South America November 2005

30,000 At Women’s Conference Press Fight to Legalize Abortion. [Argentina] More than 30,000 women gathered in the coastal city of Mar del Plata, Argentina, October 8-10 for the 20th National Women’s Conference, reported the Argentine daily Clarín. At the center of the conference was the fight to legalize abortion in Argentina. Last year’s conference in Mendoza drew 20,000, and the year before about 10,000. Legal access to abortion remains severely restricted throughout most of Latin America and the Caribbean. In Argentina, abortion is legal only in the case of rape—and then only if the woman is deemed to be mentally disabled—or if a woman’s life is in danger. Conference delegates resolved to continue the national campaign under the slogan, “Sexual education so we can make a choice. Birth control so we don’t have to abort. Abortion legalized so we won’t die.” The campaign began May 28 with participants gathering signatures across the country in favor of decriminalizing abortion. Over 70 organizations, including women’s groups and some unions have joined in the effort.

Brazil Kicks-Off New Era With a Bang. [Brazil] With a 100% record and an astonishing 33 goals to their name, Brazil swept aside all comers on their way to taking the title. The samba stars also boasted the tournament's meanest defense, conceding just 2 goals, both of those in the opening day win over Peru. The icing on the cake for the home side was their winning of the Fair Play award, along with Argentina. However, Uruguayan star Alejandra Laborda was able to prevent a Brazilian clean sweep by taking home the award for Best Player. Jayne, who captained the host nation to victory, struggled to keep her emotions in check as the trophy was presented. "It's really satisfying to be able to celebrate after the way we've played throughout this tournament. We started off slowly but hit form at the right time. In the final we put on a footballing masterclass to leave nobody in any doubt that we're the best side here," said Brazil's pivotal winger.

Government Launches Gender Equality Program. [Brazil] The Brazilian federal government launched a gender equality program on 22 September to boost the promotion of equality between women and men. The program is based on partnership between UNIFEM (UN Women’s Development Fund) and the International Labor Organization (ILO). The program will grant pro-equality seals for the development of programs to benefit women. The seal is geared to promote company best practices. To start with, the program is geared to public enterprises and will be open to private companies at a later date.

FETIESC and the 10th Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Meeting. [Brazil] FETIESC, the Santa Catarina Federation, was a promoter of the 10th Latin American and Caribbean Feminist meeting held from 9-12 October in Sao Paulo. The main theme of the meeting was Feminism and Democracy. One panel discussed, in addition, Feminism – Present and Future. Four dialogues went into the relationship between feminism and racism, ethnocentricity, youth and lesbianism. These meetings have been continuing since the 1980s and have served to create a Latin American and Caribbean network. In addition, FETIESC carried out a workshop on 6 October on Women’s Communication and Expression.

Bolivia's Prison Children. [Bolivia] Inside the women's prison in La Paz's district of Obrajes, little boys and girls wander freely in the yard as if they were playing at school during a parents' meeting. The jail's director, Celida Vera, says that more than 260 female inmates live there alongside 70 children. Many women have more than one child, and families sometimes have to share very small cells. One of the inmates, Briseida, says that she had to explain her son Carlos Patricio, 9, why she was in prison. "I told him that I had misbehaved."

Woman in Chile. [Chile] Chile is moving into the final month of its presidential campaign, and it appears that Concertacion front runner Michelle Bachelet has a very good shot at winning the election. I am particularly excited to be in a country when they elect their first woman, especially in a country that is still very conservative when it comes to social roles and norms. Of course, the opinions of whether or not she will be a good leader vary depending who you talk to, but she seems to have widespread support. Politics aren’t the only arena where woman are making gains toward more responsibility and respect. An article that appeared in the Christian Science Monitor took a look at the progress that woman are making in Chile’s military. In one of Latin America's most conservative countries, women are making significant inroads into its most male-dominated institution. The increasing role of women in all levels of Chile's military is part of a larger societal shift over the past year that includes laws legalizing divorce for the first time, outlawing sexual harassment, and making domestic abuse a crime. The transformation of the military is championed by Michelle Bachelet, who was the country's first female defense minister, and is now the front-runner in next month's presidential elections. Chile's military reforms are considered by many to be a model in Latin America. Apparently Chile has a higher ratio of woman than in the U.S., something that took me by surprise. Women even participated for the first time in an international U.N. mission to Haiti. Another mark of change here in Chile…

Chile On The Verge of Electing A Woman President. [Chile] Chileans go to the polls December 11 and will most likely elect their first female president. The leading candidate, Michelle Bachelet, has a short resume of political work and proclaims herself an ordinary chilean. As I’ve talked about before, Chile doesn’t have a strong history of positioning women equally with men. This upcoming election promises to break a lot of the traditional norms.

One Woman's Journey. [Colombia] On a day in October 1985, Luz Nagle crouched behind her desk as a man reached for his gun. She grabbed the loaded .38 she kept in her drawer, then rolled out into view and shot the man in the leg. Nagle, now a professor at Stetson University, gave a lecture titled "Courage, Dedication, and Conviction: One Woman's Journey," telling stories of death threats and assassination attempts - such as the one mentioned -and her desire to be educated in law. Nagle told her inspiring tale of her time as a municipal judge in her native Colombia to a small crowd in the Phyllis P. Marshall Center Ballroom as part of the University Lecture Series. Inspired by poverty at a young age in the streets of Medellin, Colombia, Nagle knew she would do anything to help the underprivileged. But to help others, Nagle decided that she needed to be educated, so she went to law school. But law school wasn't easy for a woman in Colombia.

Garcia Marquez Goes One Fantasy Too Far in `Melancholy Whores'. [Colombia] In Gabriel Garcia Marquez's fictional world, ghosts chat with the living, levitation is nothing special and biblically long lives are taken for granted. Even by this standard, though, the scenario of his latest novel is unpalatable. ``Memories of My Melancholy Whores'', the Colombian author's first work of fiction in a decade, is narrated by a nonagenarian newspaper hack who fixates on a 14-year-old girl. ``The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin,'' he begins in this crisp translation by Edith Grossman. The anonymous narrator of this paean to late-flowering love is, by his own admission, ``ugly, shy and anachronistic.'' He's also cursed with the kind of exaggerated features that caricaturists adore. He lives in the house where he was born, rattling around with only his books and music for company. For 40 years, he worked as cable editor for ``El Diario de La Paz,'' a newspaper that continues to carry his weekly column. His real achievements have been between the sheets, though: Local madams twice crowned him ``client of the year.'' ``I have never gone to bed with a woman I didn't pay,'' he says, more as a boast than as a confession. By age 50, he claims to have slept with 514 women. He had no time to acquire a wife.

CUOPYC Cleaning Cooperative. [Uruguay] The Uruguay Paper Workers’ Union (CUOPYC) has set up a cleaning cooperative to provide employment for women and daughters of union members, as well as single mothers. This means a new role for the union since it is now involved in creating jobs instead of looking after existing jobs. The FANAPEL paper company proposed using the cooperative’s services to replace the contract that had expired with the company. Thirteen women, who up to then had no stable income, were provided with cleaning jobs. Very little employment is available for women in Juan Lacaze, the site of FANAPEL, and even less jobs for women who left school early. The women are between the ages of 18 and 35. They were trained not only in industrial cleaning processes but also in tools to enable their industrial cooperative to stand on its own feet. This enterprise is made up of 13 women, it is a cooperative, and it is lead by a trade union.

The Woman Who Enrages Venezuela's Leader. [Venezuela] She is the Venezuelan government's most detested adversary, a woman with a quick wit who often appears in Washington or Madrid to denounce what she calls the erosion of democracy under President Hugo Chávez. In a highly polarized country, Maria Corina Machado has emerged as perhaps the most divisive figure after Chávez, a woman who is either beloved or reviled. Machado, 38, attractive and a fluent English speaker, is lionized by her allies in the opposition as a worldly sophisticate fighting for democracy. But she is demonized by the government, which characterizes her as a member of a corrupt elite that is doing the bidding of the much-reviled Bush administration.