Violence Against Women Continues in Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY (EFE) – The corpse of an unidentified woman was found last weekend in a suitcase on a road east of this capital, the authorities said Monday.Emergency aid workers said the woman appeared to be about 30 years old, and her body showed evidence of blows to the head.The suitcase containing the body had been thrown – or perhaps fell off a vehicle – onto the road linking the capital with the municipality of Chinautla.Murders of women in Guat emala continue despite the constant calls by human rights organizations for the authorities to do more to guarantee women’s safety.On Saturday, the body of Nicaraguan citizen Mirla Hernández was found inside a small rooming house in the southern part of Guatemala City, volunteer firefighters said.Businesswoman Otilia Rivera, 32, was shot to death on Sunday in the eastern city of Chiquimula as she was driving to the town market to sell grain. Her 13-year-old son Rudy, who was riding with her in the vehicle, was slightly injured by a bullet in the abdomen when unknown gunmen attacked the pair.At least 364 women have died violently in the country so far this year, and Ombudsman Sergio Morales says that the wave of violence against women could take 600 lives by the end of 2005, which would mark a tenfold increase from just five years ago.