'Not just numbers': The women disappearing in Peru
By Lise Josefsen Hermann and Florence Goupil
Lima, Peru
Published 24 October
FLORENCE GOUPIL
Cinthia Estrada's sister Marleny disappeared in July
Cinthia Estrada Bolívar remembers the day her family received a phone call from the community kitchen which her 29-year-old sister Marleny co-ordinated in the Peruvian capital, Lima.
It was 16 July and Marleny had not turned up to cook for the poor, something which was completely out of character for the mother-of-two.
Cinthia, her parents and another sister went to Marleny's home in a poor neighbourhood of Lima to look for her. They were greeted by Marleny's ex-husband.
FLORENCE GOUPIL
Marleny disappeared in the San Juan de Lurigancho neighbourhood, considered one of the most dangerous places in the periphery of the city of Lima
Calmly, he told them that Marleny had just left. Cinthia remembers being bothered by the fact that he did not seem upset by the fact that the mother of his two children had disappeared.
More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-54544155
(Without a doubt you are aware this has been happening in enormous numbers along the border in Mexico, in Alaska, with indigenous women, also with indigenous women in Canada, in various other places in Central and South America, as well. Absolutely horrific, has been going on for years, and doesn't look likely to subside any time soon, either.)
Clearly, sexism lies at the heart in every case, along with poverty, along with racism.
It happens to indigenous women in the United States, as well, particularly in states with groups of idigenous people living together. You may recall a case which came to light around 18 or 19 years ago when it was finally revealed a Republican Congressman had raped a young Native woman years before being elected to Congress, and that, although people knew about it, he had NEVER been held responsible for it, anyway. He also ran into a man on a motorcycle with his cadillac and killed him and never went to jail for that. It was discussed with disgust here at D.U. then. What does it take to awaken people?