Gas Support and Nonviolence Against Women in Guatemalan Week

By majority and as a matter of national urgency, Congress approved last Tuesday the extension of Decree 15-2021 “The Law on Temporary Social Support for Propane Gas Consumers,” which will run until January 2023.

The debate was scheduled in three parts, but Representative Candido Leal, Chairman of the Legislative Finance Committee, made a motion par excellence to pass it in one debate and almost at the conclusion of the regular sessions of the Legislative Council.

The scale applies to cylinders of 10, 20, 25, and 35 pounds, which are the cylinders most consumed by the population and the support ranges from eight quetzals ($1.02) to 28 quetzals ($3.59), according to different presentations.

Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines Luis Ayala, when defending this new subsidy on behalf of the executive, emphasized that its cash coverage would come from the cash balances of the 2022 budget that do not cause indebtedness.

In another news arrangement, the focus was on the activities of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, in a country where five women disappear every day.

As is customary, the November 25 coordinator led a vigil and walked through the avenues of the historic center to draw public attention to the scale of this scourge.

According to the studies released the day before, the most lifeless corpses were found in the capital, a behavior that represented the past four years.

The National Institute of Forensic Sciences reports that from 2019 to July this year, 2,145 women died from violence related to firearms and knives, suffocation, burns, and decapitation.

On that long list, the province of Guatemala ranks first with 42 percent of the cases, women between the ages of 10 and 30, who were located after families activated the Isabel-Claudina alert.

In general, the bodies appear with signs of torture placed inside the bags to the extent that in some cases it is difficult to identify them immediately.

According to the platform vivir sin violencia.org, the other dangerous places in the country for the number of dead bodies found are Escuintla (seven percent) and Chiquimula (six).

In the case of the province of Guatemala, from January to July this year, 99 women were brutally murdered there, followed by the municipalities of Villa Nueva (28 deaths) and Mixco with 12.

L/mm