been m ade an d utilized tradi tional sentim ents concerning the family and *woman's place1 for reac tionary political purposes. Some revolutions have been quite successful in fighting off the counter revolution at the sam e tim e that b ro ad gains in w om en's status w ere maintained. Vietnam and Cuba are tw o particularly salient success stories with respect to the the achievem ent of lasting structural gains through fem ale militancy and participation. Both w ere very prom inent and inspiring exam ples for Central A m erica's revolutionaries. 252 Vietnam and Cuba The militancy of Vietnamese women did much to contribute to their rising status in society, enhancing an ethos of respect for female pow er and the female contribution to the revolutionary effort. As Eisen points out, "The experience of shooting down a plane helped overcom e centuries of indoctrination in w om en's inferiority." She recounts the experience of one U.S. missionary who encountered two male guerrillas shortly after the lib eration of their province in 1975 w ho proclaim ed that: "All superior na tions of the world are like men, masculine. Viet Nam is like a woman, feminine. But what do you know, the wom an w ho is supposed to be weak defeated the man! That is because our w om en are strong" The Vietnamese have a saying that "women are the greatest victims of war but they are also its greatest heroes.’ '1 Vietnamese wom en participated in the eariiest arm ed actions against the French and, in 1945, the first all wom an guerrilla unit was form ed by Ha Thi Que who later went on to lead the Vietnamese W om en’ s Union and serve on the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist party. In the years that followed, som e one million women took up arm s against the French. They undoubtedly responded to the revolutionary task in such large num bers due, at least in part, to the oppressive quality of French im perial patriarchy. In addition to reducing women to starvation levels of subsistence, Vietnamese women were particularly incensed, according to Eisen, by the way in which the French "transformed traditionally m odest 1 Arlene Eisen, W om en and R evolution in Vietneort (London: Zed Books, 1984), pp, 119, 239 240, 265; Eart Martin, Reaching th e O ther Side (New York: Crown, 1978), p. 220. 253 w om en into prostitutes.1 '1 In a fam ine year a m an could buy a sex-slave for a few p ounds of rice. The resentm ent generated by this degradation drove m any w om en into the arm s of the Viet Minh and active roles in the insur gcncy as saboteurs; in fact, ’ prostitutes1 took credit for one third of all the French posts destroyed by the Viet Minh.2 Mass protests against the U.S. backed Thieu regime w ere spearheaded by w om en's m ovem ents such as the clandestine W om en's Union and the W om en’ s C om m ittee to Defend the Right to Live, initially organized in outrage at the rape of Vietnamese wom en. The history of the liberation of V ietnam ese w om en is a history of their organization, known at various tim es as the Association for the Emancipation of W omen, Association of Anti Colonialist W om en, A ssociation of W om en for National Salvation, Union of W om en for the Liberation of South Vietnam, and the Viet N am W om en’ s Union. By 1950 it had three million m em bers. After the country w as partitioned in 1954, the union w as repressed in the south, still, by 1975, it had tw o million m em bers; in th e north, by that time, it w as five million stro n g By May of 1982, the union included alm ost ten million m em bers, representing the m ajority of wom en in the north and hundreds of thou sands of new recruits in th e south. It continues to receive a subsidy from the state and is given both the right and the responsibility to propose new laws, its President sits in on Cabinet meetings. The revolution also gave w om en access to econom ic power. In 1961, only 20% of the wage labor force 1 Eisen, W o m en a n d R evolution, pp. 27 29. 2lbid.; Bernard Fall, S treet W ithout fo y {New York: Schocken, 1972), p. 141. 2 5 4 in N orth Vietnam w as female. By 1982, w om en constituted over 45% of the w aged labor force, including the arm ed forces.1 As in Vietnam, from their beginnings Central A m erican guerrilla m ovem ents included w om en in their ranks. This is particularly true of El Salvador w here approxim ately one third of the rebel arm y w as female. The revolutionary arm ies of El Salvador and Nicaragua b oth h ad female co m m andantes. Conversely, the arm ed forces of the Right have never included w om en in their ranks, at least in com bat positions.2 ^From its inception the Indochinese Com m unist Party (ICP) declared it self in support of w om en's liberation and argued that that liberation w ould require revolution. It pledged itself to struggle for equality betw een m en and w om en in its founding program of 1930. After independence w as de clared, the I CPs program becam e the constitution of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1946. Article 21 of that constitution declared that: "W om an is th e equal of m an in rights, from the political, econom ic, cul tural, social, and family points of view. For equal work, she's entitled to equal pay. The State guarantees w om en workers and functionaries the right to paid m aternity leave before and after childbirth. The State protects the rights of m other and children, and sees to the developm ent of m ater nity clinics, crfeches, an d kindergartens." After th e U.S. withdrawal, the principal of full equality betw een m en and w om en under law was reaf firmed in the new constitution of the reunified Socialist Republic of Viet Nam in 1980. Eisen, W o m en a n d R evolution, pp. 85 86,105,123 124. According to Eisen, the co operative freed w om en from the patriarchal family econom y and challenged centuries of sex defined roles By the 1980s, the infant m ortality rate in Vietnam, another clear indicator of female well being, w as significantly low er than the rate with respect to black w om en residing in California. Ibid., p p 141,143, 209. 2By the late 1980s both the G uatem alan and El Salvadoran militaries had begun to include a small token num ber of w om en in the arm ed forces There w ere reports of a few w om en w ho might have been in com bat with the Contra but the num ber w as extremely small. It is still safe to say that Central American w om en have seen com bat only in revolutionaiy armies, at least in large num bers. 255 Cuba w as especially im portant as a historical precedent for the revolu tions of Central America. The Cuban revolution represented the m ost thoroughgoing restructuring of neocolonial socioeconom ic structures in hem ispheric history. After the trium ph of 1959, Cuba served as an ex trem ely powerful inspiration to the Latin Am erican Left, students, the in telligentsia, and progressive social m ovem ents in general.1 The restructur ing of gender relations that transpired served as an inspiration to Central Am erican revolutionaries w ho sought to im plem ent structural changes along similar lines. The experience of increased autonom y, dignity, and pow er which w om en gained through revolutionary praxis in Cuba w as replicated, to som e extent, in Central America, especially Nicaragua. The role of w om en as revolutionaries had a long history in Cuba. The rebellion brew ing beneath the surface of its colonial econom y boiled over into num erous slave rebellions in the 18th and 19th centuries, several of which w ere led by women. On N ovem ber 5,1843, for example, a slave w om an nam ed Carlota led a rebellion at the Triumvirate Mill in M atanzas; as with the other rebellions, it w as eventually crushed, Carlota was killed. The ideological im portance of these revolutionary heroines is illustrated by the way in which, one hundred and thirty tw o years later on the sam e date, 1'ITie charge of the United States that Castro and his associates fom ented or at least assisted revolution in Latin America is grounded in solid fact. In 1979, for example, shortly before the trium ph of th e Nicaraguan revolu tion, the Sandinista National Directorate spent 12 hours in C astro's office, "consuming a barrel of coffee and a ton of nicotine " Tom As Borge, Un grano d e m afz: C onversation co n Fidel Casfro (San Salvador. Editorial Tercer M undo, 1992), p. 15. Cuba supported the Sandinista rebellion with large am ounts of solidarity in the form of training, advise, m edical atten tion, volunteer labor, supplies, and som e arms. 2 5 0 when the Cuban government decided to send troops to help defend the so cialist regime of Angola from South Africa and its allies, it dubbed the m ove "Operation Carlota" in her honor.1 W omen were also very active in the wars for independence that swept the island between 1868 and 1878. One htgb ranking Spanish offidal attributed the perseverance of the inde pendence fighters to "the influence exercised by the wom en's unwavering patriotism ."2 The Cuban story of the female conquest of political pow er is inseparable from the story of the revolution itself. The presence of women in revolu tionary militias was widespread despite the fact that it m et with stiff resis tance, particularly by counter revolutionary elem ents w ho questioned the "morals of women w ho dressed like men and carried guns." While only a dozen or so women formed the Mariana Grajales Platoon nam ed for a black w om an active in Cuba's first w ar of independence by the final stages of the revolution it had grown into a full com pany and was maintained af terwards. Thousands of other Cuban women were involved making uni forms, selling war bonds, taking part in propaganda actions, participating in urban sabotage, transporting arms and messages- in addition to fighting in the mountains. By D ecem ber of 1958, at least one in twenty "R delista" 1 Margaret Randall, W om en In Cuba. Tw enty Years Later (New York; Smyrna Press, 1981), p. 51. 2|nger Holt Seeland, W om en o f Cuba, trans. Elizabeth Hamilton Lacoste (W estport, Conn.: Lawrence Hill & Co., 1981), p. 83. 257 troops was a woman.1 Many Cuban guerrilleras later becam e leading fig ures in revolutionary politics.2 As in Vietnam, the W om an's Union served as the primary vehicle for assessing women's needs, lobbying for and implementing changes which redounded to their benefit. By 1980 approximately 80% of Cuban woman belonged to the Federation of Cuban W omen (FMC).3 This level of wom en's organization w as virtually unparalleled anyw here else in the world. In the years following the revolution, a host of progressive legislation was passed which sought to correct the historical effects of discrimination against and exploitation of women. Special schools were set up, under the direction of the FMC, for former prostitutes where thousands of women changed their m eans of livelihood and gained "the necessary self pride 1 Elizabeth Stone, ed., W om en and th e Cuban Revolution: Speeches & D ocum ents b y Fidel Castro, Vilma Esptn, and O thers {New York; Pathfinder, 1981), pp. 7 9; Linda Lobao, "W omen in Revolutionary Movements; Changing Patterns of Latin American Guerrilla Struggle," in W om en and SoaaYlYotest, ed Guida West, and Rhoda Lois Blumberg (New Yoric Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 191. 2A few of the m ore famous were Celia Sanchez, soldier and m em ber of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist party and Council of Ministers until her death in 1980. Vilma Espin w as com m ander of the un derground for the province of Oriente and later served on the Central Com mittee and as President of the Cuban Federation of W omen (FMC). Haydee Santamarta and Melba Hernandez both participated in the M oncada uprising of 1953; the former becam e a m em ber of the Cuban Communist Party's Central Committee and the Council of State, the latter served as Cuba's am bassador to Vietnam until shortly before her death in 1980. Randall, W om en In Cuba, p. 22. 3Holt Seeland, W om en o f Cuba, p. 92. 258 through which their futures were radically altered" Other special schools were set up for dom estic servants where the "maids of the bourgeoisie" team ed new professions such as taxi driving secretarial skills, etc.1 The revolutionary governm ent's policy towards prostitution repre sented precisely the response that feminists generally call for structural ad justm ents through the developm ent of egalitarian system s of education and em ploym ent which minimize the necessity or desirability of a wom an's entrance into the trade, coupled with criminalization for pim ps 1The revolutionary government m ade it legally m andatory for mates to work. Females were encouraged to either attend school or work but the law stopped short of enforcement with respect to women, while for men, "loafing" was considered a crim e The Ana Betancourt School for Peasant Girls w as set up in 1961. Named for a fighter in Cuba's first independence struggle who called for equal rights for women as early as 1869, it func tioned out of mansions abandoned by the wealthy, tens of thousands of young women were educated there during the 1960s, receiving along with 'practical' classes such as sewing lessons in reading writing history, etc. In those industries that were nationalized, wom en were chosen for the man agerial positions of those wherein a majority of workers were female. By the middle of the 1960s, almost half of medical students were female Beginning in 1968, the FMC began a new campaign aimed at bringing 100,000 additional women p e r year into the full time work force. The orga nization contacted over 600,000 w om en in a door to door campaign accom panied by the publication of pam phlets and radio advertisements. The jaba Plan or Shopping Bag Plan, granted any working woman and her entire family priority service at grocery stores with respect to both selection and the filling of the order, som e articles were reserved only for sale to working women. Increasing num bers of woti( places began to offer com plete laun dering services to their female em ployees and unions and workplaces that distributed labor saving devices for the hom e gave priority to working mothers. Working women also were given preferential access to hair dressers, tailors, shoe storey medical appointm ents etc. Ibid., p. 57; Stone, Women and the Cuban R evolution p. 11 13; Carollee Bengelsdorf and Alice Hageman, "Emerging from Underdevelopment: W om en and Work in Cuba," in Capitalist Patriarchy a n d the Case for Socialist fem inism , ed. Zillah Eisenstein (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979), pp. 278 287. 259 and would b e brothel keepers and no criminalization with respect to the w om en involved. Feminists such as Begelsdorf and H agem an lauded Cuba for its "free health care, free education, free housing and a legal system shaped by and growing out of the people's specific needs."1 The lasting gains m ade in fe m ale autonom y are unm istakable It becam e easier for a w om an to divorce her husband in Cuba than anyw here else in Latin America. It is also the only country in Latin America w here abortion is legal not only legal but free of charge on dem and. The level of rape and violent crime against w om en are m uch lower than in the United States. Levels of life expectancy for w om en becam e the highest and the infant mortality rate the lowest of 1 Stone, W o m en a n d th e C uban R evolution, p. 37; Bengelsdorf and Hageman, "Emerging from U nderdevelopm ent," p. 271. They ad d that: "One has only to talk to any forty year old C uban woman, to watch her eyes as she discusses the difference betw een her life before 1959 and her life now as she describes her pride in w hat she and her neighbors have seen com e to pass around them, shaped by their own h an d s and their ow n efforts. One has only to spend time with any twenty year old Cuban w om an to under stand that she is com pletely free of areas of conflict (the anxiety of eco nom ic dependence on a m an, for example) which we ourselves will never totally overcom e " 260 any Latin Am erican country.1 To this day, feminists continue to laud the accom plishm ents of the revolution.2 Nicaragua Nicaraguan w om en always m aintained a presence in the forefront of opposition to neocolonial dom ination, filling com bat as well as support roles, because, according to Marilyn Duarte, they "represent th e majority o( those m ost affected by the econom ic problem s provoked by these w ars of aggression." She sees the participation of Nicaraguan w om en as having been "historically decisive" throughout the conflicts that they have en dured.3 While D uarte is referring primarily to the U.S. aggression repre 1 Randall, W om en In Cuba, p. 25; Bengelsdorf and Hageman, "Emerging from Underdevelopm ent," pp. 272, 291, Stone, W o m en a n d th e C uban R evolution, pp. 19 25; Janet Henshall M om sen and Janet Tow nsend, eds , G eography o f G ender in th e Third W orld (London: Century Hutchinson, 1987), p. 32; Lourdes Casal, "Revolution an d Conciencia: W om en in Cuba," in W om en, War, a n d R evolution, ed. Carol R. Berkin and Clara M. Lovett (New York: H olm es & Meier, 1980), p. 193. 2Angela Gilliam, for example, describes Cuba as "the only form er plan tation econom y that has seriously attem pted to address- at the national level the issues of racism and sexism." In addition to the substantial gains m ade through free health care and free education, Gilliam, "as an African American woman," w as struck m ost as she traveled in Cuba by “the fact that it w as the only form er slave society in th e W estern hem isphere where people cannot b e found burrow ing in garbage cans for fo o d " Angela Gilliam, "W om en's Equality and N ational Liberation," in Third W orld W om en a n d th e Politics o f Feminism, ed. C handra Talpade M ohanty, Ann Russo, an d Lourdes Torres (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), p. 225. ^Marilyn Duarte, "La m ujer nicaragtiense in la vida social y eclesial," in Teologia d e sd e la m u jer en centm am erica, ed. Irene Foulkes (San Jos6: Sebila, 1989), p. 32. 2 0 1 sented by the Contra war of the 1980s, what she says is valid for the entire century of resistance on the part of Nicaraguan nationalists. W omen partic ipated in arm ed struggle against the an invading Yankee filibuster in 1856 as well as the uprising of 1912 directed by General Zeledbn.1 The dialectic between sexual exploitation and female militancy is illus trated by the now famous description of a group of prostitutes on the East Coast w ho furnished w eapons recovered from U.S. soldiers to Sandino's forces: En la Costa AtUntica un grupo de prostitutas a quien Sandino llamaha las muchachas rescatan de las aguas del mar, arm as arrojadas p o r los yanquis. Cretan en la causa de Sandino y, por eso, ajusti ciaban a los invasores que llegaban a pasar la noche con ell as.2 This group of heroic 'prostitutes' are seen as especially exemplary, exalted as heroines by the revolution. The fact that they put their lives in danger "rescuing" the w eapons of North American soldiers and furnishing them to Sandino's troops, "in order to bring the invaders to justice," illustrates the way in which sexual exploitation has tended to engender insurgent re actions am ong its victims. Even though the invaders where "coming to spend the night with them," and spending som e of their m ost valuable dollars, "they believed in the cause of Sandino." W om en have often com 1AMLAE (A sociadbn de Mujeres Nicaraquenses Luisa Amanda Espinoza), M ujer en Nicaragua (Managua: Editorial Nueva Nicaragua, 1984), p 11. 2Cited in Ibid.; Centro Ecumenico A ntonio Valdevieso, "Mujer, revolu cibn y autonom la en la Costa AtlAntica," interview with Dortea Wilson by U nde Rivera, in Am anacer, May-June 1988, p. 40. 262 prom ised themselves sexually to imperialist or colonialist forces in order to infiltrate and subvert their purposes, they served as spies, for example, in French West Indian slave revolts and "traded them selves for weapons."1 Sandino, as the major twentieth century Nicaraguan symbol of national sovereignty, endeared himself to those Nicaraguans who felt their sovereignty violated, 'prostitutes' included. Sandino began what is perhaps the first genuinely class war in twenti eth century Central America. His peasant revolutionaries who fought the Marine occupation from 1927 to 1933 received broad support from the com m on people who had suffered under the weight of that occupation. Sandino was above all else a nationalist who saw his struggle as a fight for national sovereignty. His family history provides a key to understanding both his avid class consciousness and his progressive stance towards wom en's rights. Bom the illegitimate child of a "dark skinned prostitute" and later educated by his prosperous lighter skinned father, he accom pa nied his m other to debtor's prison as a child He understood only to well the class structure of his society and always referred to his Indian heritage with pride. According to Uss, he discerned "a relationship between Spanish imperialism and racism" and he "understood why his peasant m other be cam e a street walker" While W ashington and the Church branded Sandino "an outlaw and an atheist Communist," for m ost Nicaraguans, he was "a noble patriot" and "an egalitarian w ho did not hesitate to regard 1 Marietta Morrissey, Slave W om en in th e N ew World: G ender Stratification in th e Caribbean (Lawrence, Kans.: University of Kansas Press, 1989). p. 154. 263 wom en as equals In combat." Referring to the U S, as "the eagje with larce nous claws," the antiimperialist Sandino rejected U,S pretensions of Manifest Destiny and "the aspects of white superiority in U.S. imperial ism "1 A visionary with profound religious sensibilities, he declared that at the Last Judgement "the oppressed peoples will break the chains of humili ation with which the imperialists of the earth have w anted to keep them dow n "2 W omen w ere very active in Sandino's guerrilla m ovem ent. Some saw com bat against the Marines. Sandino's wife, Blanca ArSuz, operated a tele graph facility for the rebel cause. A few, like Maria Lidia, would live on to fight again in the Sandinista struggle against S o m o cism o Sandino spoke of "the heroic women w ho take up the rifle of he who falls forever in battle, those [females] who give us water, those who give us the parq u e [military 1 Sheldon Liss, Radical Thought in C entral Am erica, Latin American Perspectives Series, no. 7 (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1991), pp. 177 181; Augusto C Sandino, E lp en sa m ien to vivo, vol 1 (Managua: Editorial Nueva Nicaragua, 1981), pp. 79, 117 118, 137, 389; vol. 2, pp. 25 39, 294 302; Karl Hermann, U nder th e Big Stick: Nicaragua and th e U nited States Since 1848(Boston: South End Press, 1986), p. 193; Donald C. Hodges, Intellectual Foundations o f the Nicaraguan R evolution (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986), pp. 12 19, 38,53,71 80; Sandino and his m en received a great deal of their provisions of war by capturing U.S. Army and National Guard provisions. He lam ented that the "pirates" were "so big that the uniforms would not fit his people." Gregorio Selser, Nicaragua d e W alker a Som oza (Coyoacdn, Mexico: Mex Sur Editorial, 1984), p. 176. ^Quoted by Phillip Berryman, The Religious R o o ts o f Rebellion: Christians in Central A m erican R evolutions (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1986), p. 54; UNAN (Universidad N adonal A utdnom a de Nicaragua), D epartam ento d e Ciencias Sociales, Seccibn de Historia, A p u n tes d e historia d e Nicaragua, vol. 1 (Managua: UNAN, 1980), p. 138. 2 6 4 camp]."1 The w om en in Sandino's encam pm ent were co m p a n cra s m em bers, partners, lovers, wives their sexual union with m ale rebels w as a question of cam araderie rather than com m erce o r coercion Sandino im p o sed the death penalty for rapists under his com m and. He told a visiting Spanish journalist that even one of his generals having been denounced for raping several w om en w as executed after Sandino had corroborated the evidence.2 The connections betw een Sandino's struggle and respect for w om en's rights did not go unnoticed in the international arena. In Havana, in 1928, the Inter American Conference of W om en protested the U.S. occupation of Nicaragua at the Conference of American States.3 Many w om en becam e active in the Sandinista Front in the 1960s, the m ost fam ous being Gladys Baez and Doris Tijerifto w ho w ere both arrested. In 1969, the "Program of the Popular Sandinista Revolution" appeared, which included "w om en's em ancipation" in addition to "people's power, land for peasants, an end to exploitation, and an independent foreign pal icy*' in its platform.4 Fem ale participation in the insurrection steadily in ^T om is Borge, "La m ujer y la revolucibn nicaraguense" (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1982), p. 31, Margaret Randall, Sandino's D aughters. T estim o n ies o f N icaraguan W om en in Struggle (Vancouver, B.C.: New Star Books, 1981), p. iv; AMLAE, M ujer en Nicaragua, p. 11; While ‘ p a r q u e ’ carries the sam e m eaning as ‘ park’ in English, it also connotes the b ase area around a military encam pm ent or m unitions supply, a place where the w ar effort is nourished. 2Ramon de Belausteguigottia, C on Sandino en Nicaragua (Managua. Editorial N euva Nicaragua, 1981), p. 189. ^Miller, "Latin A m erican Feminism," p. 16. 4 Berryman, R eligious R o o ts o f R ebellion, pp. 58 59. 265 creased as the Sandinistas grew stronger throughout the 1970s. The violent repression m eted out by Som oza's guard and the w ay in which it w as fre quently directed at w om en in particular w as undoubtedly of critical im porta nee to the process of turning w om en into revolutionary fighters. W om en also began to organize as w om en in the 1970s with the ere ation of the A ssociation of Nicaraguan W om en Confronting the Nation's Problem s (AMPRONAC) which after the revolution w as renam ed the Luisa A m anda Espinosa Nicaraguan W om en's Association(AMLAE), in honor of the first w om an killed in com bat against Somoza. The connection betw een rape and counter violence is clearly illustrated by one episode in particular in the struggle of this heroine. Once w hen she was captured by three of Som oza's guards, o n e of them took her dow n by th e river in order to rape her, w hereupon she proceeded to kill him and m ake her escape.1 Her resort to violence, like that of revolutionary w om en in general, carried a special m oral legitimacy as the violence of self-defense. At first, the political organization of w om en w as m et with stiff resis tance by Nicaraguan m en w ho som etim es referred to politically active w om en as "prostitutes." Resistance to Som oza did m uch to create a soften ing of patriarchal attitudes and constraints, however, as w om en dem on strated their revolutionary capacity. A new spirit of gender equality becam e an inherent feature of the revolutionary process. Sexism continued, of course, even am ong the revolutionaries in the m ountains, som e of whom failed to accord revolutionary w om en the respect due them. This chauvin 1 Randall, Sandino's D aughters, p. 30. 260 jsm becam e tem pered in time, however, particularly as a result of the courageous examples set by female combatants.1 The m asses were the deciding factor in the revolutionary upheaval of the late 1970s as thousands of ordinary citizens took up w eapons and joined the guerrillas in the final push for victory. Increasing female partic ipation was part of this popular spontaneity and, by the triumph of July 1979, approxim ately one third of those who had taken an active role in revolutionary violence were female. By 1978, spontaneous uprisings were occurring in city after city. In February of that year, the barrio of M onimbb in the town of Masaya went into revolt; it took the National Guard a week to subdue the rebellion with 600 troops, 2 tanks, 2 helicopters, and two light planes, fighting a civil ian population arm ed with 22 caliber rifles and hom em ade bombs. This re 1 W omen who becam e Sandinista com m anders faced the unique task of having to give orders to m en who had never taken orders from a wom an before. One recalls how she: “always gave orders in as com radely a way as possible. I tried to make sure that people understood exactly what was re quired. Occasionally 1 noticed that som eone was sulking because a woman had given him an order. It was never direct but I could sense it. When the situation arose I had to talk to the man about his attitude. It was necessary for him to realize that we women had earned our right to participate in the struggle. I'd explain that we deserved our rank and he'd have to under stand that. There weren't to o many of these problem s though and the ones that did arise w ere not severe" Monica Baltodano, another guerrilla com m ander in the war, recalled: "Some com rades were open to dealing with sexism while others rem ained closed. Some said women were no good in the mountains, that they were only good 'for screwing' that they created conflicts sexual conflicts. But there were also men with very good posi tions. Carlos Fonseca, for example, was a solid com rade on this issue. It's been a long struggle! We won those battles through discussions and by women com rades dem onstrating their ability and their resistance." Ibid., pp. iv. 38, 66, 131 133. 207 bellion was seen as of particular im portance due to the fact that the major ity of these people w ere thought of as authentic representatives of Nicaragua's indigenous population, illustrating the historical roots of resis lance to neocolonial tyranny The m onth before that, the m urder of la Prensa editor Pedro Joaquin Cham orro touched off a series of protests in Managua including an occupation of the United Nations' office by a group of w om en organized by AMPRONAC. After several days the group was joined by women from the lower class barrios protesting the plight of dis appeared and m urdered peasant^ when Somoza's elite forces broke up the dem onstration with tear gas, the w om en threw the cannisters back at the troops.1 The revolution initiated profound changes with respect to female pow er and autonomy, changes which were an integral part of a general re structuring of Nicaragua's political economy. The connection between the two is evident in the testim ony of Esmilda Flores, recorded by Jethro Petit of Oxfam, who belonged to an agricultural cooperative in the m ountains north of Estell. She commented; Before the revolution w e didn't participate in anything We only learned to make tortillas and cook beans and do what our fe rry m a n , Religious R oots o f Rebellion, pp. 79-81; Margaret Randall, Todas esta m o s dispiertas: Testfm onios d e la m ujer nicaragiiense d e h o y (Mexico: Siglo XXI, 1980), p. 49ff; The Sandinistas saw their project as in continuity with historical rebellions on the part of Nicaragua's indigenous populations. According to Sandinista founder/m artyr Carlos Fonseca Amador, the rebellion of 10,000 Indians in M atagalpa in 1881 established a precedent for Sandino's actions against domestic despotism and foreign imperialism. Carlos Fonseca Amador, Obras, vol. 1, Bajo la bandara d el sa n d in ism o iManagua; Editorial Nueva Nicaragua, 1985), p. 34. 2 0 8 husbands told us. In only five years we have seen a lot of changes and we're still working on it! Before, we had to rent a small plot to grow any food and we had to pay one half of our crop to the landlord! Now we work just as hard as before both in the fields and at hom e but there's a difference, because we're working for ourselves. As Petit recognized in his report: W om en in Nicaragua, as in m ost of rural Latin America, carry an enorm ous workload. Not only are they a mainstay of the agri cultural labor force (40 percent of Nicaragua's farm laborers are women), but they are responsible for child care, food prepara tions, and m ost dom estic chores. W om en's roles did not sud denly change with the revolution. But there has been a pro nounced shift in cultural attitudes as a result of their strong par ticipation in Nicaragua's social reconstruction1 This shift in cultural attitudes was both cause and result of the way in which the FSLN led the way in the political enfranchisement of women. By 1987, the government reported that am ong its "m ilitantes of the second promotion," 38% w ere female.2 Several female Sandinista co m m a n d a n te sassum ed prom inent posi tions of leadership in the new revolutionary government. Doris Tijeriflo becam e head of the Sandinista Police, Dora Maria Tellez becam e minister of Health, and Leticia Herrera first directed the Sandinista Defence CCommittees and then m oved on to becom e vice deputy of the National Assembly. The governm ent passed num erous articles of legislation in its attem pt to protect women from exploitation and increase their political participation. It went so far as to approve a law which prohibited "m achista 1 Cited by Chomsky, Turning th e Tide, p 10. ^Editorial Vanguardia, "El FSLN y la mujer" (Managua: Editorial Vanguardia, 1987), p. 19. 269 com m ercial propaganda" such as advertisem ents which used the female body to sell consum er goods. As in Cuba, there w as also an attem pt m ade to m andate greater equality betw een parents with the Alimony Law that spelled out, am ong other things, the legal responsibilities of the father in the carc of his offspring som ething which had not been present in the legal system under the Somozas.1 From the beginning of the Contra attacks, w om en w ere at the forefront in the defense of Nicaragua's newly w on autonom y, even lobbying for greater participation. In 1981 AMLAE mobilized 500 w om en in Gstell to dem and greater female participation in the arm ed forces. By 1985, the num ber of w om en's battalions had increased from one to seven and this trend continued. W om en had an active presence in the Popular Sandinista Army throughout the war In 1988 alone, about 1,000 w om en volunteered for military service or joined the Reserves. By 1989, w om en represented 20% of the regular arm y and 40% of the Ministry of the Interior forces.2 While they w ere not assigned to com bat duties against the Contra until 1986 and AM I AH's drive to include w om en in conscription w as unsuccess ful, by 1987 they were being urged to join the arm y "on an equal basis with men."3 As noted by Collinson, the Sandinista governm ent w as subject to 1 Helen Collinson, ed., W o m en a n d R evolution in Nicaragua (London: Zed Books, 1990), p. 155; Borge, "La m ujer y la revolucidn rricaragUense," p. 6 . ^Collinson, W o m en a n d R evolution, pp. 157 160. 3M ary Stead, "W omen, War, and U nderdevelopm ent in Nicaragua," in W o m e n D evelo p m en t, a n d Survival in th e Third W orld, ed. Haleh Afshar (London: Zed Books, 1991), p. 68. 2 7 0 certain conventional pressures: "They had to appear responsible in the eyes of the community, and particularly th e parents of young female soldiers w ho did n o t want their daughters sharing quarters with men."1 The gov em m ent attem pted to balance feminist dem ands for greater female partici pation in the military against powerful conservative interests which stood o p p o sed to it, particularly the inclusion of w om en in conscription. W om en were allow ed to volunteer, therefore, but none w ere drafted into military service. There is n o evidence to suggest, however, that m eeting the call of AMLAE for egalitarian conscription of m ales and fem ales alike would have been approved by the majority of Nicaraguans. The Church hierar chy, in particular, th e Sandirristas' m ost powerful dom estic critic, already o p p o sed to the draft, w ould undoubtedly have seen this m ove as further eroding traditional values, giving it another 'trum p card1 in its attack. While alm ost all of the Sandinista arm y becam e separated after 1979 with w om en being trained and housed in separate facilities from m ale soldiers, there is o n e exception: the "Sandinitos," extrem ely young fighters who w ere 13,14, and 15 years old at the tim e of the Triumph. They continued to train together, m ale and female.2 The introductory testim ony of a 1984 publication by AMLAE testifies to the courage and determ ination with which w om en responded to the re peated U.S. sponsored attacks: 1 Collinson, W o m en a n d R evolution, p. 156. 2Randall, Sandino's D aughters, p. 137. 271 The Nicaraguan w om an is conscious that she is very useful, as indispensable as a m an and that a voice belongs to her as well. She has learned to discuss and to decide, and on a p ar with her com pafiero, following the exam ple of Rafaela Herrera, of Blanca ArAuz, of Luisa A m anda Bsptnoza, of A den S iC i and of so m any other heroines, she also lifts up the rifle to defend this beautiful revolution that, despite the constant aggressions and the enor m ous pow er of the enemy, will never take one step back.1 The Nicaraguan and Cuban arm ies are the only state military forces in I^tin America with broad based participation of women. Only in Nicaragua have large num bers of w om en been involved in com bat in gov ernm ent service. By contrast, very few w om en woriced for the Contra cause, despite the com paratively enorm ous pecuniary opportunities involved in m ercenary service. A few w om en did join the cause, however, and a handful saw com bat. In 1987, there w ere only a total of 212 w om en in prison in Nicaragua, m ost of them jailed for involvem ent in counter revolutionary activities of sabotage. The CIA organized and funded a group of w om en at lied with the Contras called the M others of January 22. This group was pri m anly engaged in protesting the holding of political prisoners by the gov em m ent. Their literature was printed by the U.S. em bassy and the U.S. governm ent brought them on tour in the U.S. for anti Sandinista propa ganda p u rp o ses2 Religion played a particularly central role with respect to both sides of the conflict. Christian w om en w ho shared in the defense of the revolution 1 AMLAE, M ujer en Nicaragua, p. 10. ^Collinson, W o m en a n d R evolution, pp. 165 166. 272 drew inspiration from Biblical traditions; lay worker Norma I,6pez, for ex ample, testified; Now, som e have w ondered about the appropriate role of w om en in this Christian movement. Especially, som e have asked whether it is right to have women out fighting in the military, or in the militia. Some were not only lay workers, but also clandes tine activists during the insurrection, and m any have daughters who have served in the military. This sort of thing has given som e people cause to stumble. But we read our Bible, we Christian m others and daughters, and it is from the scriptures and no other source that we take our inspiration. God called up women as prophetesses and warriors to lead God's children against the oppressors when there were not enough men to d o the fighting. Deborah was a prophetess, and Jael took a nail and drove it through the head of the oppressor. And we Christian women of Nicaragua are willing to heed God's call and take up the rifle against the oppressor. If our revolution needs it, our faith requires it.1 As the Nicaraguan Church itself becam e polarized over the revolution, naturally, wom en tended to choose sides, and to generate theological legit imations of their respective political positions. Many, many, women sup ported the Sandinista's political opposition, particularly through loyalty to their major opponent Cardinal Obando. No government in Latin America at least with the exception of Cuba was m ore attuned to the rights and concerns of women than the Sandinistas. According to Collinson, "To find a governm ent anywhere in the world m ore willing to listen to women's dem ands would be virtually impossible."2 By contrast, according to Stead, "the restoration of the tradi 1 Q uoted by Roger N. Lancaster, Thanks to C od and th e R evolution Popular Religion a n d G a ss C onsciousness in th e N ew Nicaragua (New York: Colombia University Press, 1988), p. 65. 2 Collin son, W om en a n d Revolution, p. 194. 273 tional Nicaraguan family" was one of the prom inent campaign prom ises of the anti Sandinista opposition, particularly Cardinal O bando y Bravo. The coalition of parties represented by the Union of National Opposition (UNO), which won the elections of February 1990, was heavily supported (against Nicaraguan law) by the CIA and private U.S. organizations1 As it took power in April of 1990, it was feared that they would "attempt to re verse the gains m ade by w om en under the eleven years of Sandinista gov em m ent."2 That this has proven to be the case is not in question. As the revolution grew weaker, fewer women were elected to positions of political power, in the 1990 election only 19% of those winning seats in the National Assembly were women. AM IAE was particularly disappointed in this statistic since it represented a reduction from the 1984 elections and did not adequately reflect the massive participation of women in grass roots politi cal organizations.3 There was a general correlation between a decline in Sandinista power and a loss of female autonomy.4 The feminist sensitivity 1 While it is against U.S. law for any foreign entities to make direct con tributions to U.S. political campaigns. The rights of other nations in this re gard have been routinely denied by th e U.S. which has long used campaign contributions (often covertly) to further its agendas. 2Stead, "Women, War, and U nderdevelopm ent in Nicaragua," p. 53. ^Collinson, W om en a n d R evolution, p. 189. 4 By the sum m er of 1986, as th e strength and resources of the Sandinista Defense Committees began to erode, serious crime was again becoming a m ajor problem in urban life with street gangs roaming the streets of M anagua at night. As pointed out by Lancaster, this atm osphere of criminal te n o r tended to diminish som e of the marked gains wom en m ade through 274 which had characterized Sandinista policy making also began to erode, even before their loss in the elections of March 1990.1 While the Sandinistas did have an active policy of prom oting w om en to positions of power, this has not been a concern of their opposition. In July of 1990, 22,000 Contras turned in their arm s to representatives of the Organization of American States or the United Nations and were repa triated to Nicaragua. By the Spring of 1991, however, Contras were being rearm ed by unknown individuals flying in from H onduras in clandestine flights.2 Over the last few years, different groups of repatriated Contras (known as rccontras) rearm ed themselves and engaged in frequent sabo tage actions in several departm ents of Nicaragua. This resulted in counter the revolution since they, in particular, fell prey to victimization by dclin quent gangs Almost all of his female informants in this period reported curbing their m ovem ents outside their own and£n at night and even in the afternoon. I^ancaster, G od a n d th e Revolution, p. 158. 1 Provisional m edia law passed shortly after the revolution m ade it ille gal, for example, to commercialize on a w om an's body through display in advertisements. By Septem ber of 1988, however, the Sandinista Youth or ganized a beauty contest for Nicaraguan women, the first since the revolu tion. The contest dom inated the Nicaraguan press for weeks with pictures of attractive Nicaraguan women smiling in their swimsuits. What is per haps even m ore shocking is that the following year, w om en in AMNLAE even organized to elect a 'queen' of their wom en's organization. As the Right was gearing up to assum e power, pornographic movies began to be screened in Managua's cinem as for the first time since the Triumph, and despite the ban on the com merdalizatlon of women's bodies, these types of ads also reappeared. The reemergence of these phenom ena coincided, ac cording to Collinson, with a "series of disturbing articles in an outraged Sandinista press, about the rape of a Nicaraguan w om an by 100 men in a H onduran Contra camp,'' Collinson, W om en a n d Revolution, pp. 171,191. 2 La Opinidrt (Los Angeles), 8 May 1991, p. 7. 275 m obilizations of Sandinista sym pathizers (reco m p a $ and conflict contin ued to break out sporadically betw een the tw o factions, as well as betw een the recontras and regular arm y forces, still controlled b y the Sandinistas. As has heretofore been the case, the participation of w om en in this political violence has been alm ost entirely as protagonists of the Left A ccording to Randall, th e w om en that she interviewed in Nicaragua "stated again and again that the option of w om en's liberation separate from the revolution w as not a reality in Nicaragua."1 This connection is underscored by the way in which, as the revolution becam e weakened, so did prospects for further progressive gains in gender equality Much of this regression m ust b e blam ed on the cruel assertion by the U S of its hege m ony, and the Nicaraguan Right which generally conform ed its policy ini tiatives to U.S. interests o r directives. It is also im portant to note, however, that the Sandinista leadership has also been heavily criticized, especially by feminists, for their authoritarian and hierarchical style of leadership, nepotism , corruption, etc. There is a m easure of truth to these charges, the Sandinista party becam e a new 'elite' in th e 1980s, profiting to som e extent, from th e revolution. The Sandinista Police have also been guilty of som e repressive actions, on at least one occa sion, for example, firing on a dem onstration of recom pas. As a result of dis content with the Sandinistas, a large section of AMLAE has broken off, forming independent w om en's groups.2 1 Randall, S a n d in o ’ s d a u g h ters, p. ii. 2M argaret Randall, S a n d in o ’ s D aughers R e v isite d (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994). 2 7 b While the Nicaraguan Left, generally speaking, adopts a m ore progres sive stance on women's issues than is the case with their opponents on the Right, this does not m ean that they are not also machista. The continua tion of m a ch ism o in Nicaragua is not, however, entirely the responsibility of men As Marilyn Duarte observed, the m achista vision of women which still exists, "is not just the patrim ony of men. Many times we women transmit it ourselves and at times are even reactionary with respect to wom en's problems, with attitudes that are to ta lm en te m ascuiinizantes (totally masculinizing)."1 Honduras As m entioned above, the role of women in political violence has been less pronounced in the history of Honduras than any of its three neighbors under discussion. Honduras has not seen as much revolutionary and counter revolutionary violence, at least on anything like the scale of what occurred in Guatemala, Nicaragua, or El Salvador. While arm ed guerrilla groups did crop up after the Sandinista victory, especially incensed by the way in which Honduras was used as a base for the Contras, they never 1 Duarte, “La mujer nicaragCtense," p. 34; The im portant role of wom en in political reaction is perhaps m ost clearly represented by the current pres ident V i ole la Chamorro, chosen as candidate by UNO due to her com bined political prom inence as the widow of the editor of La lYcnsa whose assas sination by Somoza was of crucial im portance to the mass uprisings of early 1979 and her strident criticism of the Sandinista regime Her track record, however, leaning towards a political centrism that has em phasized constructive cooperation with the Sandinistas, has earned her much ani mosity from the right wing of her coalition and dem onstrated a pragmatic and realistic attem pt at reconciliation of a deeply polarized political see nario. 277 gained much of a foothold. Subjected to severe persecution by an already om nipotent security system rapidly put into place by the U.S., they w ere all but annihilated. While there is or was a female presence am ong armed revolutionary groups,1 the female role as both victim of counter insur gency violence and as revolutionary com batant, particularly the latter, has been less pronounced As in other Central American countries, the organization of activist women was an outgrowth of organized labor and the Left in general. In 1923 the Sociedad Cultura Feminina (W omen's Culture Society) was formed by radical writer activists Graciela Garcia and Visitacibn Padilla They opened up adult literacy centers, founded a library, and organized women to struggle for popular democracy. Garcia not only inspired a w om en's labor group, La Mujer Hondurefta (The Honduran Woman), but becam e president of the first union congress in 1930. She and Padilla also founded the National Defense Bulletin which sparked popular opposition to the intervention of the U.S. Marines in 1924.2 An ardent feminist, G arda argued for the need for wom en to develop independent econom ic pow er in order to have their rights properly re spected. For her, feminism m eant the rejection of exploitation, and, since 1 Melba Reyes, "Situacibn de la Mujer en Honduras," D ocum entor sabre la mujer, vol. 5, ed. Centro de Investigatibn de la Realidad de America Latina, October December, 198$ p. 36. 2Mario Posas, Las so d ed a d es artesanales y los aiigjnes del m avim ienta abrera h o n d u ren o(Tegucigalpa: ESP Editorial, 1978), p. Iff; Nancy Peckenham and Annie Street, "Women: Honduras' Marginalized Majority," in Honduras: Portrait o f a C aptive Nation, ed. Nancy Peckenham and Annie Street (New York: Praeger, 1985), p 237, 278 capitalism and exploitation walked hand in hand, only socialism could bring equality to th e sexes. As she saw it, therefore, a true feminist had to be a socialist. A fervent advocate of education, she argued that the state had an obligation to provide education irrespective of gender and social class, and she saw education as key to the am elioration of w om en's oppression.1 In May of 1944 she helped organize w om en's participation in the dem onstra tions attem pting to get the dictator Cartas to free political prisoners and in July, another dem onstration dem anding his resignation. The dictator vio lently broke up th e rally, as m entioned in the previous chapter, impris oned the women, destroyed the W om en's Culture Society, and sent Carcia into exile.2 By the late !970s, cam pesina w om en had begun to organize them selves in large num bers to petition for their rights. The H onduran Federation of Feasant W om en (FEHMUC), one of the few female peasant organizations in Latin America, w as form ed in 1978. Growing out of rural housewives' clubs originally sponsored by the Church through its social service organi zation CAR1TAS, FEHMUC stayed independent from the Church because of the way in which it had retreated by that tim e from its previous em pha sis on social program s and political self help groups. By the late 1980s, 1 Graciela Garcia, P&ginas d e lucha ( Tegucigalpa: Editorial Guaymuras, 1981), p. 67ff; Graciela Garcia, / ’ o r la su p era d d n d e la ed u ca tio n en M exico (Mexico: Costa Amic, 1971), p. 20ff; She extolled the virtues of Cuba's re form s and its ability to survive despite the U.S. sponsored aggression. Graciela Garda, Personalidades cd eb res d e Am erica: Ensayos biogrdficos (M6xico: Costa Amic, 1964), pp. 193 195. ^Peckenham an d Street, "W omen: H onduras' M arginalized Majority," p, 237; Liss, R adical Thought in C entral A m erica, p. 110. 279 FEHMUC com prised nearly 300 different w om en's groups. A left leaning faction split off in 1987 and founded the Council for Integrated D evelopm ent of Peasant W om en (CODIMCA) which organized 4,500 w om en in 150 groups in the N ortheastern part of the country.1 As in H I Salvador and Guatemala, H onduras also developed groups com prised primarily of w om en to protest the disappearances of their loved ones, m ost prom inently the Com m ittee for Detained and D isappeared Family M em bers (CO FADEH) begun in 1981 by Zenaida Velasquez, after her brother, a labour activist, disappeared. She w as prom ptly fired from her governm ent job and continually harassed; h er organization held regular vigils close to the presidential palace throughout the 1980s. They becam e very vocal, boldly calling attention to the disappearances with respect to both governm ent and m edia.2 As with Centra] Am erican feminists in general, H onduran feminists in the tradition of Garcia and Padilla argue that, w ithout forgetting th e specific problem s of wom en, feminism m ust have a m ultidim ensional character which seeks the elevation of the m asses in general, in term s of general liv ing standards and political freedoms, and that this is an inextricable part of 11nlcrHcmispheric Education Resource Center, D irectory a n d A nalysis. Private O rganizations w ith U S C onnections H onduras { A lbuquerque N. Mex.: 'Ihe Resource Center, 1988), pp. 5ff; Elvia Alvarado, D on't tie A fra id Cringo. A H onduran W om an Speaks From th e Heart, trans. and ed. M edea Benjamin (San Francisco: Food First Books, 1987), p. 17; C entral A m erica Report, 29 O ctober 1987. 2 Alison Acker, H onduras: The M aking o f a Banana R epublic (Boston South End Press, 1988), p. 103 Bsta Tierra N uestra, second trim ester 1992, p. 50 28 0 the feminist program . The Visitaci6n radii la Com m ittee strongly protested the U.S. military buildup and Contra presence as well as petitioning the National Congress to pass laws establishing severe legal penalties for vio lence against w om en.1 O ne m em ber, Ana Murillo, touring the U.S. in 19H7, described their task as one of "creating an environm ent which allows w om en to stop being solely m achines to wash clothes and m ake tortillas" and their militancy as "a response of the people to the conversion of our country into a garbage dump.'4 El Salvador Structures of exploitation confronting Salvadoran w om en have been challenged only by the Left, with w om en, organized as wom en, standing at the forefront of this opposition. Their resistance and rebellion, often culmi nating in violence, has historically represented a m ost critical im petus for progressive social change. To cite just one graphic example, when govern m ent forces fired on a dem onstration of m arket w om en in the capital city on February 23,1921, according to Dalton: ... far from being cow ed b y this event, the m arket w om en picked up their dead and w ounded, arm ed them selves with stones, sticks, and knives and counter attacked. They even took over the small police station in the El Calvario district, the nearest to the main market, and executed a num ber of the constables w ho had taken part in the m assacre The w om en w ho worked in the ^Tom Barry and Ken Norsworthy, H onduras A C ountry Guide, (Albuquerque, N.Mex.: Inter Hemispheric Education Resource Center, 1990), p. 94. 2 H onduras U pdate (Boston), May 1987. 2 8 1 butchers' section distinguished them selves the m ost during that very special battle.1 The willingness of Salvadoran w om en to take up arms and kill in self d e fense has played a key role in the progress of the revolution and the extent to which female pow er has been enhanced through that process While not generally em broiled in violent confrontation to this extent, women of the marketplace continued, throughout the century, to be som e of the best organized and politically active w om en in the country, strug g)ing to realize and defend their rights and autonomy. 'I*hey have contin ued to resist dom ination by exploitative governm ent bureaucrats who, ac cording to a com m unique from the Association of Market W omen (ASUTRAMES) of 1979, "act in the interests of the financial oligarchy and Yankee imperialism ” Frequently, they have been on the front lines of con flict. After the m urder of Archbishop Romero in March of 1980, for exam pie, AUSTRAMES supported the prayer vigil in the Farque Libertad in San Salvador. In retaliation, a death squad show ed up at the San Jacinto Market on April 9. They entered the market, broke up a m eeting and "beat every one brutally and captured five p eo p le" One of them, Ana Eugenia, 18 years old at the time, was kept for ten days and taken to a secret prison where she was, according to her testimony, “ raped over and over again by forcing the barrel of a gun into m e" By March of 1982, after the decapita tion of m ost of the leadership, the organization was forced to go under 1 Roque Dalton, M iguct M drm otlSan Jos6: EDUCA, 1982). 282 ground w here it rem ained active, "channelling supplies to the controlled [by the rebelsl zones"1 Female participation in the revolution of 1932 was extensive. What has been recorded about it, however, is limited. History is written by the victors and survivors; the extermination of those who rose in revolt, in this case, was so com plete that little information concerning the character and cir cumstances of these desperately brave men and women has com e down to us. As the slaughter subsided in the days and weeks following the insurrcc tion, the terror remained, the lucky survivors understandably quite reti cent to speak out, provide testimony, or record history; m ost were illiterate anyway. We d o know, however, that w om en mobilized alongside their revolutionary menfolk, som e of them in com batant and even leadership roles. 'I'hey not only took part in this rebellion but som e even went to Nicaragua to fight the U.S. marines along with Sandino's forces. In H I Salvador they form ed Oampesina W omen's com m ittees to provide sup port to the insurgent forces.2 Several accounts mention, without providing any further details, a woman called Red Julia, undoubtedly her n o m d e guerre, who led the rebel forces in their retreat from Sonsonate.3 Grandm other in spirit to the fe male com m andantes of the FMLN who would later lead rebel forces into 1 Marilyn Thompson, W om en o f B Salvador The Price o f freed o m , (London: Zed Books, 1986), pp. 68 70. 2lbid„ p. 7 3See, for example, Robert Armstrong and Janet Shenk, B Salvador The Face o f R evolution (Boston: South End Press, 1982), p. 28. 283 and out of battle throughout the 1980s, she rem ains an im portant symbol, the details of her life shrouded in the sm oke of genocide. According to Miguel M drmol (who survived a firing squad by playing d ead and later crawling out from under the bodies), w om en provided crucial support after the governm ent m assacre. Many of them helped heal the w ounded, hiding c o m p a fie m s and transporting militants of the battered Com m unist Party. H undreds of anonym ous w om en helped with the reconstruction of the Party, which had lost its principal directors but "continued strong in the struggle."1 W om en's opposition political groups began to organize early on. In 1947, the Salvadoran f em inine League w as form ed, a civic organization which defended the rights of w om en and children and militated for female suffrage which they w on in 1950. In 1956 the Fraternity of Salvadoran W om en (FMS) w as organized with the support of the labor m ovem ent and the Com m unist Party although the governm ent denied it legal recogni tion. By 1970 the Com m ittee of Labor Union W om en originated, later be com ing the A ssociation of Progressive W om en of El Salvador (AMPES) that participated in th e W orld Congress of W om en in the German D em ocratic Republic, grouping together millions of w om en from "dem ocratic and socialist" countries.2 1CEMUJER (Centro d e Fstudios d c la Mujer "N onna Virginia Cuirola d e Herrera"), N orm a; vida insurge n tc y fem inist a (San Salvador: UCA, 1992), p 57 2lbid„ pp. 58, 59,138. 284 The com m unist based FMS concerned itself not only with women's rights but the rights of the working classes in general. As one m em ber re called, other wom en's groups at the time "only m et to play poker, canasta and generally show off." One of the leading organizers, Liliam Jim6nez, wrote the first publication ever on the oppression of Salvadoran women, published in Mexico in 1961, it was banned in H I Salvador. She recalls how militant and involved the FMS becam e in the defense of workers' rights: We helped as best we could. Sometimes even in fights, throwing stones and other things against the security forces w ho cam e to break up the picket lines or arrest the trade union leaders. When our Party Secretary General, Salvador Cayetano Carpio, started a hunger strike for a wage raise for the bakers we helped out. We kept guard against the security forces and helped in the commu nal kitchen which was set up for the support committee.! There has long been a symbiotic relationship between Salvadoran femi nism and the Salvadoran Left. W om en often assum ed vanguard positions, even literally speaking in the militant opposition. In 1961, for example, when the progressive Junta that deposed Coronel Lemus w as overthrown, m em bers of a dem onstration on the streets of the capital with women in its front lines was attacked by the National Guard, "first they were badly beaten then the Guard opened fire wounding m any women and killing one.2 By the 1970s, Salvadoran feminism had developed in unique and pow erful ways which focused on concerns over patterns of exploitation which 1 Cited in Thompson, W om en o f /;7 Salvador, pp. 93 94. 2CEMUJER, Norma, pp. 138 139. 285 effected both w om en and men, thereby incorporating m any m en into ac tivist agendas which included feminist concerns. One exam ple of this soli daiity w as the National Teachers' Union (ANDES) a m ajority of m em bers where female but it also included m any m en which staged a protest march in 1975 against the Miss Universe beauty contest held in San Salvador, crit icizing "the w ay in which the m ass m edia portray women." As a represen tative recalled: "We participated as part of the m ass political m ovem ent against exploitation in our country. We o p p o sed the m achista attitudes that the beauty contest prom oted and argued that w om en w ere being used to di vert the attention of m en and w om en from the social and econom ic dilem m as of our country."1 Even prior to the developm ent of large scale, arm ed resistance, feminist dem ands w ere seen as inseparable from the m ore general clam or for justice and an end to international exploitation em anating from the popular sectors. W om en played key roles in both the guerrilla and the political opposi tion. Of particular note in the latter category is the Com ite d e M adres y Familiares d e Eresos, D esaparecidos y A sesinados 1 ’ oliticos de El Salvador, M onseflor O scar Amulfo Rom ero (com m itte of m others and family m em bers of prisoners and those who disappeared or w ere assassinated for politi cal reasons, nam ed in honor of the m artyred archbishop C0MADRES), founded in 1977 by 12 m others at a Christmas Eve supper hosted by Romero. With his assassination in 1980, they b ecam e increasingly militant; after being dislodged from a public vigil in the capital city's main square, 1 Cited in Thom pson, IVomen o f £7 Salvador, p. 77. 2 8 0 they occupied the offices of the Ministry of Justice until they w ere forcibly rem oved. Hy 1981 the death squads published a statem ent claiming they would cut off the head of every Com m ittee m em ber. O ne w as killed shortly thereafter, several others w ere later captured or disappeared. Hy late 1981, the repression of popular m ovem ents had becom e so vicious that COMADRES w as the only group with sufficient fortitude to continue to openly o p p o se the governm ent's policies. The "struggle of the streets" w as virtually abandoned due to the ferocity of the repression but w hen street protests began to return to the city with the anniversary of Rom ero's assas sination on March 23,1983, COMADRES w as in the front lines.1 The m acho Salvadoran military has often show n little chivalry w hen confronted b y w om en in street protests. As late as January of 1989, for ex ample, troops of the 1st Infantry Brigade fired on a dem onstration of 150 w om en from a p o o r b a m o of the capital w ho w ere protesting the forced re cruitm ent of their teenage sons into the army. The leaders of the far right Republican National Alliance (ARENA-founded by the intellectual author of the A rchbishop's assassination) that w on the elections of March 1989 (boycotted by the rebels) consistently w arned that all popular protests and strikes w ould b e m et with military force.2 1 Thom pson, W om en o f El Salvador, p. 109; New A m ericas Press, ed, A D ream C om pels Us. Voices o f Salvadoran W om en, with a Preface by Grace Paley (Boston: South End Press, 1989), p. 29; Marfa Cortina, El S a lva d o r m em oria Intacta (Mexico: Geminis Editorial, 1992), p. 130. ^N ew Am ericas Press, A D ream C om pels Us: p p 18 19. 287 The oligarchy of the early 1960s sought to maintain a m onopoly on po litical pow er through the formation of the National Conciliation Party (PCN), form ed as the 'official' party, it went on to "win” the elections oi 1962,1967,1972, and 1977. As an increasingly virulent repression coupled with blatant electoral fraud and intimidation closed the door on the m ea ger am ount of political space and freedom that had been achieved prior to that time, it becam e increasingly obvious that their was simply no space left for peaceful political opposition. The seeds of the first guerrilla m ovem ent began to form within an outlawed and divided Communist party resulting in a schism between those opting for revolutionary violence as the only vi able alternative and those who still hoped for change through electoral processes (ironically, the Moscow line). The guerrilla organization develop ing from this schism becam e known by the late 1960s as the Popular Liberation Forces (FPL). In 1971 the Revolutionary Army of the People (ERP) was formed, its m em bers coming principally from Christian I3emocrat and Social Democrat youth organizations.1 Arm strong and Shenk estim ated female participation in the FPL in 1980 at 40%. According to the Central America Information Office, by 1982, wom en constituted 40% of the Revolutionary Council of the FDR, the po litical wing of the guerrilla umbrella group FMLN. In the political organi zations linked to each of the guerrilla forces, women consistently repre sented nearly one half of the m em bership. While the central com m and of the FMLN, com posed of one com m ander from each of the five guerrilla or 1 Pablo Gonzales Casanova, coord., Historia politico d c lo s cam pesinos latinoam ericanos (Mexico: Siglo Veintiuno, 1985), p. 82. 288 ganizations, included no women, their w as a fem ale presence in the high com m and of four out of five of these individual organizations. Of the twelve m em bers of the directorate of the guerrilla ERP, for example, four were wom en. For the FMLN overall, about 50% of the leadership w as m ade u p of wom en, and the rank and file w as about 40% female. According to Lobao: "Middle class w om en, in particular teachers and stu dents, w ere the first to b e draw n into politico military organizations in the late 1960s. Rural working w om en soon followed. In the late 1970s, urban workers entered th e struggle."1 Although at first w om en w ere assigned to logistic support rather than com bat roles, that steadily changed until, by 1984, approxim ately one quar ter of the com batants in the zones under popular control were women. M ost of these w om en w ere m em bers of mixed com panies but som e all fe male com panies were organized such as the Peletbn Silvia form ed in D ecem ber of 1981, directed by the late C om m andante Ileana (falling in com bat in 1984) w ho joined the Fuerzas A rm adas d e Uberactfm (FAL) at 17 The w om en of her battalion are m ost fam ous for their defense of the Cerro Mala Cara in February of 1982 when they forced the com bined forces of the U.S. trained Ramon Belloso and Atlacdtl battalions into retreat. According to Ileana, the enem y becam e particularly dem oralized when they realized that it w as a unit of w om en behind the line of fire making them retreat: 1 A rm strong and Shenk, 7h e Face o f R evolution, p. 32; Ana Isabel Garcia and Enrique Gomarlz, M uje, es centm am ericanas, vol. 2, F fectos d el confiicto (San Jos6: Fiasco, 1989), pp. 92 96; New Am ericas Press, A D ream C om pels Us, p. I ll; Lobao, "W om en in Revolutionary Movements," p. 198. 289 m em bers of Ram on Belloso yelled over to those of Atlacatl attacking on the left flank to "move forward1 ' that "they are w om en that are in that line of fire," and m em bers of Atlacatl responded "you guys go forward, because it is not sw eets that they are shooting" After the successes of the Sylvia Battalion, several o th er all female fighting forces took shape within other divisions of the FMLN.1 C om m andante Nidia Diaz recounts in her m em oirs an attack on a training center n ear La Union, the C entro de Entrenam iento Militar d e la Fuerza A rm ada (CEMFA), w here US. advisors trained elite battalions such as Atonal, Arce, etc. It was created in 1984 after CREM (Centro Regional de Entrenam iento Militar) was closed dow n in Puerto Castilla, Honduras. The attack on the center was successful, according to Diaz, because it resulted in 272 enem y casualties and the "recuperation" of vast supplies of military equipm ent (with the insignias of the U.S. army). W hat Diaz lam ents is that none of the group of ten U.S. advisors stationed there w ere present at the time of attack because she described th e "principal objective of the mission" as their "capture o r annihilation."2 As m entioned above, the w om en's m ovem ent had been gaining steam throughout the late 1970s through the A ssociation of Progressive W om en of El Salvador (AMPES). Founded in 1975 out of the ranks of the Com m unist Party, it focused its efforts on the labor organization of work ing wom en. With the split that occurred in th e party resulting in the guer 1 Thom pson, W om en o f El Salvador, p. 128; CEMUJER, N orm a, p. 70 ^Nidia Diaz, N unca e stu ve so la (San Salvador UCA Editores, 1988), p p 204 205. 2<)() rilla IT I, the W om en's Association of H I Salvador (AMHSJ w as founded through that organization in 1978. Due to its affiliation with the revolu tionary m ovem ent, it w as forced underground by the repression of 1979 81. During the 1980s o th er w om en's associations w ere form ed by other revolu tionary groups unified under the FMLN. By 1987, five w om en's groups had b eco m e unified in the Union of Salvadoran W om en for Liberation "Melida Anaya Montes." While these groups generally operated only un dergm und outside of the liberated zones', by the late 1980s, som e groups or ca m isio n es fem in in a ssuch as the National Coordinating Com m ittee of Salvadoran W om en (CONAMDS), founded in 1987, reappeared in the gov em m ent controlled regions of the country as well.1 W om en played a m ajor role in health care as it developed in the zones of control. As th e w ar dragged on, this system achieved several m onum en tal trium phs given its low level of resources. It is notew orthy that even abortion facilities (illegal in the rest of the country) were m ade available to w om en in som e areas. Most of those responsible for basic medical and health care w ere women, divided into resp a n sa b les and sanitarias. The re sp o n sa b fes generally had som e official medical training som e w ere medi cal and nursing students at the National University when it was closed down by the military in 1981. They trained the less skilled sanitarias in a broad array of health care tasks ranging from building latrines to rem oving pieces of m etal shrapnel from the skin. It w as very dangerous work since the military always regarded rebel hospitals as primary targets for land and 1 New Am ericas Press, A D ream C om pels Us, pp. 75 76. 2 9 1 air attacks. Even foreign medical personnel working in rebel controlled ter ritory w ere far from sp a red Mexican physician A lejandra Bravo, for exam pie, after being captured in February 1990, w as gang-raped, tortured, and fi nally m achine gunned at close ran g e1 After 1984, the FMLN increasingly integrated both w om en and m en into all aspects of its "people's war," with alm ost all com batants taking turns in kitchen duty and other "political chores with the people," al though alm ost all w ere trained and ready for com bat. It becam e com m on for the w ounded to receive care from m ale as well as female nurses, the w ounded com plained, however, that the m ale nurses did not have as sen sitive a touch or as am iable a disposition as the female nurses.2 At first, m en resisted the incorporation of w om en into com bat positions, particu larly w hen they w ere prom oted into positions of authority over them. On num erous occasions, wom en becam e squad leaders and faced a possible re jection from an all male squad. This resentm ent or discrim ination w as largely overcom e through dialogue betw een these m en and fem ale leaders of the FMLN, supported by m en w ho "understood w om en's issues"3 As Karen Lievens recounts, the exam ple of female co m m a n d a n tes went a long w ay to mitigating the m achista attitudes of male rebels w ho "felt a grand adm iration for w om en like Qelia, Maria, Luisa, and Mariana, w ho 1 Thom pson, W om en o f El Salvador, p. 129; New Am ericas Press, A D ream C om pels Us, p. 188, Cortina, El S a lva d o r M em oria intacta, p. 168. 2Salvadoran W om en's Union "Melida Anaya Montes," "El Salvador Is Winning," July A ugust 1988, p. 3. 3New America's Press, A D ream C om pels Us, p. 104. 292 together with their male colleagues, shouldered the responsibility of the conduct of the w ar" She testifies that there w ere num erous exam ples of co m p a s w ho had formerly been "m ujenegos (ladies' m en1 o r philander ers), drunks, and crooks," w ho had becom e "good revolutionaries" and w ere able to give up their form er vices. She cites the exam ple of one m em b er of the rebel forces w ho persisted in his 'anti revolutionary* w ays and w as expelled from the ranks.1 According to the testim ony of one male guerrilla, the "process of com ing to see w om en as com pafieras and not as sex objects" w as one he and his fellow guerrillas had had to go through in the m ountains. In his particular unit, two thirds of the com batants w ere women. There w as great concern, h e said, "to destroy m achism o"2 Interviews with female com m anders of the FMLN reveal a com m on portrait of nearly com plete equality betw een m en and w om en in the revo lutionary effort. According to Ana Maria (Melida Anaya M ontes) second in com m and of the FPL* from the beginning the FPL militated in both theory and practice for the full incorporation of w om en into all facets of the revo lutionary effort. This included the participation of the co m p a fiera s in child care, including the changing of diapers, an art that m any w ere forced to learn only in the revolutionary context. The extensive nature of gender equality with respect to child care led her to declare that "it is not contradic 1 Lievens relocated along with her com pafiero, a physician, from Belgium to work in the controlled zones. He w as killed when the hospital where h e w as working w as bom bed, she survived to write their story. Karen Lievens, El quin to p tso d e la alegria Tres a fto s con la guerrilla (El Salvador Ediciones Radio Venceremos, 1988), pp. 126 130. 2Lobao, "W om en in Revolutionary M ovements," p. 198. 293 tory to b e a m other [and a revolutionary]." C om m andante Nidia adm itted that there is a difference between theory and practice and that the cultural attitudes which the revolutionaries brought to their respective organiza tions lingered on. As Ana Maria put it, "you cannot destroy m achism o in a few days, but it is disappearing1 1 1 Incorporation in rebel organizations resulted in new found levels of in dependence and dignity for m any women. As a 15 year old peasant girl de scribed the m am m oth changes wrought in her life and her understanding of the 'woman's role' that accom panied her departure from hom e to join the guerrilla It has been difficult for m e to incorporate myself into the g u er rilla. I practically had to escape from hom e to be with the units because in my region people believed that girls would escape from their hom es only to marry. Upon arriving here my life has changed, because I assum ed 'men's affairs': a rifle, prepare and pick the harvest, sleep in the m ountains, participate in the m eet ings saying what you feel. That, in my town, w as only allowed to m en. Salvador's m asses were not quick to resort to insurrectionary violence, women in particular. A Belgian priest, Father Poncelee, who served as a chaplain to the FMLN, testified that the option of violence was resisted or discounted in favor of non violent resistance until the time of the in creased repression under military dictator Romero in 1978. He recounts how he and his flock listened to a recording of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in English while they followed a Spanish transla tion In print. It was the women who where the m ost against violence, 1 Claribel Alegiia and D. J. Flakoll, N o m e agarran viva: La m ujer sal vadorefta en la luchaiSan Salvador UCA Editores, 1992), pp. 82 87. 294 "very closed" to the idea. A principled position of non violence cam e to be seen as m ore and m ore contradictory with the reality of the situation, how ever, as w om en found them selves d eep er and deeper involved in aiding their com pafieras in clandestine m ovem ents who had arm ed them selves1 Resorting to violence or working on behalf of revolutionary organiza tions which practiced violence was, for many, an ultimate result of one’ s love for the poor. Salvador’s revolution is/w as a profoundly Christian one, and Christian motifs ran deep in revolutionary praxis. The assassina tion of the beloved Archbishop Romero in the defense of his people served to drive many Christians into full participation with revolutionary organi zations. One particularly prom inent example of the way in which Christian soli darity and love for the poor converged in the revolutionary spirit of the Salvadoran woman is to be found in the life and death of Sylvia Maribel Arriola, considered to be the first m onja guerrilJera o r guerrilla nun in the m artyrology of Latin America. Silvia, "the w om an of the smile," was Romero's personal secretary for many years prior to his murder. The order which she joined sprang from the Christian base com m unities of San Salvador and was canonically approved by the Archbishop with the nam e Religiosas para el FUeblo (Religious for the People). Arriola was part of a group of three young women in a prestigious convent in San Salvador, all of whom underwent great changes in their religious perspective, develop ing an increasing solidarity with the poor, ultimately causing the three of 1 Marta Lopez Vigil, ed , M uerte y vida en M orazon Testfm onio d e un sacerdote (San Salvador UCA Editores, 1987), p. 30. 295 them to reject the "tranquility of the convent" and join the people's insur rection. Arriola w orked as a nurse for the rebel arm y in the Santa Ana front until she w as killed in 1981 at the m assacre of Cutum ay Cam ones. Father Poncelee recounts that they "worked miracles" and com m anded a great deal of respect from the men, "so macho, with such m achista cus tom s."1 After Arriola's m urder, other m o n ja s guerrifleras m aintained a presence in the liberated zones. A nother prom inent religious, known as Sister Rosa, w as in charge of the educational system in large parts of the rebel controlled territory. She considered herself a guerriltera, "in the sense that we are in a w ar occupy ing a com bat p o st" She added: following religious vow taken by Arriola, "Promise of Fidelity," is illustrative of th e level of com m itm ent to the p o o r found am ong m any Salvadoran Christians, com bining traditional m otifs with what becam e radical political com m itm ents in Salvador's tum ultuous context: "Faced with a society that lives the ideals of power, possession, and pleasure, I w ant to be a sign of what it really m eans to love; that Christ is the only Lord of history, that he is present in the m idst of us and he is capable of en gendering a love that is stronger than the instincts and death; stronger than all econom ic powers. I desire to live a life of searching and following Christ, poor, chaste, and obedient to the will of the Father, in o rd er to live only for him and his salvific work. I prom ise to b e loyal to the Lord; in health and in sickness, in youth and old age, in tranquility and in persecu tion, in happiness and in sadness, in his incarnation in the m ost poor, be ing p o o r and in solidarity with them in their struggle for their liberation; participating in his evangelical m ission am ong men, concentrating all of m y em otional capacity, in him and In all of the brothers, living in a con tinual search for the will of the Father through his W ord, in his Church, and as a sign of the tim es am ong the poor." Secretariado Cristiano de Solidaridad M onsignor O scar A Romero, La Jglesia Salvadorena, lucha, re flcxsona, y canta (Clandestine publication: 1989), p 83; Lopez Vigil, M u erte y vida en M orazon, p. 30; lnstituto Historico Centroam ericano, La sangre p o r e lp u e b to [ Managua: Centro de Capitacibn Social, 1983), pp. 20,32. 29(> All struggle against injustice is war. The act of giving classes to those w ho are denied this right to know, is a struggle against the injustice of illiteracy. But, m ore concretely, I consider myself a guerrillera because we are all struggling against the system which oppresses the im poverished w ho they have never perm itted to go to school, not even to learn the first few letters. She explained that her decision to join the guerrilla w as influenced at least in part by the repression which m ade h er fear for her life and m ade her ed ucational work alm ost im possible to pursue.1 Many fem ale activists in El Salvador shied away from calling them selves 'feminists' o r fem inistas, which they saw a s defining a "m ovem ent of w om en in m ore privileged societies to gain equal rights within the exist ing econom ic and political structures of that society" Rather, they defined their prim ary goal as "participation in the struggle to create a better society for all Salvadorans" For many, their class interests transcended those of gender A s one activists declared, "We seek the liberation of our countries from imperialism, dictatorship an d th e local bourgeoisie-although we work sim ultaneously around the question of th e specific condition of w om en and our oppression within th e capitalist and patriarchal system."2 W om en have always been excluded from the ranks of the Salvadoran A rm ed Forces. By the late 1980s, however, in realization of the propagan distic value of the feminine presence, the military organized an exclusively fem ale unit "Las Panteras," com prised of 600 wom en, according to Garcia and Gomarfz, "for im age reasons" The military also paid young w om en to 1 Secratariado Crisliano, La Iglesia Salvadorena, pp. 85-86. ^N ew Am ericas Press, A D ream C o m p els Us, pp. 78, 82, 297 b e orejas or 'ears/ romancing rebel com batants w ho cam e to their villages to buy supplies, for example, and recruited women to join the guerrillas as secret informers o r double agents. They em ployed hundreds of women who participated in torture, psychological warfare, and general counter in surgency intelligence.1 In the sum m er of 1989, the new ARENA governm ent m ade great fan fare over inviting Salvador's "business women" to fancy gatherings where they were pressured to join the Party. ARENA had m ade its position on wom en's rights quite clear that sam e sum m er with the passage of the new "Family Act" which forbade women to organize themselves as women on the grounds that it would "interfere with family unity, encourage wom en to neglect household duties, lead to the abandonm ent of children, and fos ter marital infidelity." One clause in the bill adm onished women "to be faithful even in their thoughts as well as their actions.^ According to Thompson: "A surprising num ber of ARENA voters are female," and "they certainly regard Hitler as a hero." M ein K am pf is available in all the bookshops of the larger shopping centers of San Salvador."3 At a "monthly tea" of the women's section of ARENA in April 1983, amidst singing of the party anthem and shouting party slogans such as 1 Ana Isabel Garcia and Enrique Gomarlz, M ujeres centm am ericanas, vol. 2, Efectos d el co n flicto iSan Jos6: Fiasco, 1989), p. 95; New Americas Press, p. 200. ^CISPES (Committee in Solidarity With the People of E l Salvador), Alert, Septem ber 1989, p. 7. ^Thompson, W om en o f El Salvador, pp. 91 92. 298 'Fatherland yes Com m unism no,' ARENA Congressional Deputy, Gloria Salguero Gross testified (in what T hom pson refers to as "Fuhrer fervor") that: "We w om en are with our leader he is o u r greatest cause, his charisma, his strength, his bravery, his goodness, all offered to us women. M ajor d'A ubuisson (party founder and death squad m asterm ind) is a true Salvadoran." The analogy betw een Nazism and ARENA could not hardly have been m ore explicitly drawn at that gathering than by the Secretary for W orkers' Affairs w ho proclaim ed that: We have to save the country. Two system s are confronting us just like 1932. They have co opted the teachers and are using the pulpits of the Church. We have to protect th e right of everyone to build their own private business We hope that all young w om en, wives, sisters, daughters, will help us in explaining the dangers of Com m unism It's the final challenge. W e aren't w or ried about the elections next year which we will surely win but what d o es worry us, are the thousand years afterwards. A thou sand years of ARENA as the governing party is no false illusion, just as it w as no illusion o n the part of Hitler to think that the Reich could last for that lo n g 1 The way in which fascism and its very special treatm ent of w om en ("communist" w om en in particular) outlived the Reich, has been esp e dally evident with the Salvadoran Right. Salvador's establishm ent elites, represented by the leaders of Arena, have always been opposed to femi nism, which dovetails with their adm iration for German fascism.2 llbid. 2From the outset, fascism w as directly and incontrovertibly o p p o sed to feminism and the female quest for greater autonom y. For H itler "The m essage of w om an's em ancipation is a m essage discovered solely by the Jewish intellect and its content is stam ped with the sam e spirit." Gottfried Feder, one of the Nazi party's founding ideologues proclaim ed that: "The Jew has stolen w om an from us through the forms of sex dem ocracy. We 299 The resolution of the Salvadoran conflict through U.N. brokered peace accords culminating in the elections of March, 1994, was claimed as a vie tary by the Left which sees itself has having conquered democracy. As ex pressed by one of the six Jesuit martyrs, the negptiated settlement to the war represented, "perhaps for the first time in Salvadoran history, that the opinion of the papular majorities will have to b e listened to and taken into consideration."1 The extent to which opposition social agendas will be able to use the dem ocratic space opened up by the revolution and its resolution in effective ways, however, largely remains to be see. According to Com m ander Nidia Diaz of the FMLN, the peace accords are opening up space in which to struggle for a greater role for women with respect to labor legislation, access to credit, the new National Civil Police, and the political process in general which is undergoing a substantial de mocratization.2 The FMLN had to fight for the right of women to becom e part of the new civilian police force (PNC) one of the cornerstone achievem ents of the negotiations--which the governm ent delegation the youth, m ust m arch out to kill the dragon so that we may again attain the m ost holy thing in the world, the w om an as maid and servant." Goth quoted by Kate Millet, Sexual Politics (London: Virago, 1985), p. 163. For O tto Welninger, a German philosopher w ho Hays describes as "pre Nazi," the feminist m ovem ent represented, "a transform ation from m otherhood to prostitution ... far m ore w hore em ancipation than woman-em ancipa tion," the result of which, he argued, would be the "predominance of the sluttish elem ent in woman." Quoted in H R Hays, The [Jangem us S e x The M yth o f Fem inine Evil (London: M ethuen and Co., 1966), p. 5. 1 Cited by Salvador Carranza, ed., MArtires d e fa UCA (San Salvador UCA Fditores, 1992), p. 66. 2Q uoted in A ltem ativa (San Salvador), 1 Decem ber 1992, p. 6. 300 strongly resisted.1 As pointed out by the wom en of the National Revolutionaiy M ovement of El Salvador (MNR) allied with the FMLN (now a political party) it is imperative that policy b e developed which guarantees women access to land to work on their own as well as access to credit, technical assistance, etc They envision a new Salvadoran society in which this can take place, a system which they call dem ocratic socialism.2 G u atem ala The rich have alw ays treated us Indians as p eo p le w ho are crazy, w ho can't think. They think o f Indians as animals, who don't have th e capacity to le a n and th e capacity to becom e con sc io u s.... A t first the arm y p ersecu ted o n ly men. They never p a id a n y attention to th e w om en th e y thought w e w ere invisible Bui th e y discovered that the w om en w ere o rganized... The g o vernm ent is m assacring us because we're organizing a n d rising u p . W e have great h o p e that w e will arrive in p o w er and ere ate a n ew Guatemala. Manuela Saquic, a 17 year old bdl woman.3 There is a long tradition of anti imperialist rebellion in Guatemala which extends back to the arrival of Pedro d e Alvarado and his men. While indigenous civilizations w ere broken by the slaughter, disease, and slavery that accom panied the Conquest, the m em ory of their former dig nity lived on and rebellions have taken place periodically ever since. 1Turcios, Mauricio. 'La Policfa Nacional Civil: suefto de la dem ocracia en El Salvador,' Esta Tierra N uestra (Mexico), no. 6, second trim ester 1992, p. 58. 2-Diario Latino { San Salvador), 8 March 1993, p. 10. 3Cited in Dunayevskaya, Rosa L uxem burg p. 55, 301 M em bers of the Guatemalan resistance claim that rebellion has always characterized G uatem ala's indigenous peoples, that there have been hun dreds of insurrections, part of a history that is not fully known because it has not been acknow ledged by 'official' history. They see the revolutionary m ovem ent of the last few decades, therefore, as representing an unbroken - continuity of resistance dating from the original Conquest.1 A ccording to Rolando MorAn, m em ber of the General C om m and of the guerrilla um brella group, Guatem alan National Revolutionary Union (URNG), the guerrilla is fighting for the legal recognition of the identities of indigenous peoples, which has been staunchly resisted by the governm ent in its peace negotiations with the rebels,2 Revolutionary m ovem ents in Guatem ala 1 M ondragon lists the m ajor insirrections as occurring in 174311760, 1764,1813,1820,1905, and 1971. Rafael M ondragon, D e indios y cristianos en G uatem ala (Mexico CO PEC/ CECOPE, 1983), p. 20; Jonas and Tobis put the list including m ajor local rebellions at 1708,1743,1760,1764,1770,1803, 1817,1820,1838,1839,1898, and 1905. Susanne Jonas and David Tobis, G uatem ala (Berkeley, Calif.: N orth Am erican Congress on Latin America, 1974), p. 30; Indigenous leaders cite, for exam ples,",.. the battles of the K'ich£s y Kakchiqueles following 1524, that of the M ames headed by Caibil Balam, and hundreds of other cases after 1700, the resistance of the M ames in ExtahuacAn, the uprising in Santa Lucia, of the Kakchikeles in TecpAn, the resistance of the Kekchis in CobAn, and m any others after 1800, the struggles and uprisings in San Martin Cuchum atanes, Santiago M om ostenango, IxtahuacAn, CobAn with Manuel Tot, TotonicapAn with A tan ad o Tzul y Lucas Aguilar, Jumay, San Juan Ixcoy and hundreds of others— In 1944, the uprising of Cakchiqueles in Patzida " N oticias d e G uatem ala (M6xico), No. 204, O ctober 1992, p. 33. 2Ralf Leonhard, "lnvolucrar a la so d e d a d dvil en el diAlogo; entrevista con Rolando MorAn, m iem bro d e la C om andancia General d e la URNG," Esta Tierra N u estra t Mexico), no. 7, third trim ester 1992, p. 59. 302 have always counted on the support of w om en w hose participation has been of intrinsic im portance. H ector A queche Juarez, w ho w rote his final thesis for an advanced de gree in Law and Social Sciences at the National University of Guatem ala in 1981 on the subject of feminism in his countiy, declared that while the role of w om en in clandestine organizations w as of crucial im portance for un derstanding the developm ent of female participation in political activity, this investigation or research was, "by its very nature, outside of our reach," m eaning that it simply could not b e done It was seen as to o dan gerous.1 O ne would b e risking life and limb in G uatem ala simply by under taking the investigation of w om en in opposition groups, especially those groups that form part of the arm ed opposition. As com pared to Nicaragua and El Salvador, little has been published about the female role in decades of resistance to tyranny in Guatemala. Much of this has to do with the gov em m enl's relative success at destroying these m ovem ents an d the w ay in which it has intim idated their international supporters. (N im ero u s re searchers from the United States and Europe have been m urdered in Guatemala). Despite the paucity of m aterial available, however, a pattern em erges of sustained and courageous opposition to injustice on the part of G uatem alan w om en. Som e women, m ost notably teachers, w ere very involved in the res is tance to Ubico's tyranny. O ne of them in particular, Maria Chinchia, is rec 1 H ector A queche Juarez, "Enfoque socioeconom ico del feminismo en guatem ala" ( Tcsis d c U cendado, University of San Carlos, Guatemala, 1981), pp. 35 36. 303 ognized as a definitive heroine, “rem em bered because she w as very brave in facing the army." She took to the streets leading protests and w as in the front lines when she w as killed in 1944. It w as during th e 1944 1954 period of dem ocratic openness when the first w om en's organization appeared, part of the bro ad er popular m ovem ent spreading throughout the country.1 As with popular organizations in general, the organization of w om en w as crippled by the reactionary backlash of 1954. The contem porary phase of the revolution began with a group of ideal istic junior officers on the Left w ho rebelled against the regime of Ydlgoras Fuentes on N ovem ber 13,1960, capturing several strategic sites, primarily the garrison at Puerto Barrios. Neariy half of the military rose in revolt with them. The Air Force w as ordered to b om b the fort but the order w as not carried out since m any in the arm ed forces w ho rem ained loyal w ere still sym pathetic with the rebels. The president then gave perm ission for C uban m ercenaries to b om b the fort under U.S. auspices. U.S. battleships took up om inous positions off the coast and the rebels gave in. Several of the young officers, how ever, fled the country, later reentering and forming the first m ountain bases of the guerrilla. A second guerrilla group arose the following March for the sam e reasons, this o n e presided over b y a former minister of defense under th e deposed, reform ist President Arbenz.2 1 Latin Am erican W orking G roup (Canada), in Third W orld S e c o n d Sc k vol. 2, ed. M iranda Davies (London: Zed Books, 1987), p. 61. 2'Ihe reasons for the rebellion w ere twofold: the perpetrators resented the continued dom ination of United Fruit in G uatem alan politics and m any adm ired Fidel Castro and the successful revolution in Cuba and w ere deeply incensed over Guatem alan cooperation in training Cuban exiles primarily for participation in the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion in the 304 The rebels w ere well aw are of w ho w as behind the spread of militarized tyranny and repression in their country. They responded m ost directly in 1968, killing U.S. am b assad o r John C ordon Mein and Colonel John W eber, head of the U.S. military mission, both shot by the A rm ed Revolutionary Forces (FAR).1 As arm ed resistance developed throughout 1962 and the years that followed, som e w om en assum ed active roles. Mexican Alicia Echevarria (very active in solidarity with the Guatemalan revolutionaries of this period) testified in her m em oirs that th e 'safe houses' that she vis ited in Guatemala's capital city were staffed by both m ate and female revo lutionaries living in a com m unal fashion sharing both dom estic chores and the arm ed defense of their sanctuaries in an egalitarian fashion.2 The guerrillas m ade several critical errors in this early period, however, their inattention to the indigenous m ajority and still very limited incorporation G uatem alan military facilities of Rctahuleo. They sought to prevent Guatem ala's utilization as a base to attack Cuba and reestablish G uatem alan sovereignty vis-a-vis the United States, not destroy capitalism. Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer, B itter FhJit: The U ntold S to ry o f th e A m erican C oup in G uatem ala (New York: A nchor Press/ Doubleday, 1983), p. 239 241; Berryman, Religious R o o ts o f Rebellion, p. 170 171; Alicia Echevarria, D e burguesa a guerrillera. M em orias d e A licia Echevarria (M6xico: Joaquin Mortiz, 1986), pp. 134 135. 1 Berryman, Religious R o o ts o f Rebellion, pp. 171 173; Blaise Bonpane, Guerrillas o f Peace: Liberation T heology a n d th e C entral A m erican R evo lu tio n ( Boston: South End Press, 1987), p. 78; Liss, Radical Thought in C entral A m erica, p. 34. 2Echevarria, D e burguesa a guerrillera. 305 of women; they were also plagued by both lack of experience and internal divisions.1 According to Garcia and Gomariz, female participation in guerrilla ac tivity was "minimal" during the first phase of the insurgency from 1962 until the guerrilla was all but wiped out by 197Q2 Some wom en did partici pate, however, Rogelia Cruz, for example, a former Miss Guatemala, be cam e active in the arm ed resistance. Her body was found showing signs of terrible torture, "Her breast was cut off' and "she had been beaten with a ri fie." Nora Paiz also joined an arm ed revolutionaiy group an d was killed along with the poet Rene Castillo as they were coming back to the city from the mountains. Both were burned alive.3 In the spring of 1962, in response to allegations of fraud in the 1961 congressional elections, a general strike was declared in the capital. Several thousand women in the Guatemalan W om en’ s Front (FMG) m arched through the streets in April to protest the assassination of law students by the government. These actions w ere sup ported by the incipient guerrilla movement, Revolutionary M ovement of N ovem ber 13 (MR 13).4 The fo co strategy em ployed throughout the 1960s saw groups of several hundred mobile com batants attem pting to establish support am ong the ^Susanne Jonas, The Battle for Guatemala: Rebels, D eath Squads, and US. /lower(Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1991), p. 69. 2 C ard a and Gomariz, M ujeres Centroamericanas, pp. 97 98. 3Latin American Working Group (Canada), p. 60. 4Jonas, Battle fo r Guatemala, pp. 66-67. iOG civilian population of different zones. While a female presence in the to co s themselves was very limited, a much larger num ber assisted with logistic support. As the survivors of this period began to rebuild forces by the sec ond half of the 1970s, m ore women becam e incorporated than in the earlier period. By the time that the different rebel factions unified in 1982, females com prised between at least 10% to 15% of the total num ber of com bat forces as welt as a broad base of logistic support. Of particular significance was the large scale incorporation of indigenous women as well as ladinas into the arm ed struggle.1 By 1975, the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), which would becom e the largest and m ost powerful rebel army, had becom e fully public. A resur gence of w idespread guerrilla activity by the late 1970s is generally seen as a response to widespread repression, the non existence of alternative m eans of political participation or opposition, and the sheer desperation and hunger of the population. In the decade following the coup of 1965, 87% of all governm ent credit went to finance export production, while the basic staples of the Guatemalan diet rice, com, and beans received only 5%. Of every ten Guatemalan families harvesting coffee in the mid 1970s, only one had a minimally adequate diet.2 By mid 1979, the Organization of Arm ed People (ORPA) led primarily by survivors of the guerrilla m ovem ents of the 1960s had also becam e 1 Garcia and Gomariz, M ujeres Centroam ericanas, pp. 97 98. ^Chomsky, Turning th e Tide, p. 40; Eduardo Galeano, C)pcn Veins o f Latin A m erica. Five C enturies o f th e Pillage o f a Continent, trans Cedric Belfrage (New York Monthly Review Press, 1973), p. 302. 307 public, taking responsibility for its attacks on governm ent forces and instal lations carried out in the Indian highlands, dem onstrating the way in which it had developed a strong b ase of support from indigenous com m u nities. By 1982 the four principal guerrilla groups strengthened their al liance and on February 7, the Guatem alan National Revolutionary Union (IJRNG) w as formed, uniting the leadership of the EGP, FAR, ORPA, and the G uatem alan W orker's Party (PGT). The participation of indigenous w om en w as less pronounced in m ass organizations than in the arm ed opposition. Unlike ladinas, Indian w om en didn't generally follow a pattern of working in m ass organizations and then joining the arm ed struggle: "They have gone right from their op pression to joining the arm ed struggle" The Canadian group doing this re search em phasized the com plexity of the changes m ade by indigenous w om en w ho "despite their ties to custom s, traditions, and culture that they have been able to conserve," are "changing their traditional clothing for uniform s in order to take up arm ed struggle." They stress that it is im por tant to appreciate "the extent to which they have developed their con sciousness in o rd er for them to d o that som ething very, veiy, d eep has oc curred, especially in som e of the rural com m unities. Their disposition to give up one of the things that is m ost precious to them in order to take up the struggle is very significant, and this is just one expression of the com m itm ent of m any Indian women."1 1 Latin American W oridng G roup (Canada), p. 63. According G uatem ala's revolutionary feminists. "The strategy of the Popular Revolutionary W ar represents the greatest contribution since the revolution of 1944 54 to the process of m assive incorporation of w om en into the social processes of the country, converting them , in this way, into historical subjects of transformation."1 For 'Lola', an indigenous w om an forming part of the National Directorate of the EGP in the early 1980s: W om en fulfill the role of com batant in a fundam ental way. She is no different from the m an Her roles and obligations corre spond to those to which the organization is oriented, and exist at different levels. A com paftera can, to cite an example, direct and assum e responsibilities of the leadership, another, on th e other hand, m ay work at the base. But, to b e precise, we em phasize that the w om an not b e underestim ated, she is authentically a com bat ant co m p a fiera 2 According to Maria Lupe, another m em ber of the HGP, their were very few w om en in the guerrilla encam pm ents in the early 1970s b u t their num bers had grown significantly by the early 1980s. As w as th e case in El Salvador, she says that discrimination against w om en lessened over the years am ong the rebel populations as a result of this increased participation According to her, all tasks w ere shared on an alm ost com pletely equalitarian basis, in eluding food preparation, and m any w om en participated in com bat opera tions. For her, a female presence in the guerrilla groups that w ent into civilian centers to buy provisions and to propagandize th e population was particularly im portant, so that the people could see that "women also par 1IV Encuentro Feminista, M ujer C entroam ericana: violencta y guerra, m em orias d e l fa//er(M6xico: Oxfam, 1987), p 95. ^Q uoted in M ondragon, /J\? indios y cristianos, p 210. 309 ticipatc and take charge of and handle their w eapon just like a man does."1 W orkshops were organized by the revolutionary forces which dealt with sex discrimination, drawing parallels betw een discrimination against women and the exploitation of the poor by the rich.2 The role of woman as warrior has been of crucial im portance for the progressive conquest of female autonom y in a very traditional, neocolonial society like Guatemala. It is a gain which has com e about only as part of the revolution.3 This female militancy m ust b e seen, at least in part, as a re sponse to the sexual violence to which wom en were subjected by govern ment forces. This is testified to by a docum ent issued in 1980 by som e 200 revolutionary leaders gathered in a secret meeting at the ruins of Iximch6, 1 Marla I ,upe( "Testimonio: Marla Lupe, mujer pa reel aria de la selva," Com pafiera, revista intcm acinnaf del ejbrctto gucrrillom d e los pobres, no. 5,1985, pp. 29 30. 2 Latin American Working Group (Canada), p. 67; This egalitarianiza tion of gender roles in the guerrilla cam e about slowly, however. In the January 19,1985 issue of inform ador Cuerrillerci the official organ of the EGP, for example, there is a photo showing several groups of men and women posing together for photos in a rebel encampm ent, it is interesting to note that while all of the men are in military uniforms mixed with typi cal 'Western', civilian clothing and arm ed to the teeth, the wom en are wearing traditional indigenous dress and are unarmed. Guerrilla Army of the Poor, Inform ador Guerri1lerc\ January 1985. p. 12. 3 As in El Salvador, the Guatemalan army began to realize the propa gandistic value of female participation in the military apparatus and, un der the theme, “The Army Seeks the Woman," the military began to orga nize military courses for women in 1988, the first including sixty recruits. Garcia and Gomariz estim ate the num ber of female officers in the Guatemalan arm y at 11. Still, it does not appear to be the case that these women have been engaged in com bat roles. 310 the ancient capital of the Cakchikel. The "Declaration of IximchC" noted, with respect to the women, their. .. , courage, com mitm ent, willingness, and heroism in the strug gje for the liberation of our life, disregarding the fact that they might have to leave their parents, their husbands, and their chil dren forever. This Is not by chance, since the Indian woman al ways was, and is, a part of our struggle because she has always been exploited in cotton fields, sugar cane fields, and coffee or chards, and because her dress, her language, her customs, and her very condition as a woman cause her to be discriminated against and abused, as happens in the rapes of both married and single women, m ade pregnant by the army and the rich . . . all over Guatemala.1 While indigenous women bore the brunt of the sexual violence and niur der, security forces also brutalized women from the middle and upper mid die classes when they engaged in popular organization. As in H I Salvador, many middle class women becam e involved in pop ular m ovem ents through their professional organization as teachers As a result, teachers becam e the target of massive repression. By the end of 1980 alone, over 400 teachers had been killed, just in that year, 226 were assassi nated, and the num bers swelled in 1981. In one teacher's union alone, 35 m em bers w ere killed in the first six m onths of 1981.2 This was the fate, for example, of Dora Azmitia "Menchy" whose principal offense was becom ing leader of the Catholic Student Youth M ovement (JEC). A 23 year old teacher, recently married and three m onths pregnant, she w as abducted by 1 Q uoted in Berryman, Religious R o o ts o f Rebellion, pp. 198 199. ^Marilyn A nderson and Johnathan Garlock, G randdaughters o f Com. f ’ ortraits o f G uatem alan W om en (Willimantic, Conn.: Curbstone Press, 1988), p. 134 311 Guatemalan security forces, in full view of her family, on O ctober 1,1982, never to be seen again. When her father sought help from the Archbishop, he w as wrenched from his wife's arm and disappeared like his daughter. In a letter written before she died, Menchy testified: "|we are] firm before God with a Faith that is solid, that knows how to com bine the heroic struggle of the people with the historical project of Jesus "1 The Guatemalan Mutual Support Group (GAM), com posed primarily of woman, has been one of the most vocal and effective opposition groups in the country. I Jke COM ADRFS in El Salvador, they have been at the fore front of those groups lobbying for social change. Also like COM ADRES, they have been indefatigable in their pressuring of the government to clar ify the cases of the many thousands of individuals who simply disap peared; this has proven to b e a most dangerous business In March 1985, IVesident Mejia Victores said in public that "to seek the reappearance alive of those [who] disappeared is a subversive act, and m easures will be taken to deal with it " lead ers of GAM received death threats and two of its offi cers were killed, one along with her younger brother and infant son.2 Some of the m any w om en who have taken increasingly active roles in the Guatemalan labor union m ovem ent have also been the victims of gov em m ent violence. The Canadian group described the plight of one Yotandita, for example, a labor union organizer captured by m em bers of a 1 Institute Hislorico Centroamericano, la sangre fto r e lp u e b lo pp. 1R 19. 2IV Encuentro Feminista, M ujer C entroam encana, p 57; Richard Fagen, Forging Feace Ih e Challenge o f Central A m erica {New York Basil Blackwell, 1987), p. 95 312 paramilitary organization at the age of 16. She was jailed for over two weeks and finally released in response to international pressure. She was raped num erous times during her incarceration, tortured with the capucha (a hood put over the heads of victims drastically curbing their ability to take in oxygen som etim es pesticides are inserted as well), and left blind from the DDT. Am ong her rapists, according to the report, the 'first' was the Chief of Police, Manuel Valiente Tellez.1 Over the last decade, m any women rose to positions of authority in Guatemala's popular organizations such as the Com mittee of Campesino Unity (CUC). Some have reported that they are still oppressed in these or ganizations or that they continue to be discriminated against. They express that they arc caugbt in a vicious bind by the need to struggle both for and within their popular organizations at the sam e tim e that they shoulder the difficult tasks of caring for the material needs of themselves and their fami lies.2 While several im portant groups are com prised primarily of women, there are no official or exclusive wom en's organizations within the broader structures of Guatemla's popular or opposition m ass m ovem ents According to MenchO, this is because: .. we think that it would be feeding m achism o to set up an orga nization for w om en only, since it would mean separating w om en's work from m en's work. Also we've found that when we discuss wom en's problems, we need the men to be present, so that they can contribute by giving their opinions of what to do 1 Latin American Working Group (Canada), p. 62. 2|V Encuentro Feminista, M ujer C ent roam cncana, p. 54. .113 about the problem. And so they can learn as well. If they don’ t learn, they don’ t progress.1 This attitude is pervasive am ong Central American feminists who seek to enlist the support of m en in their struggle for equal rights and dignity Ibis is a product of Central America’ s neocolonial position in the global hierar chy of power, the oppression to which its peoples are subjected together, male and female, and the need for revolutionary solidarity between the genders that this reality makes necessary. Throughout Jorge Serrano’ s presidency until he was deposed by the military in the Spring of 1993, dialogue betw een his government and the guerrilla did not yield any m ajor agreem ents or progress as has occurred in El Salvador, primarily because of the failure on the part of the government to agree to international verification of hum an rights issues.2 It is difficult to foresee how a transition to peace with justice can be m ade in Guatemala given the absence of effective outside pressure on the regime and the way in which it continues to find sources of aid military and non military from the U.S. and its allies. The military continues to rule suprem e throughout m ost of the countryside.3 As Jonas observes, w om en’ s level of 1 Rigoberta Menchfi, I . Rigoberta MertchO. A n Indian W om an in Guatemala, ed with an Introduction. Elisabeth Burgos Debray, trans. Ann Wright (New York: Verso, 1983J, p. 222. 2 /^ Noticia (San Salvador), 15 January 1993, p. 8. 3Mass protest of this presence continues. On Decem ber 12,1993,800 re cently repatriated refugees marched in protest in front of the military gam son of IxcAn in the northwestern part of El Quich6, dem anding that the military abandon the area. La O pini6n{\jos Angeles), 13 Decem ber 1993, p. 2 B . 314 participation in popular groups is "limited by the traditional problem s of discrimination and illiteracy and by the ongoing need for clandestine ness."1 By way of conclusion, it is im portant to rem em ber that violence begets violence and, according to m ainstream canons of moral reasoning the vio lencc of self defense o r counter violence is morally legitimate. W om an as victim of violence in Central America h as responded as protagonist of vio lencc in a struggle against the injustice of neocolonial and classist exploita tion and the institutionalized violence which m aintains it. The role of w om en in revolutionary com bat has proven to b e of integral im portance to their struggle for both freedom and equality.2 Many, m any of the m ost courageous have already died. Many others w ho live with the m em ory struggle on, joined by the eternal Spring of Guatem alan youth 1 Jonas, B attle fo r G uatemala, p. 187. 2 As one m artyred female com batant in El Salvador expressed it: "Salvadoran w om en are conquering with w eapons in hand, o u r rights to equality with m en in society, as we are acquiring consciousness of the level of oppression that we have had as w om en in this decadent society that w e are transforming day by day, because w e are already conscious that the rela tionships betw een the sexes are transform ed, just as relations betw een classes, to the extent to which the m ode of distribution of m aterial goods is transform ed. CEMUJER, N orm a, p. 109. 315 CHAPTER FIVE FEMINISM, SOCIALISM, A N D JUSTICE The sym biotic relationship betw een feminism and socialism, particu larly in the developing world, has b een a cardinal assum ption of this study. On the broadest theoretical level, 1 have argued for a causal link betw een ‘international1 political dom ination imperialism, colonialism, neocolo nialism on the one hand, and the genesis and exacerbation of structures of violence against females on the other. In som e ways this connection ap pears alm ost self evident, nevertheless, the issue is highly complex, a thor oughgoing exploration of which exceeds the scope of this study. The soli darity that developed betw een feminism and socialism in the colonial or form er colonial world, however, has been, at least in part, a product of the way in which socialist m ovem ents have militated against colonial and neocolonial dom ination, seeing them selves with a great deal of legiti m acy as fighting defensive w ars against foreign aggression. Socialist o r Marxist Leninist ideology especially the unique relation ship that it developed with progressive Christian ideas proved to be a ma jor ideological force in Central America, an im petus for radical social change It is im portant, therefore, to provide a brief sketch of the historical relationship betw een Marxism and feminism so as better to understand the way in which it developed in revolutionary Central Am erica and the con tributions m ade by the Left to the advancem ent of w om en's rights throughout the region. My m ost salient argum ent has been that socialist societies or m ove m ents have resulted in greater freedom s for w om en than w hat had been 316 the case prior to their development. This is true not only in Central America but is m ore generally the case on a global level. The political soli darity that has historically existed betw een socialist m ovem ents and femi nist dem ands is mirrored by a tradition of ideological solidarity between the two schools of social criticism. In what follows, I took briefly at what feminist writers refer to as the "marriage betw een Marxism and Feminism" followed by an evaluation of the historical record with respect to the situation of women in the USSR and China. Next, I examine the general thrust of feminist ideology generated in the context of revolution ary Central America followed by a brief analysis of som e of the complexities involved in the relationship betw een feminism on the one hand, and so cialism and dem ocracy on the other. Finally, I make som e com m ents about the critical role of religious thought and institutions and conclude with a socialist feminist call for political reform, in the United States as well as in Central America. Feminism an d Marxism Under the banner of socialism, m any feminists struggled to link the m ovem ent for women's liberation to the larger struggle of the working or popular classes in general. Socialist ideology has always acknowledged the moral legitimacy of the female struggle for equality and incorporated it into its theoretical agenda. Many leading feminist philosophers have been sym pathetic to socialist ideals and have recognized in socialism a vehicle for wom an's liberation. Even with the recent decline of the socialist bloc, this continues to be the case. For Nellie W ong for example, "Where m ale 317 suprem acy functions, socialism cannot, because true socialism, by defini tion, connotes a higher form of hum an relations than can possibly exist under capitalism ." For de Beauvoir, "all forms of socialism, wresting wom an away from the family, favor her liberation "1 For Engels, the first class antagonism appearing in history coincided with the developm ent of the antagonism of man and wife in monogamy, and the first class oppression with that of the female by the male sex2 He saw the liberation of women as an inevitable outcom e of the socialist pro ject which would end her economic dependence, take her out of the isola tion of the hom e and into the work force, freeing her from the burden of household chores through their socialization and from relationships that were based on economic necessity rather than affection. Reuther observes how history is a Fall and Redemption story for Engels, beginning in the Eden of primitive matriarchal com m unism and ending in the final stage of communism, "where humanity can leap from the Realm of Necessity to the Realm of Freedom."3 While she acknowledges that "the search for the good self and the good society exists in an unbreakable dialectic," Reuther 1 Nellie W ong "Socialist Feminism: O ur Bridge to Freedom," in Third W orld W om en a n d the Politics c f Feminism, ed. Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), p. 290; Simone d e Beauvoir, The Seco n d Sex (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953; Random House, Vintage Books Edition, 1974), p 126. 2Frederick Engels, The Origin o f the Family, Private Property, and the State, trans. Ernest Untermann (Chicago: Charies Kerr, 1902), p. 79. 3Rosemary Radford Reuther, W om anguides: Readings Toward a Feminist Theology (Boston: Beacon Press, 1985) pp. 87 88. 318 criticizes Marxism in its contention that new socioeconom ic institutions autom atically result in a 'new h u m an ity ' She continues, however, to link w om en's liberation to profound change in the socioeconom ic structure, particularly a m ore egalitarian distribution of resources with respect to both class and gender.1 Many feminists have argued for a causal relationship betw een the op pression of w om en and the historical developm ent of capitalism.2 An in flexible linkage of patriarchy and capitalism can prove unfruitful, how ever, because of the complexity of the relationship and the variety of form s in which it h as developed.3 A ttem pts to integrate Marxism and feminism 1 Rosem ary Radford Reuther, Sexism a n d G od Talk Tow ard a Fem inist T heology (Boston: Beacon Press, 1983), p. 216. 2Iris Young, for example, argues that it is incontrovertible that the situa tion of w om en deteriorated with the developm ent of capitalism. For her, precapitalist culture understood m arriage as a econom ic partnership w here m en did not see them selves as 'supporting1 w om en and w here the law re fleeted equality betw een m en and w om en by perm itting w om en to m ake contracts in their ow n nam e and retain their ow n property within m ar riage. She sees the situation of w om en in Third W orld econom ies as hav ing w orsened with the introduction of m odem capitalist industrial eco nom ic structures wherein w om en's labor h as been m arginalized She as serts that while it is not im possible to conceive of a capitalist society wherein the marginalization of w om en did not occur, patriarchal capital ism has proven to b e the only historical possibility. Iris Y oung "Beyond the U nhappy Marriage: A Critique of the Dual System s Theory," in W o m en a n d R evolution: A D iscussion o f th e U nhappy M arriage o f M arxism a n d Fem inism , ed. Lydia Sargent (Boston: South End Press, 1981), pp. 59 62 (em phasis her's). ^Heidi Hartmann, "Sum m ary and Response: Continuing the Discussion," in W o m en a n d R evolution: A D iscussion o f th e U nhappy M arriage o f M arxism a n d Feminism, ed. Lydia Sargent (Boston: South End Press, 1981), p. 106. 319 have often been seen as unsatisfactory because of the tendency to subsum e the feminist struggle into the larger1 struggle against capital. Many femi nists endeavored to retain th e explanatory potential of Marxist analysis with respect to th e laws of historical developm ent, capitalism in particular, at the sam e time that they sought to correct its "sex blind" character, ex panding it to encom pass the prim ordial and cosm opolitan character of w om en's oppression in the socioeconom ic structure.1 Feminists on the Left have frequently criticized w hat they call b o u rg eo is’ feminism Radical feminists, on the other hand, criticize Marxist feminists for their failure to recognize the priority of sexual over class oppression. Differences of em phasis and priorities have produced con tradictions for socialist feminists and open struggles in the politics of the I .eft O ther feminists, such as Gloria Joseph, have argued that Marxist anal ysis has not only been sex blind but race blind as well. She correctly notes that racism m ust b e addressed in a consistent fashion along with any com prehensive Marxist feminist analysis of w om en's historical material o p pression. Feminists, generally speaking have been divided by class loyalties that limit the growth of female solidarity.2 W hat w as particularly distinc 1 Heidi Hartm ann, "The U nhappy M arriage of Marxism and Feminism: Tow ards a M ore Progressive Union," in W o m en a n d R evolution. A D iscussion o f the U nhappy M arriage o f M arxism a n d Fem inism , ed Lydia. Sargent (Boston: South End Press, 1981), p. 2. ^Gloria Joseph, "The Incom patible M enage a Trois Marxism, Feminism, and Racism," in W o m en a n d R evolution: A D iscussion o f the U nhappy M arriage o f M arxism a n d Fem inism , ed. Lydia Sargent (Boston: South End Press, 1981), p. 93; Reuther observes how w om en's m em bership in class and race hierarchies can draw them into a prim ary identification 520 tive about the feminist thought generated in Central America in the 19811s, was that it w as radically class conscious and antiimperialist at its core. Central American feminists have well understood the way in which for eign domination and class exploitation have exacerbated their oppression. While all schools of feminism unite in denouncing the violent abuse of women, not all feminists are deeply concerned with the connections be tween sexual violence and international relations. It is undeniably the case that international class exploitation has exacerbated the violent abuse of women. Historians refer to both 'inner* and 'inter* colonialisms, the for m er process occurring between the social classes within the country in question Both forms of colonialism have com pounded the strata of wom en's oppression. W here the women of dom inant classes have often been treated as showy symbols of male pow er and status, those of the lower classes have generally been treated in a much m ore brutal fashion. W here the former might b e com pared to the "house nigger*' under slavery, the lat ter's plight shares much in com m on with that of the “field nigger." These distinctions are pulled into static relief when one accounts for the way in which structures of pow er operate across the boundaries separating the First from the Third World. The Marxist feminist critique of structures of violence confronting fc males needs to be developed in such a fashion as to account for the critical role of racism in international relations. Thinkers like Joseph have argued that “the fight against white suprem acy and male dom ination over wom en with the males of their class and race, against wom en and men of other classes and races Reuther, Sexism and G od Talk, p 222 i 2 \ is directly linked to the worldwide struggle for national liberation Z ’ 1 For so cialist feminists, the Marxian perspective continues to b e seen as crucial in this regard, particularly with respect to international exploitation. W ong for example, continues to see socialist feminism as "the only viable altem a tive to capitalism an d world imperialism," the only force that would be able to end “the exploitation of one country for the profit of another coun try's capitalist class." These ideas have proven particularly forceful in Latin America. Chinchilla observes how “the synthesis of ideas from contem po raiy Marxist and feminist traditions and their transform ation into a con crete political strategy for social change has b ecom e a high priority for a growing num ber of Marxists and feminists in Latin America.'2 Socialist ideology has historically been accom panied by an em phasis on the im portance of gender equality and m any feminists have been attracted to socialism for that reason. Even with respect to socialism as it has been historically realized, as opposed to its theoretical expression, it has con tributed to th e liberation of women. Socialist expansion in the non W estern world in particular, unlike capitalist imperialism, generally re 1 She stresses the im portance of w om en struggling "from a pragm atic rather than a theoretical perspective, m ore concerned with strategies for change than with theories about the origin of the basic division of dom i nance and submission." Joseph, "The Incom patible M enage a Trois," pp. 98, 106 2For W ong "revolutionary Trotskyist feminism" is the theory which integrates socialism and feminism. W o n g "Socialist Feminism," pp. 290 292; N orm a Stoltz Chinchilla, "Marxism, Feminism, and th e Struggle for Dem ocracy in Latin America," in The M aking o f Social M o v e m e n ts in Latin A m erica identity, Strategy, a n d D em ocracy, ed. Arturo Escobar and Sonia E Alvarez (Boulder Colo.: W estview Press, 1992), p. 38. 322 suited in an increase in the autonom y of w om en as a group. This was clearly the case, for example, with respect to the Islamic republics of w hat becam e the Soviet Union.1 In m ost if not all cases, socialist governm ents have prom oted female emancipation, at least to som e extent. Conversely, in those areas of the world which have rem ained under the umbrella of neocolonial capitalist dom ination, that em ancipation has not been part of dom inant political agendas. Before entering the discussion of the interplay betw een socialist an d feminist ideology in Central America, therefore, it is useful to briefly sketch th e general advancem ents m ade by w om en under socialist or com m unist rule, especially in Russia an d China, since they rep resent som e im portant parallels to the struggle for female em ancipation in Central America. iT he eastern sector of the Zhenotdel (Bolshevik w om en’ s union) was given the task of facilitating this liberation. Buckley notes how, with re spect to the Central Asian Republics: "As children, girls could b e sold as brides for a kalym , or bride price, without their consent. Arranged m ar riages were the norm with gold o r cattle being paid by the future husband, in an am ount befitting the status of the girl's family. W om en's lives were essentially circumscribed by the hom e w here they w ere expected to obey and serve their fathers, husbands and brothers. They lacked education and in 1917 just 2 per cent of w om en in Soviet Central Asia w ere literate. Bolshevik pow er set out to challenge the custom s perm itted by the Koran and Shariat such a s bride price, polygamy, and th e infanticide of young girls." Bolshevik w om en organized the Ali Bairamov Club which con ducted political education on a one-to-one basis. W om en w ere then in vited to the clubs for talks and discussion on politics and health care. 'Cultural soldiers' and 'pioneers' worked in literacy education and even theater with popular dram a geared tow ards consciousness raising Mary Buckley, W o m en a n d Id eo lo g y in th e Soviet Union (Ann A rb o r University of Michigan Press, 1989), pp. 68, 86. 323 Evaluation of the Historical Record USSR and China While there are certainly m any morally unsavory aspects of the histori cal developm ent of socialism in Russia, particularly as presided over by Stalin, its contributions to the dismantling of patriarchal social structures are undeniable According to de Beauvoir, it was in Soviet Russia that the feminist m ovem ent m ade its m ost sweeping advances. Beginning with fe male student intellectuals in the late 19th century, women becam e increas ingly revolutionary and participated extensively in the October revolution and the events that led up to it. Millet describes a "conscious effort" m ade to term inate patriarchy and restructure the family in a m ore egalitarian way in the early years of the Soviet Union.1 Lenin proudly announced with som e validity that with respect to law, "apart from Soviet Russia there is not a country in the world w here wom en enjoy full equality,” yet he cautioned that “ it is a far cry from equality in law to equality in life.'2 Ide Beauvoir, The Second Sex; p. 142; According to Millet: "After the revolution every possible law was passed to free Individuals from the claims of the family: free marriage and divorce, contraception, and abortion on demand." In December of 1917 and October of 1918, Lenin issued decrees invalidating m ale prerogatives over their dependents and affirming the com plete right to economic; social, and sexual self determination of women. Num erous legal provisions w ere m ade to establish political and economic equality. Nurseries were to be established, housekeeping was to be collectivized, and full equality recognized in both education and em ploym ent opportunities. Kate Millett, Sexual Politics (London: Virago, 1985), pp. 168 169. ^Cited in Buckley, W om en a n d id eo lo g y in the Soviet Union, pp. 26 27. According to Buckley, this was understood by female Bolshevik activists in the aftermath of 1917 who were aware of the way in which the colossal hardships of years of starvation, disease, and dvfl war, the precarious ness of th e new state, the conservative attitudes em bedded in Russian society, the lack of firm practical com m itm ent on the part of m any Bolshevik lead 324 Patriarchal social structures had deep roots in Russia, as elsewhere, and rapid change in such an entrenched institution was difficult at best In Millet's words: "Soviet leadership had declared the family defunct in a so ciety com posed entirely of family members, whose entire psychic processes were form ed in the patriarchal family of Tsarist Russia."1 Bolshevik femi nists such as Armand praised the new laws as "laying the foundation of wom en's liberation from the m ost deeply rooted form of her slavery from family bandage, which lay on her shoulders like a heavy burden and in practice deprived her of the opportunity to be completely equal and com pletely free." She saw the age old family structure as "the last fortress of the old order, of the old b o n d ag e. which needed to be abolished com pletely."2 The historical tension betw een 'socialist' feminism and 'bourgeois' feminism that has continued to b e played out in the debate over gender is sues in Central America was evident with Kollontai, Armand, and other crs to prom ote equality of the sexes, as well as women's resistance to attacks on the family unit, were all factors which militated against the liberation process. 1 Millett, Sexual Politics, p. 170. ^Arm and and Kollontai, the two m ost prom inent Bolshevik feminists, looked to the reorganization of dom estic labor and child rearing as of key importance. Along with Lenin, they sought the replacem ent of dom estic housework by com munal kitchens, dining room s, and laundries. Perhaps the m ost significant achievement for Russian women that cam e with the revolution, particularly the majority of rural woman, was literacy. In 1920 only 25.2% were literate, by 1939 that figure had risen to 76.8%. For urban women, the percentage climbed from 66.7 to 90.7 over the sam e period Buckley, W om en a n d Ideology in th e Soviet Union, pp. 44, 45, 63. 325 Bolshevik w om en. They drew a sharp distinction betw een them selves and the "bourgeois feminists" who, according to them , "identified m en as the im m ediate enemy" and w orked for "narrow reform ist goals" rather than prom oting the kind of total societal restructuring through revolution that they saw as necessary for the authentic prom otion of sexual equality. For them, the liberation of w om en could never transpire as long as capitalism w as left intact Chauvinism, of course, lived on in Soviet Russia with m any party m em bers highly critical of the Bolshevik w om en's organiza tion or Zhenotdel.1 *Ibid., p. 53; The good-w om an/bad w om an distinction that persisted is seen very clearly in the controversy concerning prostitution. Since the clientele of the Zhenotdel included prostitutes, it w as criticized for focusing its energies on "b ad women" and som e m en protested their wives' atten dance of m eetings on this basis. The way in which the revolutionaty gov em m ent dealt with the w hole issue of prostitution is illustrative of the lim itations involved in its attem pts to eradicate sexual exploitation. While it closed dow n all brothels, the 'problem ' did not go aw ay and the govern m ent resorted to the violent repression of prostituted w om en on som e oc casions. Lenin himself d em onstrated the patriarchal side of his authority and his w anton disregard for human life when in August of 1918 he sent an o rd er to Fedorov, h ead of the Soviet province of Nizhni Novgorod, stating "No efforts to b e spared; m ass terror to b e introduced, hundreds of prostitutes w ho have intoxicated our soldiers, and form er officers, etc., to b e shot or deported." Ibid., p 98; Lenin quoted by Thanh Dam T ruong Sex, M o n ey; a n d M orality: fto stitu tio n a n d Tourism in S o u th ea st A sia (London: Z ed Books, 1990), p. 36; Emma G oldm an on h er journey to Russia in the early years of the revolution, provides the following account: "I cam e upon a group of wom en, huddled together to protect them selves from the cold. They w ere surrounded by soldiers, talking and gesticulating Those wom en, I learned, w ere prostitutes, w ho w ere selling them selves for a pound of bread, a piece of soap or chocolate. The soldiers w ere the only ones w ho could afford to buy them because of their extra rations. Prostitutes in revolutionary Russia, I w andered. W hat is the Com m unist G overnm ent doing for these unfortunates? My escort smiled sadly. The Soviet G overnm ent had closed the houses of prostitution and w as now try ing to drive the w om en off the streets, but the hunger an d cold drove them 320 Under Stalin, progression tow ards increasing gender equality w as given a very low priority. Soviet society cam e to resem ble the modified pa triarchy of other W estern countries during the thirties and forties. Buckley sees the 1930s as bringing in a stifling of discussion concerning progressive issues, "a clam p squeezed debates into rigid lines.” The active approach to im proving w om en’s lives gave way to the propagandistic celebration of what they h ad heretofore achieved: the m obilization of wom en to becom e involved in culture, to m aster m achinery, to develop a knowledge of sci ence, and to b e active in the struggle for high labour productivity. A ccording to the official Party line, w om en had been liberated and w ere now equal in all fields of social and public endeavor which was, of course, patently false. Divorce becam e m ore restricted in the 1930s and abortion was again m ade illegal. By 1944, Stalin had d o n e everything that h e could to strengthen the family and parental authority.'1 back again; besides the soldiers had to b e hum ored. It w as to o ghastly, too incredible to b e real, yet there they w ere those shivering creatures for sale and their buyers, the red defenders of the Revolution. T he cursed inter ventionist the blockade they are responsible,' said m y escort. Why yes, the counter revolutionaries and the blockade are responsible, 1 reassured myself. I tried to dism iss th e thought of the huddled group, but it clung to me. I felt som ething snap within me." Q uoted b y Batya W einbaum, The Curious C ourtship o f W om en's Liberation a n d Socialism {boston. South End Press, 1978), pp. 60-61. 1 He sought to strengthen the nuclear family which had becom e weak ened during th e 1920s, primarily through tightening up the relaxations in divorce law, which, as m any argued, had occurred to the detrim ent of w om en because m en tended to desert their wives and to b e irresponsible or negligent fathers. Millett, Sexual Politics, pp. 169,174; Buckley, W o m en a n d Id eo lo g y in th e S o viet Union, pp. 108 1 09,128. 327 W om en did attain unprecedented levels of equality in revolutionary Russia, however, and where able to retain much of it. They played a vital role, for example, in the war against Germany. By Decem ber of 1942, there were three wom en's battalions in the Red Army Approximately one quar ter of the partisans w ere women as well. By 1975, a third of the deputies in the Supreme Soviets of the USSR's constituent republics w ere women, with female participation reaching even higher on smaller regional lev els.1 Outside of the 20th century expansion of Soviet ideology there are very few historical exam ples of political structures wherein female autonom y increased as a result of foreign domination. Generally speaking exceptions to the linkage betw een national and female autonom y have occurred only when the imperial pow er in question carried with it an explicit ideological and structural orientation towards respect for female autonom y as has been the case with socialist imperialism, and only when that pow er tri um phed over polities which were especially retrograde in respecting fe male autonomy, which is clearly the case with the Islamic republics that were pulled into the Soviet orbit.2 1 Under Gorbachev, plans were developed and implemented to create work conditions and service provisions Which would enable women to successfully com bine m otheihood with active participation in the work force by shortening the working week and developing hom e work for women. M others becam e entitled to a year-and-a-half m aternity leave, and more kindergartens were built. Buckley, W om en a n d Ideology in the Soviet Union, pp. 121,197; Kathleen Newland and Patricia McGrath, La m u je ry e l pm gneso (Mexico: Ediciones Tres Tiempos, 19?), p. 15. 2In one study, for example, which distinguished betw een 'social educa tional equality,' on the one hand, and 'econom ic equality* an the other, it 3 2 $ Afghanistan represents a particularly enlightening theater of Cold W ar conflict insofar as w om en's roles proved to b e a m ajor bone of contention betw een Soviet backed socialists, on th e one hand, and Muslim guerrillas supported by the U.S. on the other.1 The proposed unveiling of w om en by the Marxist governm ent w as a m ajor threatening factor that inspired the revolt of fundam entalist rebels to begin with. They w ere also angered by the policies of the Soviet backed governm ent which w ere aim ed at expand ing econom ic and educational opportunities for women. With the with drawal of Soviet troops by 1989, the Kabul regim e fought on for several was found that Third W orld regions tended to rate high on one category and low on another. Latin America tended to rate high on social educa tional equality and low on econom ic equality while South East Asia tended to rank low er in the form er category and higher in the latter. Som e Muslim nations, however, particularly Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan and Tunisia, tended to score com paratively low figures in both categories. M om sen and Tow nsend note that it is from these coun tries that "stereotypes are drawn" and "applied widely and inaccurately to Third W orld w om en at large." Janet Henshall M om sen and Janet Townsend, G eography o f G ender in th e Third W orld {London: Century Hutchinson, 1987), p. 73; In 1975 there w ere only nine countries which ex eluded w om en by law from political processes and, with the exception of Liechtenstein, all w ere orthodox Muslim states such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Newland and McGrath, La m u jer y el progreso, p. 6. 1 For centuries foreign entities attem pted with varying degrees of success to dom inate the land- Turks, Persians, British, and Russians. By the 18th century, Afghan tribes had begun to assert their national identity and this process becam e consolidated under the p ro Bolshevik Amanullah Khan in 1919. He signed a peace treaty with th e Soviet Union in 1921 calling for "the liberation of the peoples of the East," and attem pted several reform s in eluding progressive legislation concerning wom en. Child m arriage was forbidden under a new Family Gode which also encouraged girl's schools. W om en were given the right to v o te with the constitution of 1923. Kumari Jayaw ardena, F em inism a n d N ationalism in the Third W orld (London Zed Books, 1986), p. 71. 329 years until the U.S. backed Muslim clans finally overran the capital by mid 1992. Since that tim e they have busied them selves primarily by fighting each other over the spoils of victory as well as reversing the legislation re sponsible for increasing female access to political and econom ic power, par ticulaiiy through higher education. Enloe n otes how, while the U.S. w as eager to use the Iranian regim e's harsh repression of w om en to justify its opposition to that governm ent, this concern for w om en "conveniently slipped off the policy stage when US officials designed their response to the civil w ar in Afghanistan."1 It is also im portant to this argum ent to account for the w ay in which Soviet b ases in Third W orld countries such as Afghanistan did not gener ate structures of prostitution/sexual exploitation as U.S. bases in the Third W orld have traditionally done. Kabul w as hom e to one of th e Soviet Union's largest military bases outside its borders until mid 1988. The pros titution of Afghan w om en for the service of those soldiers does not ap p ear to have existed, however, at least in any organized or official fashion.2 1 Susan Brownmiller, F em in in ity (New York: Linden Press/Sim on & Schuster, 1984), p. 96; Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches, & B ases M aking Fem inist Sense o f International Politics (London: Pandora, 1989), p. 57; Henry Kamm, "Afghan Peace Could Herald W ar of Sexes," N e w York Tim es, 12 D ecem ber 1988 ?One well researched description of personnel problem s experienced by the Soviet military during its engagem ent in Afghanistan d o es not m en tion prostitution or VD at all even though it w as written under contract for the U S. A rm y and thus had every incentive to uncover blem ishes on that military presence. It cites drug abuse, internal squabbling and ethnic hostil tty betw een Slavic and Muslim Soviet soldiers as the problem s of m ost concern to Soviet officers. Alexander Alexiev, Inside th e S o viet A rm y in A fghanistan (Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand Corporation, 1988). 330 The Chinese revolutionary process also issued in profound levels of gender equality and female autonomy. Pre revolutionary China was a time of incalculable oppression for women. As M ao put it, "The Chinese man before the Revolution carried on his back the three m ountains of feudal ism, capitalism, and superstition, but the Chinese w om an carried four m ountains the fourth one a man." For Stacey, "from infanticide to crip pled feet to childbride sale, wife-beating polygamy, and more, Chinese wom en tasted no end of bitterness in their short, mostly poverty ridden lives" She argues that the revolution resulted in a transform ation of this situation to one in which "mainland Chinese w om en have perhaps m oved closer to equality with m en than have wom en in any other con tem porary society,r l The Chinese Communist party becam e very active in urban areas dur ing the 1920s helping to organize labor m ovem ents am ong women, pri manly silk and cotton workers. Female workers overcam e centuries of docility with a vengeance. Waves of militant strikes punctuated the decade resulting in som e success until the entire m ovem ent w as violently re pressed by Chiang Kaishek's army, which, according to Stacey, "reserved som e of its m ost sadistic brutality for the w om en organizers." Over a thou sand female labor leaders, not all of them communists, w ere hunted down, tortured, and executed.2 Chiang's relentless war on communism involved 1 Judith Stacey, "When Patriarchy Kowtows: The Significance of the Chinese Family Revolution for Feminist Theory," in C apitalist Patriarchy a n d th e Case For Socialist Feminism, ed. Zillah Eisenstein (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979), p. 300. 2 Ibid., p. 306, 331 the massive and indiscriminate slaughter of Chinese wom en suspected of being Party activists or even sympathizers. According to Maloney, in areas were support for Communists had been strong, regained by the nationalists in 1927 and 1928, wom en were m ade to stand naked to the waist in public for days "as punishm ent for their flirtation with the com m unists" As re called by Tsai Ch'ang: More than 1,000 w om en leaders were killed ... not all were communists, som e were bourgeois and there were many stu dents, but all were revolutionary le ad ers.... 1 think the brutality of the killing has no parallel in all the w o rld .. .. W hen girls were arrested in Hunan they were stripped naked, nailed on crosses and their noses and breasts cut off before they were killed.... After girl students were beheaded, their heads were put into men's coffins and the gendarm es said you have your free love n o w ....' The girl's bodies w ere always horribly m utilated.... It is actually true that if a girl had bobbed hair she was subject to exe cution as a com munist in Hunan and Canton.1 The anticommunist crusades that would later sw eep through Vietnam and Central America resulted in similar patterns of violence. This has proven to be a hallmark of anticom munist warfare. Long before the Communists were able to gain control of the mainland, they introduced progressive legislation with respect to women and gender relations.2 Prior to 1949 over a million Chinese w om en had been selling ^ o a n M. Maloney, "W omen in the Chinese Com munist Revolution," in W om en, War, a n d R evolution, ed. Carol R. Berkin and Clara M. Lovett (New York: Holmes & Meir, 1980), p. 169. 2 Ihe central executive com m ittee passed laws liberalizing divorce in 1931 and 1934, and its land reform program s granted wom en equal rights to land ownership. W omen w ere quick to grasp the implications of land re form for their status within the family and participated actively in reform struggles. The liberalization of divorce laws aroused considerable enthusi 332 their sexual labor in areas of Japanese occupation and Nationalist control. After the Red army victory was com plete and the People's Republic of China established, army units closed down the brothels, arrested the own ers, and put the w om en in hospitals since upwards of 90% of them had som e form of venereal disease, often in advanced stages. For Sturdevant and Stolzfus," It w as one of those rare times w hen conscience, commit m ent of resources, and political pow er informed both policy decision and its im plem entation."1 The period described as the Great Leap Forward, according to Stacey, was “particularly well nam ed from the point of view of feminist progress" due to the way in which the establishm ent of the people's com m unes rep resented an im portant structural innovation for women, replacing the family with the com m une as the source of individual econom ic security. In the early 1960s the com m unes suffered serious setbacks, however, due to both the deterioration of the econom y that resulted from the abrupt termi nation of Soviet aid and the devastation of three years of natural disasters. There was w idespread opposition from m en and conservative women who preferred familial to com m unal facilities. From 1962 through 1965, asm am ong young peasant women and w idespread resistance from men and older women. By 1950, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had adopted a national marriage law which officially put an end to all the patri arch a!, authoritarian abuses of the Confucian family order. Polygamy, con cubinage, child betrothal, marriage by purchase, infanticide, and illegiti macy were abolished. Stacey, "When Patriarchy Kowtows," pp. 307 317. 1Saundra Pollock Sturdevant and Brenda Stoltzfus, eds.. Let th e G ood Tim es R oll f'm stitu tio n a n d the U.S. M ilitary in A sia (New York; The New Press, 1992), pp. 308-309. 333 China entered a period of retrenchm ent when the sanctity of the family was again stressed by official propaganda and many women seem ed to ac cept their subordinate status. With respect to the Cultural Revolution of 1966 1968, Stacey claims that it finally broke the stranglehold on the family and generated a renewed respect for wom en's productive, political, and cultural capabilities. A s in Russia, however, the revolution fell short of ushering in full gender equality. From the establishm ent of the CCP in 1921 until the end of W orld War II, for example, only two w om en served as full m em bers of the Central Committee.1 Chinese society has remained a very conservative society when com pared to the libertine m ores of the industrialized West. By comparison, pre marital chastity is nearly universal and monogamy, fidelity, and exclu sive heterosexuality are equally esteem ed values; adultery is punishable by law and sexual freedom is considered a product of bourgeois decadence. Most im portant for this discussion, however, is the elimination of the double standard for m en and women, so pervasive throughout m ost of the rest of the ‘ developing world, of which Chinese w om en are very proud. The overall gains m ade in female autonom y and gender equality through the revolutionary process are undeniable. Feminists are also quick to point out, however, the flaws and failures of the State socialist forms of government which developed in Russia and China. Reuther suggests that both dom inant socialist traditions, dem ocratic socialism and Marxism Leninism, fundamentally m isconstrued the social 1 Stacey, “W hen Patriarchy Kowtows," pp. 307-317; Maloney, "Women In the Chinese Com munist Revolution," p. 170. 334 ist agenda and created huge state bureaucracies rather than restoring own ership of the m eans of production to the people, resulting in a deepening of the alienation of the people, and the creation of a new ruling class. As she sees it, the split betw een hom e and work, w om en's work and m en’ s work, is overcom e only by reintegrating them into a com m unity that both raises its children collectively and ow ns and m anages its own m eans of production.1 Gearly, the limitations put on dem ocratic participation and the hierarchical character of m ost socialist pow er structures have limited, in som e im portant ways, the direct acquisition of pow er by women. N um erous parallels exist betw een the roles of w om en in the Chinese and Russian revolutions and their roles in the revolutionary processes of Central America. While Central A m erican revolutions, even that of Nicaragua, have had only limited success at modifying patriarchal arrange m ents, the extent to which revolutionary consciousness and militancy will have a lasting im pact on changing gender dynam ics rem ains to b e seen. A s som e of the gains and protections m ade and enjoyed by w om en have evaporated in the form er Soviet Union and the form er Eastern Bloc as a whole, the over all picture concerning possibilities for revolutionary change through socialism is not especially encouraging The increasing globalization of the free maiicet econom y has ten d ed to hit the m ost vul nerable sectors of form er socialist bloc and Third World populations the hardest w om en, particularly single m others, w ho are generally overrepre sertted in the poorest sectors of society. 1 Reuther, Sexism a n d G o d Talk, p p 224 227. 335 Prostitution, for example, while it never vanished from Russia, is now growing in leaps and bounds as w om en struggle to keep pace with the in flationary changes occurring around them. Child sexual slavery is also now a growing tragedy that has accompanied post Soviet Russia's em brace of the market economy; the press estim ates that there are a least 1000 girls be tween the ages of 7 and 15 who are pim ped to consum ers in Moscow alone. Many are forcibly 'recruited' then raped and tortured into obedience. Most quickly becom e drug addicts.1 It is no coincidence that the W omen of Russia, one of the largest and most powerful political parties now com pet ing for power, is allied with com munist or form er communist sectors; it is som etim es referred to by the Western press as "a communist front organi zation." On the other hand, m any of the gains m ade by wom en through rcvolu tionary praxis in Russia and Central America alike will undoubtedly re main in place. As Russian women will never return to the inegalitarian character of the Tzarist past, so the women of Nicaragua will probably never again be forced to live under the kind of conditions that they en dured under the U.S. puppet Samoza. Central American Eeminism Since the rise of feminist movements, particularly their 'second wave* of the 1960s, feminist and antiimperialist ideologies have shared much com m on cause. As de Beauvoir observed in the mid 1970s, the struggle for 1 FI Diaria d e H oy (San Salvador), "Aterrador C om erdo Sexual de Nihas Denuncian en Rusia,* 18 O ctober 1992, p. 11. 330 w om en's em ancipation has been intim ately linked to the historical antiim perialist m ovem ent: It w as in th e interior of the anti-imperialist m ovem ent where the true raising of feminist consciousness took place, o r in the m ovem ent against the Vietnam w ar in the United States, or as a consequence of the m ovem ents of 68 in France and in other European countries. W om en began to becom e aw are of their pow er w hen they understood that capitalism necessarily resulted in the oppression of th e p o o r in all parts of the world, w om en b e gan to participate on a massive scale in the class struggle, even though they rejected the term "class struggle,” they becam e ac tivists. They participated in dem onstrations, and took part in mil itant leftist clandestine associations. They struggled just like m en for a future w ithout exploitation and w ithout alienation.1 The colonial and form er colonial world has been the central focus of this anti imperialist m ovem ent Vietnam, Central America, etc. Broad sectors of th e w om en's m ovem ent, particularly b u t not exclusively in the 1960s, have linked th e issue of w om en's oppression in general to the question of justice in th e Third World. The geo political context of Central Am erican feminism provides it with inherent critical force. As Daly argues, "creative eschatology must com e from the disenfranchised sex '2 This is particularly true with respect to the disenfranchised sex of disenfranchised peoples. In the eschatological vision of gender equality com ing from Central Am erican feminism, both 1 Simone d e Beauvoir, "Simone d e Beauvoir, una intelectual que se caso con el siglo,” D o cu m en to s so b re la m ujert v ol. 2, ed. C entro de Investigation d e la Realidad de Am erica Latina (Managua), January March, 1988, p . 38 2Mary Daly, B eyo n d G od th e F ather Tow ards a P hilosophy o f W om en's Liberation (Boston: Beacon Press, 1973), p. 34. 337 m achism o and imperialism are to b e done away with because, "they mean the sam e thing: submission and oppression."1 Nicaraguan feminists Julia Esquivel and Luz Beatriz Arellano com pare the imperialistic attitude of the United States towards Central America with the m achista attitude of Nicaraguan m en to their women: The United States was happy to have us as its backyard; men are the sam e way, happy with a life in which they see us as their backyard. The gringos com e and make us do all the work. A change in this situation did not and still does not suit the United States; it is the sam e with the m a n .. .. All of Central America is a w om an.2 Feminist criticism of U.S. imperialism in Latin America did not originate with Central America's revolutions, it dates back at least to the early part of this century. At the Fifth International Conference of American States held in Santiago in 1923, feminist participants challenged "United States imperial ist activities in Central America and the Caribbean," a position fully sup ported by feminist leaders throughout the hem isphere. Similarly, the W om en's International League for Peace and Freedom, meeting in Havana in 1928, testified that they had "worked for m any years against North American imperialism."3 More recently, the HI Congress of W omen of 11V Encuentro Feminista, M ujer C entroam ericana. violenda y guerra, m em orias d el fa//er(M6xico: Gxfam, 1987), p. 142. 2Julia Esquivel and Luz Beatriz Arellano, "La prostitucibn en Nicaragua: un desaflo a las iglesias," in A m anacer, no. 56 (Managua), May June 1988, p. 24. 3Francesca Miller, "Latin American Feminism and the Transnational Arena," in W om en, Culture, a n d Politics in Latin Am erica: Sem inar on 338 Latin America and the Caribbean meeting in Brazil in the sum m er of 1985 adopted a platform that was "both antiimperialist and antipatriarchal," protesting the foreign debt to the International M onetary Fund on the basis that "we did not ask for it nor have we enjoyed it." They voiced support for "the struggle of wom en in Nicaragua and Cuba "1 Hundreds of w om en from throughout Central America journalists, la b o r union leaders, teachers, campesinas, etc. gathered at the IV Encuentro Feminista in Mexico in 1998, "reflected in turns on the imperative neces sity of integrating feminist practice (re vindications of gender, ethnicity, and class) into the projects of the counter hegem onic struggle of the region as an unavoidable condition for the achievem ent of an integral human liberationM They sought to "recover the feminist dimension and identity in order to incorporate them into the liberation struggle of the people and to make possible the construction of a society that overcom es oppression and the exploitation of gender, ethnicity, and class." They saw them selves as "located in a white hot historical situation, participating in popular m ovem ents from a revolutionary perspective," insisting that "feminism must be based in the struggle against the yankees and in the search for peace."2 Fem inism a n d Culture in Latin Am erica, ed. Emile Bergmann (Berkeley Calif.: University of California Press, 1990), pp. 15 17. 1 Luis Vitale, La m itad invisible d e ia histcria: B pro ta g o n ism o social d e la m u jer latinoam ericana (Buenos Aires: Planeta, 19871 p. 236. 2As they saw it: "Im perialist... aggression is directed against the Central American revolutionary m ovem ent in its entirety and against those governm ents and forces disposed to join in solidarity with the strug gles for national and social em ancipation.... North American interven 339 According to the Salvadoran W omen's Association (AMES), women took part in the revolutionary struggle because they saw their vital inter ests and survival as the sam e as those of male revolutionaries. They identi fied "the main enem y of both men and women in El Salvador" as "imperialism, the oligarchy and the military governments." They con tended that "men and w om en together must free ourselves so as to be able to construct a new form of society."1 As Nash and Safa emphasize, many Third World w om en have rejected the dem and for equality within a given structure of inequality; "class in equalities take priority over sexual inequality, since only a basic structural change aiming at a m ore equitable distribution of wealth and income, cou pled with the recognition of the needs for sexual equality, will benefit working class w om en as well as their m ore privileged sisters." They point out how, even in the United States, the wom en's m ovem ent continues to tion has the double goal of rolling back or impeding the development of the revolution sim ultaneously with the m odernization of the ruling sys tern of domination, and it clearly has the character of being in it for the long haul." IV Encuentro Feminist a, M ujer C'.cntroamericana, pp. 9,10,16 17, 20 21 1 Marilyn Thompson, W om en o f El Salvador The Price o f Freedom (London: Zed Books, 1986), pp. 95 96; This perspective in many ways mir rors that of Vietnamese women. Eisen argues that it w as precisely the mis eiy created by French and then U.S. colonialism that was responsible for the existence of a Vietnamese w om en's m ovem ent to begin w ith For her, the conditions of colonialism: "define the conditions and set the bound aries and priorities of all aspects of w om en's struggles in Viet Nam," She cautions that when "we attem pt to evaluate or com pare the progress that Vietnamese women have made, it is im portant to rem em ber these roots of w om en's oppression [and resistance^ not just the ideal of wom en's libera tion." Arlene Eisen, W om en and R evolution in Vietnam (London. Zed Books, 1984), p. 72 (emphasis mine). 340 have limited appeal to working-class women because of its deem phasis of class issues.1 As the late Nora Astorga, then Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs for Nicaragua, explained it: M ln Nicaragua we cannot conduct a struggle of a W estern feminist kind. This is alien to our reality. It doesn't make sense to separate the women's struggle from that of overcoming poverty, exploitation, and reaction. We want to prom ote women's interests within the context of that wider struggle."2 As with ideology in general, feminism is distinct to the so d o political and cultural context in which it operates. For Latin American feminists, as Jaquette observes, "Legitimate goals, such as the increase of female power and freedom, may take different institutional forms and be subject to re straints different from those of the North American experience." For her, true consciousness can b e created only out of each individual's understand ing of her own situation.3 Different sets of feminist priorities betw een First and Third W orlds has som etim es led to criticism of the opposing vision. Aguilar San Juan, for example, describes what she sees as a "conceptual blindspot" which prevents m any W estern feminists from "recognizing 1 June Nash and Helen I. Safa, eds., W omen and Change in Latin A m erica (South Hadley, Mass.: Bergen & Garvey, 1986), pp. x, xi. 2Cited by M omsen and Townsend, G eography o f G ender in th e Third W orld, p- 22. 3Jane jaquette, "Female Political Participation in Latin America," in S ex a n d Class in Latin Am erica. W om en's Perspectives o n Politics E conom ics a n d th e Family in th e Third World, ed. June Nash and Helen I. Safa (Brooklyn: Bergen, 1980), p. 241. 341 comm itm ent to the national dem ocratic cause as an essential step tow ards the liberation of women."1 Not surprisingly, Central American feminism echoes, to som e extent, the philosophy of Bolshevik women and their priority em phasis on work ing class solidarity. According to Kollontai, for example, "the woman worker is bound to her male com rade worker by a thousand invisible threads, w hereas the aims of the bourgeois woman appear to her to be alien and incomprehensible.'2 Many Central American feminists tended to fol 1 Delia Aguilar San Juan, "Feminism and the National Liberation Struggle in the Philippines," in Judith Stiehm, W om en a n d M en's Wans (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1983) l p. 254; The wish to distance oneself from bourgeois' feminism has led som e activists to reject the label 'feminist' entirely. Flora observes how leftist women, both those forced into exile and political activists in their own countries, avoided the label 'feminist' and "vocally denied any links to First World w om en's m ovem ents, particu lady those based in the United States." Cornelia Butler Flora, "Socialist Feminism in Latin America," in U nited N ations D ecade fo r W om en W orfd Conference, ed. Naomi B . Lynn (New York: Hayworth, 1984), pp. 74 76, This sentim ent was especially pronounced in the testimony of a Salvadoran trade union representative who charged that: "Feminist libera tion is bourgeois and talks about such things as the legalization of abortion. 1 would say that feminism is imperialist. W om en participate, not as femi nists, but as revolutionaries to free ourselves from exploitation. M achism o is the result of the capitalist sy stem .,.." Cited in Thompson, W om en o f El Salvador, pp.135 136; Flora explains that in many Latin American circles "strongly nationalist and antiimperialist frames of reference have led to a rejection of 'matriarchal' ideological influences from the North." Latin America's socialist feminists have historically preferred, therefore, to "seek out inter continental linkages to other socialist feminist groups." Flora, "Socialist Feminism in Latin America," pp. 74 76. 2cited in Buckley, W om en a n d Id eo lo g y in the Soviet Union, p. 54. She rejected, therefore, the very idea of a universal “ w om an question' or w om an's m ovem ent because for her, "a sober examination of reality re veals that this unity does not and cannot exist." 342 low Bolshevik feminists in their vision of revolutionary social change to which issues of gender were at least partly subordinated, at least for the time being.1 Similarly, Vietnamese feminists, according to Eisen, did not opposed male power p e r s e Instead, they identified their oppressors as "feudalists, colonists, and imperialists."2 Fem inistas have tended to be critical of what they see as 'anti male' el em ents in U.S. feminism, the labelling of man as the enem y rather than unjust social systems.3 While the difficulty of changing male attitudes is ac 1 As one female representative of the Salvadoran opposition declared in 1982: "The main thing is the national liberation struggle. Feminist de m ands are out for the m o m e n t... beyond the incorporation of women into the revolutionary organizations and the fight against m achism o, we will have to wait until we can implement structural changes in the eco nomic and social system." Thompson, W om en o f B Salvador, pp. 135 136; Similarly, as expressed by the late revolutionary fighter Norma Herrera: "In these circumstances, the specific vindications of women are not our principal objective, rather, they are those of the entire Salvadoran people. With the defeat of the current system and the installation of a new one, not only wom en will b e liberated but the entire people." CEMUJER (Centro de Estudios de la Mujer "Norm a Virginia Guirola de Herrera"), N orm a Vida insurgente y fern inis ta (San Salvador UCA Editores, 1992), p. 50; Jaquette observed that Salvadoran w omen tried to create a space "distinct from all forms of *bourgeois' feminism" She stresses the im portance of the differ ent concrete realities of oppression which have confronted women from the South as opposed to those from the North. While the struggle for re productive freedom may be of primary significance in the 'developed' countries, for example, in Latin America, as she points out, "we m ust also fight against forced sterilization .. which som e governments have agreed to under pressure from the United S tates" Jane S. jaquette, "Female Political Participation in Latin America," in W om en in th e W orld "1975 1985, the W om en's D ecade,"ed. Lynne B . Iglitzin and Ruth Ross (Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC Clio, 1986), pp. 262 263. ^Eisen, W om en a n d R evolution, p. 8. 3See, for example, Encuentro Latinoamericano de Mujeres, "Communidad de Mujeres y Hombres en ta Ig lestasp o n so red by the 343 knowledged, doing so is seen as an inevitable necessity. According to one Guatemalan activist, "we believe that the struggle must b e side by side with man, that we must not be separated from man because we are not against him, we are against m achista ideas."1 Mexican feminist M. Q ara Bingemer stresses, "The liberation of women is not being done in isolation, nor is it done against anyone, against any other segm ent of society, most concretely, it is not being done against m en"2 Generally speaking wom en from socioeconom ic sectors which have been historically disenfranchised or oppressed are much m ore reticent to join in feminist action groups or activities which exclude men. This ten dency was illustrated at the fifth International W om en's Conference held in San Jos6, Costa Rica in February, 1993. According to Nuria Gamboa, it was the indigenous representatives who expressed themselves m ost clearly on the them e of the necessity of unity between men and wom en and the struggle that is the struggle of both. One indfgena from Guatemala testified Comisibn of Faith and Order of the World Counsel of Churches (San Jos6: SEBILA, 1981), p. 51. 1IV Encuentro Feminista, M ujer Centnoamericana, p. 56. 2 Marl a Clara Bingemer, "Teologfa y mujer" (Mexico: Servicios de Informacibn, Educacibn Popular y Accibn Comunitaria, 1987), p. 1; The need for som e male solidarity for the progressive developm ent of gender relations is, of course, widely recognized. For Kate Young for example, while, "it is not immediately evident that the m ajority of men, whatever their class, would welcome change in the socially constituted relations be tween the sexes, in the sexual division of labour, or in the construction and ordering of sexuality," she still concludes that, “ without incorporating at least som e of them into the struggle, a successful outcom e would be un likely." Kate Y oung ed., W om en a n d E conom ic D evelopm ent: Local, Regional, and N ational Planning Strategies (Oxford: Berg 1988), pp. 1112. 344 that, "in the struggle for life which is w hat w e need an d want the most, we are together [men and women], despite the external forces which want to separate us." Her point w as echoed by a Q uechua w om an w ho insisted that. "We have to b e conscious of w ho we would benefit if were to separate our selves, w om en and men: the evil governm ents. They are the ones w ho separate us and m ake it look like our m ale co m p a fiera s are the enemy. They d o not want us to see further than our nose."1 Feminists have also som etim es been divided along N orth /S o u th lines in their attitude tow ards war. A ccording to Stiehm, part of the ideological controversy betw een feminists has revolved around the m oral dilem m a of the legitimacy o r illegitimacy of violent social change. "American w om en especially cherish the illusion that conflict is a controlled, geographic event one to which m en m ay go while w om en stay away," since A m erican forces have not fought a sustained engagem ent in the U.S. for m ore than a century.2 Feminisms North and South have also diverged in their respective vi sions of family and the appropriate o r inappropriate aspects of sex role dif ferentiation within family life. F em inistas strive to m aintain a continuity with traditional gender identities at the sam e time that they press for equal dignity and pow er with men. North A m erican feminists are generally 1 Nuria Gam boa, "Mujeres d e todo el m undo, unlos,"in Et D iana I jittn o iSan Salvador), 10 M arch 1993, p. 9 2Judith Stiehm, "W om en an d Citizenship," in W o m en, Power, a n d Political System s, ed. M argherita RendeU N ew York: St. Martin's Press, 1981), p. 53. 345 m uch m ore willing if not eager to abandon traditional sentim ents concern ing the sanctity of the nuclear family, pressing for androgyny and the aban donm ent of gender differentiation.1 Enloe goes so far as to question the au thenticity of fem ale liberation resulting from the participation of w om en in liberation arm ies precisely on the basis of the failure of these revolu tionary m ovem ents to d o away with traditional understandings of m oth erhood.2 F em inistas are m ore likely to seek to advance female autonom y and dignity at the sam e time that sam e traditional aspects of m otherhood are preserved.3 1 A ccording to Pateman, m any feminists, especially in the United States, conclude that the only alternative to patriarchal oppression is to render m asculinity and femininity politically irrelevant. Carole Pateman, The Sexual C ontract (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1988), p. 187, A ndrea Dworkin tells us that there are only tw o options for w om en's liber ation, "women m ust seize power" or m ust "accomplish the transform ation into androgyny." A ndrea Dworkin, W o m en H a tin g iNew York: E.P. Dutton, 1974), p. 191 2She concurs with Molyneaux w ho lam ents that: "Even in countries with a history of guerrilla struggle in which w om en have taken an active role in the revolutionary army, sexual divisions in this area have not been eroded, a w om an's 'special' relationship to children continues unchal len g ed " Q uoted by Cynthia Enloe, D oes Khaki B eco m e You? The M ilitarization o f W om en's U ves (Boston: South End Press, 1983), p. 167. ^Traditional female roles have often been utilized as vehicles of pow er in Latin America. A ccording to Lavrin, "women have been reluctant to abandon traditional m odels of femininity, even in politics, because such m odels m ay give them access to power, in the hom e o r in social activities." Asuncion Lavrin, ed , Latin A m erican W om en: H istorical P erspectives W estport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1978), p. 18; Aguilar San Juan contends that, "the family unit, generally seen in the W est as the prim ary locus of w om en's oppression, here [in the developing world] serves as a vehicle for mobilizing opposition to oppression." She rejects, therefore, "the com m on feminist view that the family is eternally oppressive everyw here" Aguilar San juan, "Feminism and the National Liberation Struggle in the 340 Many First W orld feminists are, of course, very sym pathetic to the im peratives of class consciousness and struggle. These N orth/South differ ences can b e seen m ore as divergent priorities rather than principles.1 A nother way to look at this is the w ay in which fem in ista s would tend to reject w hat Reuther calls a 'spiritualization' of w om en's issues. According to her, Daly, for example, sees w om en’ s liberation as "primarily spiritual." While Daly affirms that "wom en's liberation is essentially linked with full hum an liberation," she also trum pets an isolationist approach, calling for a "withdrawal to the boundary" of patriarchal structures, defining "real boundary living" as a "refusal of tokenism and ab so rp tio n " This em phasis on segregation rather than integration is central to the debate. Reuther crit Philippines," p. 255; For Jaquette, the central issue is female pow er She ar gues that, "North Am erican experience to the contrary, it m ay be possible to maximize female pow er by retaining sex role differences." She notes haw in Latin America, "women them selves have a stake in the family as a strong institution in which they have power," such as the "socialization of children, the enforcem ent of social sanctions against w om en and m en w ho deviate from accepted behavior patterns, and the preservation of moral and spiritual values that are still a part of the Latin American cultural her itage." Jaquette, "Female Political Participation in Latin America," in S e x a nd Class in Latin A m erica, pp. 222,229. 1 W here Central Am erican feminists have tended to set the need for vindications b ased on class as their first priority, in the North, m any tend to subordinate the class issue to that of gender. Reuther, for example, de scribes 'radical' feminism as insisting that w om en's liberation is first and forem ost liberation from m ale dom ination. Reuther, Sexism a n d C od Talk, p. 228. A ccording to Barrett, Millet's theory of patriarchy, for example, gives "analytic primacy" to dom ination based o n sex over class and Shulamith Firestone's theoretical goal w as "to su b s titute sex for class as the prim e m o to r in a materialistic account of history " Michele Barrett, W o m en ’ s O ppression Today: JYobiem s in M arxist Fem inist A nalysis (London: Verso. 1980), p. 11 (em phasis mine). i 47 icizes the separatist stance as "delusive," because, rather than destroying m ale hierarchical!sm, it reverses it, m aking w om en "norm ative hum an ity" and m en the "defective" m em bers of the hum an species. F em inistas would applaud Reuther’ s contention that "sexism cannot b e solved by w om en alone," that it "dem ands a parallel m ale conversion."1 A nother factor which m ay help to account for the greater im portance at tached to integration by Central American feminists, is the fact that lesbian feminists have h ad only very limited impact on the developm ent of Latin A m erican feminism. A s Butler points out, while "in North Am erica and Europe, there is a strong radical feminist /lesbian separatist sta n c e ... except for a few small groups in Brazil and Mexico, that stance d o es not play a part in w om en's politics in m ost of Latin America."2 The strength of traditional sexual m ores has im peded the open acceptance of hom osexual orientations both inside an d outside of revolutionary circles. Several female com m an ders of the FMLN, for example, w ere dem oted on this basis. According to interviews conducted by Garcia and Gomariz, the rationale for this restric 1 For Reuther, w om en's affirmation of their ow n hum anity entails a like affirmation of the hum anity of males. She se es the struggle against sex ism as "basically a struggle to hum anize th e world, to hum anize ourselves, to salvage the planet, to b e in right relation to G od/ess. At this point, m en and w om en can really join hands in a com m on struggle" Reuther, S exism a n d G od Talk, pp. 192, 228, 231; Daly, B eyo n d G od th e Father, pp. 25, 55; Gilliam describes a "female chauvinism" which "operates on the assum p tions that w om en are m ore 'hum an' than men, and that this is biologically determ ined." Angela Gilliam, "W om en's Equality and N ational Liberation," in Third W orld W o m en a n d th e Politics o f Fem inism , ed. C handra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), p. 217. ^Flora, "Socialist Feminism in Latin America," p. 70. 348 tion was based on the traditional and conservative sexual m ores of the cam pesino population which the guerrilla saw itself as serving and was, of course, attem pting to convert, attract, or politicize.1 Anti revolutionary groups have typically sought to capitalize on the tensions that exist between som e feminist dem ands, generally upheld by the Left, and the sanctity accorded the nuclear family in Latin American cultures. By portraying the Left as antithetical to family life, reactionary groups have scored key victories in the mobilization of conservative and middle class women for their political agendas. The support of women was of instrumental im portance in the U.S. backed overthrows of the dem o cratically elected, left of center, governm ents of both Goulart in Brazil in 1%4 and Allende in Chile in 1973. Lobao accurately observes how "revolutionary m ovem ents remain vulnerable to feminine attack, unless they deal skillfully with the potential ideological contradiction of support for the family coupled with a social change agenda." This has undoubtedly been one prom inent reason why many revolutionary leaders have been som ew hat reluctant to com ply with feminist initiatives that could have been seen as antithetical to family cohesion. This is particularly true in times of acute crises. According to Lobao, the Contra invasion of Nicaragua pressured the wom en's union AMNLAE to "table highly feminist issues for fear of alienating popular support.'2 1 Ana Isabel Garcia and Enrique Gomarlz, M ujeres Centm am ericanas, vol 2, Ffecios d el conflicto( San Jos6: Fiasco, 1989), p 94. 2Linda Lobao, "Women in Revolutionary Movements: Changing Patterns of Latin American Guerrilla Struggle," in W om en a n d Social 349 Feminism. Socialism, and Democracy In som e im portant ways, historical attem pts at the realization of equal ity between the sexes through the construction of socialist societies have been failures. Socialist m ovem ents have tended to maintain patriarchal ar rangem ents and ideology to som e extent.1 This has been true in Central America as well. W om en remain excluded, for example, from the top eche Ion of pow er of the Sandinista party. This is also true of the Left in El Salvador and Guatemala, particularly the latter. This is perhaps one reason why wom en's organizations in Central America have begun to develop greater levels of independence from the Left as was bom out by the discus sion taking place at the latest Encuentro Feminista conference in San Salvador in the fall of 1993.2 Many socialist feminists have looked to the developm ent of new, ere ative forms of socialism. For Reuther, H lt is not accidental that feminists Fhntest, ed Guida W est and Rhoda Lois B 1 urn berg (New York; Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 183, 202. 1 While de Beauvoir categorically expressed that "equality between the sexes is impossible under the capitalist regime," she also em phasized that: "It is not certain, however, that a socialist revolution would necessarily re suit in equality betw een the sexes, it is sufficient to look at Soviet Russia or Czechoslovakia (if and when we persist in calling these countries 'socialist,' myself, for m y part, do not admit that) where there exists a pro found confusion between the em ancipation of the proletariat and the em ancipation of women. Strangely enough, the proletariat ended up being constituted entirely by men. Patriarchal values have rem ained intact there as they have here." de Beauvoir, "Simone d e Beauvoir, una intelectual que se caso con el siglo," p. 39. 2Also see Margaret Randall, Sandino's D aughters R evisited (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994). 350 who have tried to imagine a reconstructed, nonsexist society have instinc tively gravitated towards som e form of the utopian socialist model rather than to state socialism.1 '1 Decentralization itself is generally conducive to greater female autonom y As pointed out in a UNESCO funded study on w om en and developm ent, the decentralization of public policy develop m ent should entail a higher level of dem ocratization than that dictated by custom, which can in itself be a strategy for deepening the involvement of w om en in policy public planning.2 While w om en m ade m any im portant gains under the Sandinistas, for example, benefiting from the redistribu tion and cooperativization of large sections of the country, the Party's lead ership was frequently criticized for the centralized control and planning which the all male leadership body maintained. Reuther suggests that "the feminist question seem s to explode the lim its of the dom inant socialist traditions" and that "it cannot be solved within the limits of its system."3 Ultimately, perhaps, the 'question' cannot be co m p letely 'solved'. Progress can b e made, however, tow ards giving w om en greater direct access to economic power, as has generally transpired where the Left has com e to power. As noted by Le6n and Deere, it has only been in Cuba and Nicaragua where w om en have been direct beneficiaries, 1 Reuther, Sexism a n d G od Talk, p. 227. ^UNESCO Nueva Sociedad, "La mujer en la planificacibn y el desar rollo” (Caracas: Editorial Nueva Sociedad, 1988), p. 21. 3 Reuther, Sexism a n d G od Talk p 227. 351 either individually or collectively, of agrarian reforms.1 W hat redistribu tion of pow er /w ealth in the direction of the poor that the Central American Left is able to push forward in the future will undoubtedly con tribute in a com m ensurate fashion to the autonom y of wom en as a class. IYofound structural changes induced by cam pesino proletarian initiatives will have to be accom panied by a great deal of flexibility, however, tailored, to som e extent, so as to gam er the support of those w hose values are still heavily influenced by patriarchal tradition. Central American revolutionaries have always sought to portray their political visions as indigenous forms of socialism that em phasized plural ity and flexibility, combining large public with large private sectors, increas ingly emphasizing the importance of turning over economic pow er di rectly to the workers and peasants. Today, they are even more concerned to distance themselves from the 'state* m odels represented by the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc.2 Many if not m ost Latin American 1 Magdalena Le6n and Carmen Dianna Deere, eds., La m u je r y la polltica agraria en am £rica la tin a (Mexico: Siglo Veintiuno, 1986), p. 17. ^D agoberto Gutierrez, for example, Salvadoran Communist and mem b er of the Provisional Directorate of the FMLN, explicitly recognizes the critical need to put economic pow er directly into the hands of female work ers and peasants and appeals to the counsel of Rosa Luxemburg who warned the Bolsheviks that "without general elections, without liberty of opinion, life dies and each public institution becom es a m ere appearance of life in which only the bureaucracy rem ains as an active element." He sees the collapsed systems of Eastern Europe as very far from the socialist model which he and his colleagues envision for Central America, wherein "the producers are associate ow ners/bosses of the production process, where a broadly based economic, social, and political dem ocracy is liberated from all exploitation or pressure based on class, ethnicity, or gender " For him, "universal suffrage and political pluralism are not mere *bourgeois institu ttons', but powerful conquests gained by the people in a struggle, m eter by S 5 2 Marxists have fully em braced both procedural and substantive form s ot dem ocracy, som e see this as the very content of socialism, where workers and p easants directly control the distribution of the m eans of production and the allocation of the product. Chinchilla sees Marxism's adaptation of dem ocracy as "an essential precondition for its convergence with contem porary feminism and with contem porary social m ovem ents in general.1 '1 Feminist solidarity with the Left has contributed to this process of increas ing dem ocratization of Left institutions. Chinchilla describes a tendency am ong som e Latin Am erican feminists to reject the notion of the revolutionary V anguard' as "inherently incon sistent with the kind of dem ocratic arrangem ents which the feminist m ovem ent advocates." While others reject the idea that the vanguard is necessarily problematic, feminists in general have becom e very critical of the ‘to p dow n' pow er structures and intolerance of minority views which have characterized som e if not m ost revolutionary vanguards in the past. This has led to a creative tension betw een independent feminists and fe male militants of Left political parties which reinforces the class conscious m eter and with blood and fire." D agoberto Gutiferrez, "El M undo d e Hoy," A ltem a tiva (San Salvador), 19 O ctober 1992, p. 6; Schafik HAndal, general coordinator of the FMLN, m akes clear that while the FMLN has not aban d oned its objective of socialism, the form tow ards which it presses has nothing to d o with the state socialism that he sees as having been a failure. Tom ds Borge, "Emisario d e la paz, entrevista con Schafik Handal," A lte m a tiva (San Salvador), 5 February 1993, p. 10. 1 Chinchilla, "Marxism, Feminism, and the Struggle for D em ocracy in Latin America," p. 44. 353 current am ong feminists and makes m ovem ents on the Left m ore open to fem inism .1 The Left, generally speaking has consistently cham pioned the principle of 'peoples pow er1 through free and dem ocratic elections. In important ways, Central American revolutions must be seen as responses to the de nial, on the part of the neocolonial Right, of the ability of the Left to partici pate in the dem ocratic process-its parties banned, its leaders arrested a n d /o r assassinated. One can make a very strong case that the conquest of free and fair procedural dem ocracy in Central America, to the extent that it has occurred, has been a product of the revolutionary struggle itself. According to Shepherd, using Lincoln's definition of democracy, Central American progressives have generally been m ore concerned with w hether governm ent was dem ocratic in the sense of "for the people" than w hether it w as "of the people" o r "by the people." The first priority has tended to b e whether government 'democratically' ruled fo r the people by increasing socioeconomic well being in the form of jobs, public health, ed ucation, housing and food.2 Progressive Central Americans are very inter ested in 'substantive' as well as 'procedural' dem ocracy which would be at tuned to the concrete needs of the majority.3 The problem with democracy, 1 Ibid., pp. 48 49 (emphasis hers). 2Philip L Shepherd, "Honduras Confronts Its Future: Some Closing but Hardly Final Thoughts," in H onduras C onfronts Its Future, ed. Mark B . Rosenberg and Philip L Shepherd (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Riemer, 1986), p. 231. ^As Borge points out, "democracy is based on the principle of the subor dination of the minority to the majority and in the recognition of freedom and the equality of civil rights." Tomas Borge, Un grano d e maiz: 354 Central A m erican style, has been that it has continued to discriminate against the poor, tending to foster and safeguard only the interests of the upper classes1 This has been a historical product of the control exercised over the political process by the oligarchic/military complex While an authentic procedural dem ocracy seem s to have been fully ac cepted by all sides in Nicaragua and El Salvador, this is certainly not the case in Guatemala where the systematic 'decapitation' of the political oppo sition continues. In each of the four countries under discussion, civilian control over the military remains limited, particularly in Guatemala While num erous signs of hope for the creation of m ore fully dem ocratic structures throughout Central America present themselves, the struggle for peace with justice is far from over. W idespread political violence may continue for som e time, especially in Guatemala. C onversation con Fidel Castro (San Salvador Editorial Tercer Mundo, 1992), p 105. 1 Alvarado, for example, protests that: "They say we have dem ocracy in Honduras, because when there's not a coup we have elections every four years. But dem ocracy m eans more than just elections. Democracy m eans that we all have the sam e opportunities, that w e all have the right to live a decent life. M aybe there's dem ocracy for the rich, but certainly not for the poor. In a dem ocracy we're all supposed to be equal before the law, but in Honduras the rich are m ore equal than the poor. In a dem ocracy if you break the law you're supposed to get punished, right? But here in Honduras the rich don't get punished, only the poor. The rich d o n t go to jail when they kill cam pesinos or labor leaders. The rich d a n t go to jail when they violate the Agrarian Reform Law. The rich don't go to jail when they steal from the people. No, the law only applies to the poor." Elvia Alvarado, D on't Be A fraid Gringo. A H onduran W om an Speaks from th e Heart, trans. and ed. M edea Benjamin (San Francisco: Food First Books, 1987), pp. 117 118. 355 N ealiheralism o econom ic freedom and justice as defined by the capital ists has com e to dom inate m ost of the world. Those who continue to op pose it on grounds of principle represent the hard line Left, e. g, Castro, and the ’ jpunos"among the Sandinistas led by former president Daniel Ortega. More flexible factions of the Left have emerged, however, such as the "pragtriMicosH am ong the Sandinistas led by Sergio Ramirez, which have reconciled themselves to m ore centrist positions in a search to put a m ore hum ane face on capitalist structures. A similar division has devel oped in the FMLN after its electoral loss of April 1994.1 The Latin American Left is struggling to redefine itself in a post Cold War world. Chinchilla describes a "growing convergence of thinking on is sues that once divided or were the source of serious tension." Veiy broad popular support is emerging for dem ocracy which highlights pluralism as well as cooperativization and cham pions the principle of freedom and au tonom y of popular and labor organizations. Latin American Marxists have, by and large, abandoned the hope of overthrowing corrupt and unpopular governments by force and have becom e part of a growing consensus that the pow er (and its abuse) of elite classes can only be successfully counter balanced by the broadest, m ost democratic grass roots m ovem ents Feminism is increasingly seen by Marxists as an essential part of this m ovem ent. Both feminist and what Chinchilla calls "New Marxist" 1A m ore centrist faction, represented primarily by Joaquin Villalobos and Ana Guadelupe Martinez (now the m ost powerful w om an on the Left), accepted a cooperative pact with the governing ARENA Party, caus ing a serious rift in the FMLN. 3 5 6 m ovem ents are in a process of adjustm ent to new environm ents with greater political freedom which present new organizational challenges.1 With respect to the relationship betw een feminism and democracy, however, it is im portant to take into account the way in which feminist dem ands have som etim es run counter to the desires of the majority, women as well as men. In Vietnam, for example, polygamy was not offi daily outlawed until the Law on Marriage and Family was passed in I960 because the state policy had been not to pass a law until it reflected the atti tudes of the majority of the people. While cadres from the Women's Union had lobbied for years for this legislation, a great deal of opposition cam e from w om en who, fearful of their husbands taking concubines, op posed the provision which gave equal rights to children bom in or out of w edlock Similarly, the Nicaraguan W om an's A ssodation w as frequently criticized for being too far ahead of public opinion.2 IVogressive legislation on som e gender issues will undoubtedly con tinue to run into som e tension with popular opinion. As recognized by Ho Chi Minh in his greetings to an International W om en's Day celebration in 1952, sexism is an extremely complex and difficult problem for which their are no easy fixes, "deep rooted in the thoughts and attitudes of everyone," 1 Chinchilla, “Marxism, Feminism, and the Struggle for Democracy in Latin America," pp. 39, 49 50. 2 Eisen, W om en a n d Revolution, p. 181; Mary Stead, "Women, War, and U nderdevelopm ent in Nicaragua," in W o m en D evelopm ent, and Survival in th e Third World, ed. Haleh Afshar (Iondon: Zed Books, 1991), p. 68. 357 and “it cannot be done away with by coercion.” 1 In addition to the diffi culty, if not impossibility, of eradicating patriarchal attitudes through coer cion, som e analysts argue that the prom otion of special privileges for w om en may actually thwart their achievem ent of equality with men in the long run.2 What is clear is that any feminist gains to b e m ade in the future will have to be a product of the democratic process, a conquest by progres sive w om en and their male allies working together for the realization of greater equality of opportunity for everyone. The solidification of Central American dem ocracies will be dependant, to som e extent, on the strengthening of national sovereignty. As Borge and Castro are quick to point out, a nation that is subordinate to another nation cannot, b y definition, be democratic.3 Central American nations will re main 'dependent' on the U.S., at least economically, for som e tim e to com e (the Left joins the Right in a call for increased foreign investment). There is reason to hope, however, that as dem ocratic institutions are strengthened 1 Q uoted in Eisen, W om en a n d Revolution, p. 89. 2Famsworth, for example, argues that the policy of the Zhenotdel was flawed in this respect, that, "By seeking (and achieving) special privileges for working m others in order to ease the burden of their presum ed dual roles, rather than proposing to extend these benefits to working fathers as well, the Zhenotdel m ay in fact have hurt the cause of female equality.” According to her, the evidence suggests that "the extension of special pro tective arrangem ents for women has tended simply to reinforce occupa tional and professional segregation and to inhibit rather than to prom ote genuine sexual equality.” Beatrice Brodsky Farnsworth, "Communist Feminism: Its Synthesis and Demise," in W om en, War, a n d Revolution, ed. Carol R . Berkin and Clara M. Lovett.(New York: Holmes & Meir, 1980), p. 157. 3 Borge, Un grano d e maiz, p. 109. 3 5 8 and popular and labor organization are given the opportunity to take ad vantage of new levels of freedom of expression, this will also have a posi tive effect on the exercise of national suzerainty. This achievement of greater levels of authentic national sovereignty will contribute to the ex tent to which Central American women are able to achieve their liberation through less exploitative international relations and the developm ent of forms of governm ent that are in tune to the needs of the majority, particu larly those sectors which have historically been disenfranchised. Religious Thought and the Struggle for Gender lustice Ultimately, new directions in gender relations are possible only insofar as they are supported by new ideological visions As Pateman suggests, we need a "new stoiy about freedom", new anti patriarchal roads need to be m apped out that would lead to creative forms of dem ocratic socialism wherein the fullest expression of gender equality could be realized.1 One source of hope in this regard is to b e found in the humanistic reformation that broad sectors of Latin American Christianity particularly Catholicism have experienced, m ovem ents associated in different ways with Liberation Theology and what is referred to as the iglesia papular or Popular Church. Tempering the patriarchal bias of traditional religion is happening only very slowly, however, part of a broader although still very limited shift of pow er and em phasis away from the hierarchy and to the 'hase' 1 Pateman, The Sexual Contract, p. 233. W om en's liberation in Latin America w here the overw helm ing m a jority self identify as Christian is intricately involved with the liberation of both theology and religious institutions from their historical links to op pression based on class and race as well. For M. Clara Bingemer: W om en's liberation is being constructed insofar and as m uch as the opp ressed are realizing their liberation. Concretely, in Latin America, the them e of w om en's liberation is inseparable from the them e that occupies Liberation Theology itself; the liberation of the poor, the liberation of the Indians, the liberation of the ne gms> the liberation of all those w ho are marginalized, oppressed, invisible, from the other side of history, w ithout vote or voice, and w ho are beginning to appear, to m ake them selves visible, and to m ake their voice heard.1 Radical transform ation of a leveling1 nature, as pointed out by Reuther, can legitimately b e seen as central to Jesus's message, where the first will b e last and the last first, the p o o r filled with good things, and th e mighty put dow n from their thrones. "Prostitutes, along with tax collectors, will go into the Kingdom of God ahead of the Scribes and Pharisees." She tells us that Jesus "pressed beyond the critique of the present order to a m ore radi cal vision, a revolutionary transform ative process that will bring all to a new m ode of relationship."2 b in g e m e r, "Teologta y mujer," pp. 12. 2 Reuther, Sexism a n d G od Talk, p. 30; Reuther sees Latin American Liberation Theology, however, despite its stance tow ards the p o o r and dis enfranchised, as continuing to discrim inate against women. For her it rep resents o n e m ore exam ple of a "liberated fraternity" that defines itself through the exclusion of women. She charges that. "W om en are, again and again, betrayed by m ale exodus com munities, w hether those b e the assem bly of ancient Israel at Sinai, the eighteenth-century French and American Revolutions, o r Black and Latin Am erican liberation theology today. They work enthusiastically for the liberation of 'their people', only to discover, w hen the liberated com m unity assem bles its new institutions, that they are 360 Traditional Christianity has left a heritage which, from a feminist per spective, is in desperate need of reformation. A s Christian feminist ethi cists Harrison and Heyward contend, Christianity has historically devel oped and sustained a "sadomasochistic" social and sexual form of relation, "in which pleasure is available chiefly through pain." They describe an in crease, over time, of a "sex phobic and sex preocuppied focus within the Christian ethic," linking the fear of sex and its rigid control to the "rapid developm ent of ecclesiastical hierarchies within W estern Christianity." They are especially critical of Christianity's glorification of being long suf fering', a cross bom in special ways for the female Christian.1 Much of this oppression, especially in Latin America, has been centered on sexual iden tity and the em phasis in Christian patriarchy on repressing sexual activity or fulfillment, particularly that of the female. New discussions about sexu ality are called for, both secular and religious, so as to better understand the way in which the individual sexual autonom y of both genders can and should be respected. not included as active m em bers but are relegated again to dependency." Reuther, W om angutdes, p. 156. It is certainly the case that the m ost promi nent figures in Latin America's Liberation Theology have been and con tinue to be male. This of course is a consequence of the traditional, com par ative absence of females in seminaries and positions of pow er in religious organizations 1 Beverly W. Harrison, and Carter Heyward, "Pain and Pleasure: Avoiding the Confusions of Christian Tradition and Feminist Theory," in Christianity, Patriarchy, a n d A b u se : A Fem inist Critique, ed. Joanne Brown Carlson and Carole R. Bohn (Cleveland, Ohio: Pilgrim Press, 1989), p. 151 153. 3 0 1 The Catholic Church has traditionally resisted em phasis on the reli gious dimensions of the here-and mow as opposed to the rew ards (and re tributions) of the life to come. According to Argvalo, it was the very idea of terrestrial paradise which the Church saw as satanic and responsible, there fore, for its radical anticom munist stance.1 For Chinchilla, from the per spective of the Church, "women w ere destined, by nature and divine plan, to b e self sacrificing and self-abnegating vessels of virtue and guardians of family and public morality." It opposed feminism on the grounds that it "pointed w om en in the direction of materialism, individualism, and ego tism."2 Laboring under attack from both Church and state, Central American feminists have had to struggle against enorm ous odds in order to make their voices heard. Those w ho sought to implement progressive agendas in gender rela tions have traditionally com e from socialist rather than Christian sectors of society. June Hahner observed that in North America it was Quaker women w ho "supported by their men, w ere the first social rebels and dared to speak and to advocate causes," but that in her experience of Latin A m erica," .. the only groups 1 found of such com radeship were the Socialists. These w om en dare and d o and their men applaud, but because Socialists are reputed to be anti-religious as well as anti state, this very act 1 Juan Jos6 Ar6valo, A n ti K om m unism in Latin A m erica (New York: Lyle Stewart, 1963), pp. 157 160. ^She adds that the m edia shared in the stigmatization of feminism as a "radical and crazy" m ovem ent. Chinchilla, "Marxism, Fem inism and the Struggle for Democracy in Latin America," p. 40. 402 builds the walls of convention tem porarily higher"1 As solidarity contin ues to grow or solidify between Christians and socialists, however, this will undoubtedly contribute to greater acceptance in Christian circles of female participation in political discussions and processes Catholic hierarchies of Central America traditionally opposed progres sive political elem ents because they feared the erosion of their own author ity. The Second Vatican Council of the mid-1960s laid the foundation for profound changes, however, and in the decade that followed many I^atin American bishops em braced programs of progressive socioeconomic re form, establishing the basis for dialogue and cooperation between Christians and socialists, as occurred, for example, under Chile's dem ocrati cally elected "Marxist President" Allende (1970 1973) until he was over thrown by a U.S. inspired coup. It is also im portant to recognize the way in which the institutional Church has served as a vehicle of expression for som e w om en in som e contexts. In Guatemala, for example, while the Church actively collaborated in the overthrow of Arbenz, later on, Catholic Action gave m any w om en their first opportunity for institutional liaisons outside of the home.2 Salvador's guerrilla Sister Rosa testified that the Church collaborated in awakening social conscience, helping popular ma jorities discover their rights, and in this way initiated activist grass roots movements. She noted that for M onsignor Romero, at times, "it was a sin !june E. Hahner, W omen in Latin A m erican History. Their Lives a n d Views (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1976), p. 69 2IV Encuentro Feminista, M ujer Centroam ericana, p. 53. 363 n o t to organize."1 While exam ples such as Salvador's m artyred Archbishop Romero, w ho fervently defended the rights of the poor, have perhaps rem ained a minority voice, they have had a profound impact on the Church as a whole and the way in which it relates to the political sphere. While strongly resisted by conservative sectors, Liberation Theology has gone a long way towards abetting collaboration between socialists and pro gressive Christians. It has also resulted in new and critical perspectives on patriarchy and th e way in which the Latin American Church has func tioned to maintain patriarchal structures. M ovements associated with liberation Theology are m ore open to the advancem ent of women in reli gious institutions, as well as in the com m unity in general, than is the case with m ore traditional sectors. These institutions have com e under heavy attack, however, by reactionary sectors. It is difficult to predict, therefore, the long range consequences of these progressive directions.2 As dem o cratic political institutions becom e strengthened, this m ay have a favorable impact with respect to progressive developm ents in the religious sphere. According to Jonas, Church authorities in Guatemala have "adopted a 'popular Christianity*, previously identified with the Churcti of the Poor," 1 Cited in Vitale, La m ila d invisible, p. 206. ^Henrlquez and Astelli adopt a dim view, suggesting that "prevalent tendencies on the world scene, following the dramatic end of the socialist system, seem to indicate that the Theology of Liberation will be the next ob jective of neoliberalfsm, and that its annihilation inside and outside of the Catholic Church will b e the order of the day." Eduardo Henriquez and Nancy Astelli, "La izquierda latinoam ericana frente al neoliberalismo," Esta Tierra N uestra (Mexico), no. 7, third trim ester 1992, p. 48. 304 and have cham pioned many of the dem ands of popular m ovem ents which has contributed to the legitimacy of the Church. This new role has been especially evident insofar as the Church was the principal organizer of the National Dialogue, and has contributed to the negotiations betw een the government and the rebels (only the latter have welcomed this contribu tion).1 It is also im portant to note that som e Evangelical as well as Catholic groups have com e under attack from the Guatemalan military. Until Rios Montt's coup d’ etat, the army persecuted Evangelicals and Catholics alike; it killed entire religious com m unities by surrounding churches and burn ing everyone inside alive, this w as especially true of Evangelical chapels, in som e ways, religious persecution itself has opened up new avenues of ec umenical solidarity. New and innovative Christian groups are being formed such as the ecumenical Guatemalan Christian Action (ACG), formed in 1989 out of the social bases represented by displaced persons, the refugee population, and the Popular Communities in Resistance (CPKs). It is also im portant to note the way in which the Guatemalan Episcopal Conference has com e out strongly in support of the CPRs and their right to have the presence of the Church in their midst. From the violent oppres sion of Christians and the profound pain that accom panied their slaughter, new religious com munity is being formed. In Falla's words, "weeping is also life . accom panied by .. the feeling of brotherhood . . . [a] shared bond of people who have lost everything He describes both a "new com 1 Jonas, The B attle fo r Guatemala: Rebels, D eath Squads, a n d U.S. Power (Boulder, Colo: W est view Press, 1991), p. 188. 3G5 munity" and a "new church" in G uatem ala w here m en an d w om en are brothers an d sisters and w here Charismatics, Evangelicals, and traditional Catholics com e together1 Conclusion Signs of H ope Yet Continuing Struggle It is im possible to predict the future of socialist/fem inist solidarity The setbacks suffered by the Left in recent years have rendered som e feminists quite pessimistic about the possibilities for future progressive change. For Bartke, for example, writing already in 1990: ... the current prospects for any kind of significant reform seem dim. The w om an's m ovem ent and the black liberation m ove m ent are struggling just to keep w hatever gains they w ere able to make in a m ore progressive period. The fashionable post struc turalist attack on the kind of "totalizing" theory that Marxist and socialist feminists w ere trying to construct in the days of the Marxism feminism d eb ate is, in my view, a sym ptom of the sam e political malaise.2 Similarly, as Chinchilla observes, tow ard the end of the 1980s in Latin America, "efforts to revive a Marxist feminist dialogue w ere further ham pered by confusion over the content of socialism and the m eaning of Marxism in light of developm ents in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe 1 Ricardo Falla, M assacres in th e Jungle: bcc&n, G uatemala, 19751982, Forward and Epilogue by Beatrtz Manz, trans Julia Howland (Boulder, Colo.: W estview Press, 1994), pp. 188 189, 205 206, ^Sandra Lee Bartke, F em inism a n d D om ination. S tu d ies in th e P henom enology o f O ppression (New York Routledge, 1990), p. 3. 3 6 6 and the lure of a postm odern critique of th e notions of "truth" and "progress."1 Marxist-feminist solidarity is a sym biosis that is to o powerful to die out quickly, how ever, it may even b e revived. This solidarity rem ains en trenched, even in the West, particularly in academ ia. Throughout large parts of the Third World, as well as the form er Eastern Bloc--where social ist (often form er com m unist) parties remain strong o r in control (Poland, Hungary, and South Africa com e to mind) feminist socialist dialogue re m ains part of m ainstream discourse. In these contexts, such as that of Central America, concrete possibilities rem ain for safeguarding and fur thering the gains m ade for w om en through their collaboration with the Left. This study has focused primarily on the injustices associated with U.S. imperialism and neocolonialism. I have attem pted to dem onstrate the way in which the sovereignty of Central A m erican nations has never been fully recognized by the U.S. governm ent. In Latin America, generally speaking and Central America in particular, the U.S. has been perfectly willing to overturn dem ocratically elected governm ents when it suited its purposes and totally ignored the question of dem ocracy for decades at a tim e in som e contexts, actively supporting a series of ruthless and exploitative dictator ships. While this m ay b e changing the prospect of the continuing military dom ination of Central Am erica by the United States loom s large. As Jonas sees it, th e post-Gulf-W ar U.S. governm ent and military "envision m ore 1 Chinchilla, "Marxism, Feminism, and the Struggle for D em ocracy in I a tin America," p. 37. 3 6 7 rather than less future arm ed confrontation with 'enemies' (Marxist Leninists, terrorists, drug-traffickers, etc.)." Of singular im portance is the way in which the Bush administration successfully overcam e the "Vietnam Syndrome" by receiving broad support for intervention in Panama as well as the Gulf. Jonas describes a "quasi totalitarian, anti-inter nationalist, anti-Third W orld political culture running ram pant through out the advanced capitalist world." For her, the counter balancing of this trend will be possible only through the revival of m ass based m ovem ents that militate for the rights of w om en and people of color, m ovem ents which would b e both internationalist and egalitarian in outlook.1 Of crucial im portance for Central America is the scenario in Mexico, es pecially the revolution in Chiapas that began in January of 1994, and the links that these revolutionaries have created with peasant, labor, and in digenous organizations throughout the country. W omen have played key roles in this insurrection, including com bat and com m and functions, as well as being represented on the five-member Central Committee.2 While 1 Jonas, The Battle fo r Guatemala, pp. 221 222.. 2Of the five m em bers of the Coordinating Com mittee of Indigenous Resistance (CCR1), one is a woman, 'Ramona', the only one of the five that does not speak Spanish. Numerous women participated in the role of com batant. One of th e principal com manders, 'Ana Maria', was the military leader of the group that took over San Cristdbal de las Casas in the January offensive, the m ost im portant of the cities o r towns briefly taken over. La O pinion (Los Angeles), 5 February 1994, p. 7A 8 February 1994, p. 10 A. Clearly, this revolution cannot be written off as a case of international communist, Soviet, or Cuban aggression, it dem onstrates the hollowness of that historical charge with respect to Guatemala in particular. Ultimately, this revolution as well is grounded in the process of European colonization; the presence of indigenous female fighters and com m anders 368 M6xico's dom inant classes rem ain in control of the governm ent following the elections of August 1994 (which the Left claims w ere fraudulent) a plethora of new organizations and m odes of political opposition have arisen, issuing in new and creative forms of popular solidarity. To the ex tent to which M6xico becom es dem ocratized, the G uatem alan regime will feel itself increasingly isolated internationally until it d o es likewise. As with m any conflictive regions, the role of the United Nations is proving to be crucial in Central America. The U.S. governm ent (even on President Bush's way out) actively supported the role of the U N. in El Salvador and som e very im portant gains w ere m ade through the U.N. sponsored settlem ent. Salvador's nescient dem ocratic institutions are now bolstered by a new civilian police force and som e genuine concern on the part of the governm ent and its security forces for civil liberties.1 O ther strategic areas of Cold W ar friction and flagrant abuse of hum an rights are showing dram atic signs of im provem ent South Africa and th e Middle East in particular The resolution of these long standing injustices/conflicts suggests that som e new avenues of reconciliation betw een North and South and betw een Left and Right m ay be dawning on a global scale. is a succinct expression of the w ay in which female militancy continues to b e intimately linked to that historical struggle. 1 While the Right did retain the presidency in the elections of M arch/ April 1994, the Left at least attained a significant voice in the Parliament as well as som e mayoral seats. It is im portant to take into ac count w hen judging the results of this election, how the Right enjoyed an enorm ous advantage with respect to propaganda resources, as well as the historical reticence of the typical Salvadoran for voting against the political establishm ent. 369 W hat is perhaps m ost striking with regard to recent trends in U.S. for eign policy is President Clinton's leadership with respect to the total U N. em bargo of Haiti a m ove initiated in an effort to force th e military gov em m ent to step dow n and to reestablish dem ocratic governm ent.1 His threat to use force to return Haiti to dem ocracy has been m et with staunch resistance by Republicans. While President Bush's leadership role in the U N 's support of the royal families of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in the Culf W ar would b e difficult to laud from the perspective of either feminist or socialist criticism,2 Clinton's new policy tow ards Haiti arguably deserves the support of all authentic dem ocrats, socialists and feminists included. (While this m ay ap p ear to contradict my thesis concerning sovereignty, Haiti's military governm ent is clearly illegitimate in th e eyes of the entire world and d o es not qualify, therefore, to have its rule respected under in tem ational law.)3 Clinton's posture represents what is perhaps the first tim e in history that a U. S. president has rattled his saber on behalf of an 1 From this perspective, it is im portant to note that this m ove cam e 24 hours after black congressw om an Maxine W aters of Los Angeles went to jail in protest of U.S. policy tow ard Haiti. 2Given the non dem ocratic traditions and misogynistic character of the ruling class of both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The rulers of both countries have, for example, historically purchased sex-slaves on international auc tion blocks. See Kathleen Barry, F em ale Sexual S la very (New York: New York University Press, 1984). 3ln fact, this military bureaucracy w as a direct creation of U.S. intelli g en ce/aid which funded, armed, and trained it over the last several decades. If Clinton is successful at ending its tyranny, therefore, he will be, in effect, only mitigating the violation to pop u lar Haitian sovereignty that has been a result of the policies of his predecessors. 370 other nation's ruler, such as exiled President Aristide (a Catholic priest) w ho stands clearly on the le ft Clinton did so as a m atter of dem ocratic principle since Aristide w as freely elected (in addition to the thorny issue of the Haitian b o a t p eople’ ). It is difficult to envision authentic procedural dem ocracy--m uch less the kinds of reform s that justice b ased on equality call for taking place in Guatemala, at least without the active support of the United Nations and other powerful groups in the First World, both in the public and private sectors. The Guatem alan military has m ade it very clear that it does not w ant a U N. m ission (or any foreign hum an rights observers) in the coun try. While it appears that they m ay soon b e com pelled to accept such an ar rangem ent produced through negotiations with the rebels, this will com e about only under international pressure. G uatem alan w om en and their in tem ational allies are likely to rem ain at the forefront of the battle for dem ocracy and authentic civilian rule. Very powerful organizations have been developing which are com posed of large majorities of females, the Association of Guatem alan W idows (CONAV1GUA) being o n e prom inent example. A ccording to Chinchilla, a myriad of social and political groups have mobilized throughout Latin Am erica with "new dem ands, tactics, utopian visions, and definitions of what it m eans to b e political', 'do politics' (hacer p o litic a l or, in the case of Central America, 'm ake revolution' ” She sees feminist participation in this process as of param ount im portance since it "makes the class struggle m ore efficient." The public spaces that w om en have created for them selves have facilitated coordination with 371 other social groups, serving as a catalyst for theoretical and ideological dis cussions about the ways in which different contradictions intersect and dif ferent dem ands and struggles interconnect, such as dom estic violence and political violence, m ale dom inance over wom en, etc. W om en's visibility in hum an rights organizations and groups for the defense of basic survival such as the Mutual Support Group (GAM) in Guatemala have encouraged w om en in traditionally all m ale institutions such as labor unions to form w om en's caucuses and increase their num bers in leadership positions. This has gone a long way tow ards the birth of new, revolutionary, Mancist feminist currents.1 For Jonas, lasting change in G uatem ala will require a cultural revolution and the construction of a profoundly new and dem o cratic political culture, a "feminist political culture," capable of challenging the multiple sources of repression and dom ination personal as well as po litical.2 W hen asked in the mid 1970's about the extent to which she was opti mistic about the future of w om en's liberation, de Beauvoir responded; "I don't know. At any rate, not during my life. Perhaps within four genera tions. 1 d o not know what will becom e of the revolution. But, with regard 1 Chinchilla, "Marxism, Feminism, and the Struggle for D em ocracy in Latin America," pp. 38, 42, 45-47. Still, m uch will depend on education and the ability of feminists to raise consciousness concerning gender issues on a broad popular level. According to Garcia and Gomariz, cam pesina and p o o r urban women, including professionals, still have a weak conscious ness of gender and a majority reject the label /title of feminist. Ana Isabel Garcia and Enrique Gomartz, "Las m ujeres defienen el future," in A m eric a C entral hacta el 2000: D esafkis y apcianes, co o rd Edelberto Torres Rivas (Caracas: Editorial Nueva Sociedad, 1989), p. 151. 2Jonas, Susanne. The B attle fa r G uatem ala, p. 239. 372 to the changes for which w om en are struggling, yes, I am sure that in the end w om en will win."1 Her reflections still ring true two d ecad es later. For our purposes, w e d o not know what will ultimately b eco m e of the Central Am erican revolution, w hat forms the struggle of the m asses will take into the next millennium, how long counter-violence will have to b e em ployed to m ake the powerful take note and for justice and authentic dem ocracy to b e realized. As in the recent past, fem ale militancy will undoubtedly b e a decisive force for progressive change. Vitale suggests that: "It is very proba ble that w om en will play a key role in the design of a new postcapitalist so ciety, m ore libertarian and fraternal, less com petitive and m ore autoges tionado, resulting in the fullest expression of the relationship betw een so cialism and dem ocracy.'2 Socialist and feminist m ovem ents in Central Am erica will likely con tinue to find allies in m any feminists an d socialists from the First World, Female voters in the U.S., in general, have been less receptive than m en to their governm ent's military dom ination of Central America.3 Socialist 1 Simone de Beauvoir, "Simone d e Beauvoir, una intelectual que se caso con el stglo," p. 41. ^Vitale, La m i ta d invisible, p. 234. 3A public opinion survey which cam e out at the tim e of the Iran Contra hearings show ed that N orth American w om en were significantly less en thusiastic about U.S. aid to the Contra than North American men, espe dally white ones. Knloe, Bananas, Beaches, a n d Bases, p. 8; It is also im por tant, however, to account for the w ay in which antifeminists tend to trum pet the justification of U.S. aggression. In the w ords of arch antifeminist Phyllis Schlafly: "The M onroe Doctrine still is the lam p by which o u r pal icy should b e guided." She lauds "those valiant A m ericans who, from our abundance of freedom and plenty, voluntarily undertake dangerous mis sions to try to light the lam p of freedom in other lands" such as 373 feminists need to continue to build bridges of solidarity across interna tiona) frontiers. Marxist-feminist Angela Davis calls us to "constantly re mind ourselves that even as individual victories are claimed, the com plete elimination of sexist violence will ultimately depend on our ability to forge a new and revolutionary global order, in which every form of oppression and violence against humankind is obliterated," em phasizing the im por tance of solidarity with Third World liberation struggles.1 As progress con tinues to b e made, it will be im portant for feminist/socialist activists to constantly m onitor the changing faces of exploitation and the way in which exploitation based on class and gender lives on, often reincarnated into new forms.2 “Nicaragua, Afghanistan Cambodia, Mozambique, and Ethiopia." Phyllis Schlafly, "The M onroe Doctrine Justifies U.S. Involvement," in C entral Am erica: O pposing Viewpoints, ed. David L . Bender and Bruno Leone (San Diego: Greenhaven, 1990), p 65. 1 Angela Y. Davis, W om en, Culture, a n d Politics (New York Random House, 1989), p. 51; Alvarado contends that: . . you Americans who really want to help the poor have to change your own governm ent first. You Americans who want to see an end to hunger and poverty have to take a stand. You have to fig|ht just like we're fighting even hander. You have to be ready to be Jailed, to be abused, to be repressed. And you have to have the character, the courage, the morale, and the spirit to confront whatever com es your way ” Elvia Alvarado, Don'f Be A fraid Gringo, p. 144; Some have rem ained optimistic about the possibilities for this solidarity. Angela Gilliam, for example, suggests that "the kind of activism that U.S. wom en prom oted against the Nestle multinational corporation's advertisem ents for infant formula in the Third W orld could be initiated around the issue of mineral resource plunder." Gilliam, "W omen's Equality and National Liberation," p. 224. 2Enloe, for example, is critical of growing trends not only in increased num bers of w om en working in dom estic service but their presence in the tourist industry as well which "seems to be the world's replacem ent for a declining sugar demand." Cynthia Enloe, "Bananas, Bases, and Patriarchy” .174 Ultimately, the responsibility of fighting against gender inequalities, as with social injustice in general, belongs to everyone.1 We are faced with the need for m ajor reform in the politics of international exploitation, of which exploitation based on gender is an integral part. Feminists, socialists, and their allies need to work to strengthen the international institutions that militate for the respect of human-rights and their international verifi cation and enforcement. It will be im portant to critically m onitor and speak out against the way in which U.S. o r U.S./U N. sponsored initiatives either aid and abet structures of violence against women or work to im pede the proliferation and 'justification' of those structures. Feminist theory and politics -liberal, radical, and socialist converge in the face of pervasive violence against women. It will be im portant for fern inists to continually sharpen their critiques of the cultural, social, religious, and econom ic roots of wom en's oppression. For those concerned with the realization of gender justice in Central America, it will b e especially im por in W om en, M ilitarism, and War. Essays in H istory, Politics, and Social Theory, ed. Jean Bethe Elshtain and Sheila Tobias (Savage Md.: Rowman & Uttlefield, 1990), pp. 197 1 As som e see it, without som e form of redress on the part of U.S. citi zenry for the horror that their government's policies have caused in Central America, We' ourselves m ay remain dehum anized, alienated, barred from the realization of our full hum an potential. As Nelson Pallmcyer argues: "Without transform ation of the existing structures of vi olence and inequality, the m ale p o w e r paradigm of win o r lose is ulti mately a situation in which everyone loses," because, as he sees it, "the lib eration of the rich as well as the poor depends upon a shift of pow er from the former to the latter " Jack Nelson Pallmeyer, War on th e /b o r Low Intensity Conflict a n d Christian Faith (Mary knoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1989), p 86 (emphasis mine). 375 tant to challenge the fundamental -and chauvinistic assum ptions about w om anhood which continue to be espoused, especially by the religious and political Right. It will also be im portant to rem em ber that the oppression and alien ation that accompanies machista societies cannot be abolished by progres sive legislation alone. Ultimately, the battle will only b e decisively won through radically improved forms of education. The New Humanity to which both feminist and socialist agendas press cannot b e produced through procedural (or perhaps even substantive) dem ocracy alone. As with the Kingdom of Cod, its construction Tiere on earth' will b e a long and difficult one, replete with multifarious challenges and set backs as well as triumphs. The woman, in particular, is called forth in special ways by this vision of a revolution without end, called to action as educator and po litical militant as well as mother. In her moral force, her hand, her wis dom, and her beauty, lies our hope for perfection as hum an beings, male and female. 376 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Books. Articles. & Published Interviews Accad, Kvelyne. "Sexuality and Sexual Politics: Conflicts and Contradictions for Contem poraiy W om en in the Middle East." In Third W orld W om en a n d th e Politics o f Feminism, ed. Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991. Acker, Alison. 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Edinger, Robert Foster
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Gender, Violence, And Empire In Central America
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Social Ethics
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