From Victimization to Resistance: Women’s response to the use of sexual violence as a counterinsurgent weapon

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En Atenco 6 Años de Impunidad y Resistencia Centro de Derechos Humanos Agustín Pro, México D.F. 2012

In this paper, the author reflects on the way in which gender violence has been used by the Mexican government as part of its counterinsurgency campaigns against social movements, and on the response that victims of such violence have given to this murder strategy. In the context of the government of Felipe Calderón, the criminalization of social movements legitimized through legislative reforms has been accompanied by militarization and state violence. In this chapter, I will analyze how indigenous and rural women are suffering the consequences of the militarization of the country, creating a climate of insecurity and intimidation; above all, in those regions where there is a history of political organization by the peasants.

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