Argentina

• Women Demand Gender Equality and Reproductive Rights. [Upside Down World, NY] Women from across Argentina gathered in the northwestern province of Jujuy for the 21st National Women's Congress. During the workshops and rallies at this year's congress, the central outcry was for women to claim self-determination over their bodies and sexuality in Argentina's highly sexist and religious society. In recent years there has been a surge in women's groups organized autonomously from the government, political parties and institutes. Nearly 10,000 women from diverse backgrounds and organizations participated in this year's congress, which featured over 48 workshops on gender issues ranging from abortion, syndicalism and neighborhood organizing to women's health. The congress took place in the midst of protests from the Catholic Church and concluded with a massive march in the capital, in which thousands of women protested for the legalization of abortion and end to violence against women.

• Brazil Considers Women Only Buses. [6abc.com, PA] In an effort to curb rush-hour groping on crowded buses, a major Brazilian city is about to introduce women-only buses in its public transportation system. The city council of Goiania, capital of the central state of Goias, unanimously approved a bill calling for women-only buses during morning and evening rush hours in the city of 1.1 million residents, councilman Mauricio Beraldo said. "The beautiful women of Goiania are constantly being sexually harassed on our overcrowded buses by men who seem unable to control themselves," Beraldo, the bill's sponsor, said. "Over the years I have received countless complaints from irate and nervous women complaining of men who take advantage of crowded bus conditions to fondle their bodies," Beraldo said. "This is why I decided to introduce a bill calling for the introduction of buses that will carry only women."

• Inside a Model's Deadly Anorexia Battle. [People Magazine] Before her death last week from anorexia, Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston was robbed of both her beauty and her strength by the disease. Earlier this year, when she arrived at the Mexico City airport after a job in Japan, she was too emaciated and weak to carry her luggage. "I helped her," fellow Brazilian model Aliana Idibar, 21, says. "I was holding myself not to cry." Once luminous, Reston had become a virtual skeleton. "The skin was gray. The eyes were sad and without light," recalls Estela Saenz, owner of a Mexican modeling agency, who last saw Reston at that time. Still, the ambitious model continued to work, posing for a fashion Web site as late as Oct. 18. The next day she canceled a bridal magazine booking to enter a São Paulo hospital, carrying only 88 lbs. on her 5'7" frame.

Chile

• Chile Fares Poorly in World Economic Forum Gender-Equality Study. [Santiago Times, Chile] Chile’s gender self-image took a strong hit when a World Economic Forum (WEF) survey ranked the country 78th in gender equality (of 115 countries studied). Worse still, in the category of economic participation and opportunity, Chile was in 90th place. Overall rankings for the 115 countries included in the study were based on data in four categories: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment (Chile ranked 68), health and survival (Chile received a couldn’t-be-better score of 1), and political empowerment (Chile ranked 56). In the overall ranking Chile placed higher than only two other countries in Latin America: Ecuador and Bolivia. It ranked lower than seven other countries in the region, including Brazil, Argentina and Peru. Colombia placed first in the region.

• Chile’s Bachelet Promotes Women’s Empowerment and Free Trade. [Santiago Times, Chile] Chilean President Michelle Bachelet recalled her days protesting the Vietnam War in the streets of Santiago during her visit to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in Hanoi. Bachelet noted this was not her first visit to Vietnam. She traveled to the country in 1977, while exiled from Chile under the Pinochet regime. To her generation, she said, Vietnam symbolized the fight for “freedom and independence,” she said, and Chileans were “inspired by the Vietnamese people.” Vietnam’s President Nguyen Minh Triet called Bachelet a “long-time friend” and the two leaders signed a letter of intention on Friday to support a bilateral free trade agreement.

• Chile’s Silicone Generation: Bigger Breasts or Bust. [Santiago Times, Chile] The demand for cosmetic surgery in Chile has increased ten times over the last two decades, according to the Chilean Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Society. According to Eduardo Villalón, president of the Chilean Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Society, surgery that used to be rare has become everyday. “More and more women between 18 and 25 are having breast-enlargement surgery,” he said. For women, breast enlargement is the most popular surgery, followed by nose jobs or rhinoplasty. Between 15,000 and 20,000 Chilean women now have silicone breast implants, but the number is expected to rise, as breast-augmentation surgery is becoming popular as a middle class reward for good grades or performance at university.

• Only 5% of Chile’s Executives Are Women. [Santiago Times] Only 5% of executive positions in Chile’s top 100 companies are occupied by women, according to a survey by Fortune 500 and women’s issues company Catalyst. Only 26% of these top Chilean companies have at least a single female executive, and when narrowed down to the top ten, there are only two companies with a female executive. The survey showed that between 2002 and 2005 the number of female executives has risen only 0.7% and that women make up 16.4% of the entire work force in Chile. The report indicated that at this slow rate of growth, it would take nearly 40 years for women to reach parity with men in the work place. The majority of female executives hold positions in human resources, legal issues and marketing. There is only a single female General Director among Chile’s 100 top earning companies, Viviana Horta of the Chile Match-Making Company. “These are areas with more creativity, sensitivity, empathy or interpersonal relations,” said HK Human Capital consultant Cecilia Besa.

Colombia

• Colombia and Philippines Top US on Gender Equality. [Bloomberg] Colombia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka offer women more equal treatment at work and in politics, education and health care overall than the U.S., where lawmaking is male-dominated, according to a World Economic Forum study. A WEF study of the differences in social and economic opportunities between men and women worldwide finds Sweden with the smallest gap, followed by Norway and Finland, with the Philippines at sixth, Sri Lanka 13th, Colombia 21st and the U.S. 22nd. The study examined 115 economies.

• Beset by Violence, Colombia's Nasa Women Resist. [ZNet, MA] “C’mon, muchachos, let’s go!” With this abrupt order, Celia Eumesa and a group of the Nasa Indigenous Guard under her command jumped into a van and drove off in hot pursuit of a handful of guerrillas that had just kidnapped some people from her community. Armed with no more than decorative staffs, which they carry to symbolize indigenous authority, they sped behind the guerrillas’ car with a caravan of 60 other Indigenous Guards trailing behind her. Celia Eumesa was instrumental in the creation of the Indigenous Guard. In fact, Nasa women have played key roles in building and fortifying all facets of Colombia’s vibrant indigenous movement. In ever-growing numbers, women have become governors, mayors and council members in the autonomous local governments of the Nasa indigenous reserves and have reached the upper echelons of the Indigenous Guard.

• Murder and Mutilation Stalk the Women of Guatemala. [UNFPA, NY] Above Guatemala City morgue and forensic medical service, clouds of vultures circle and dip. The smell of death and cleaning chemicals hits visitors with the force of a hammer. In Guatemala, a country that is still struggling to emerge from under the shadow of more than three decades of civil war, an estimated two women a day die a violent and often gruesome death. And the number of murdered females is steadily rising: 494 in 2004, 665 last year, and, as of 5 November, 516 and counting. Many of the victims have been mutilated and raped. For a country of 12 million, the numbers are alarming and surpass by far those of the better-known murders of women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

• Health System Fails Women. [YubaNet, CA] While Guatemalan women increasingly want smaller families, their levels of contraceptive knowledge and use remain low, especially among the country's poor and rural populations. Two new studies published in International Family Planning Perspectives outline urgent next steps for health care providers to help women get the contraceptive information they need to avoid becoming one of the 65,000 Guatemalan women who have an unsafe abortion each year, and the even larger number who have an unplanned birth. According to "Induced Abortion and Unintended Pregnancy in Guatemala," by Susheela Singh of the Guttmacher Institute et al., abortion is prevalent in Guatemala although it is legal only to save a woman's life. National estimates, available for the first time, show that about one in three pregnancies are unintended and that one abortion occurs for every six births. More than 20,000 women are hospitalized each year for treatment of complications of unsafe abortion. Among women having abortions, those who are poor, rural or indigenous are considered by health professionals to be more likely to experience health complications, and less likely to obtain care when they do so, compared to socio-economically advantaged women.

• Some Doctors, Women's Rights Advocates Say Abortion Ban Caused Death of Pregnant Woman. [Kaiser network.org] Some women's rights advocates and doctors' groups have said that changes to the country's abortion ban approved earlier this month caused the death of a pregnant woman. Nicaragua's Asamblea Nacional, the national Legislature, in October voted 52-0 with nine abstentions and 29 not present to pass a bill that bans abortion in all cases, and President Enrique Bolanos earlier this month signed the measure into law. Under the law, women convicted of having an illegal abortion and those convicted of assisting them receive mandatory six-year prison sentences. The law eliminates exceptions to the country's abortion ban allowing procedures in cases of rape or when three physicians certify a woman's health is at risk. According to the reproductive rights group Ipas, 24 legal abortions have been preformed in the country in the last three years, and about 32,000 illegal abortions are performed annually. Oscar Flores Mejia of Nicaragua's National Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said that many doctors who are fearful of prosecution under the ban will not save the lives of women who have entopic pregnancies, preeclampsia, cardiac problems or other complications unless they can guarantee the fetus would survive.

• Peruvian Women March Against Domestic Violence. [Living in Peru, Peru] Thousands of Peruvian women are expected to mobilize for a demonstration march "White Ribbon" to protest against domestic violence against women. This was announced by the third vice-president of Peru's Congress, Luisa Maria Cuculiza, chairwoman and main promoter of the initiative that counts on the support of the congressional commission for women, the ministry for women, and the president, Alan Garcia. Congresswoman Cuculiza remembered that when she was Minister for Women, she also summoned for a great march under the same purpose and more than 40,000 female participants from all social levels responded.

• Venezuela Ranked 57th in Gender Gap Index 2006. [El Universal, Venezuela] Venezuela was ranked at the 57th position in the Gender Gap Index 2006 estimated by the World Economic Forum -a list comprising 115 countries that represent 90% of the world population and which were assessed in terms of women's opportunities, Efe reported. The survey assesses women's access to opportunities in the economic field, their roles in politics and access to education and healthcare compared to men. Among Latin American countries, Venezuela was in the sixth position among the 17 nations the report took into account. Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and Argentina were above Venezuela in the index.

• Weaving Women. [Le Monde Diplomatique, France] The Wayu live in the driest, most arid region of the Caribbean, spread over the Guajira peninsula in Colombia and part of Zulia state in Venezuela. For centuries the Wayus have defended their rights, their culture and their land, first against the Conquistadores, then against the post-colonial creole bourgeoisie, and now against both government attempts to assimilate them and plundering by multinationals. Although the Wayus straddle borders, the women have succeeded in organizing themselves in resistance.