Careful! Machismo kills.

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In 2007, the Red Chilena contra la Violencia Domestica y Sexual (Chilean Network against Domestic and Sexual Violence) launched a national campaign to call for an end to violence against women. The effort focused on femicide, addressed how widespread the problem has become in Chile and explored its structural causes.

The Network is comprised of social and non-governmental organizations and individuals who work on issues related to violence against women throughout Chile. It was created in 1990 as a result of the reflection, analysis and actions of the women's and feminist movements. Since the 1980s, the movement has focused on defining violence against women as a violation of human rights and demanding that legislation be enacted to ensure that women have a right to live free of violence.

The organization's mission is to contribute to the construction of a society that is free of discrimination by implementing actions designed to eradicate violence against women and girls in all of its manifestations. Network coordinator Soledad Rojas described the experience during the Bogota meeting of regional networks and groups working on this issue: "We believe that this systematic violence is the most visible face of society. Even today, at the beginning of the 21st century, it continues to reproduce beliefs and practices that cast women as inferior and maintain power inequalities between women and men."

The Network has defined the following objectives for the campaign:

* To support organizational strengthening of and women's exercise of active citizenship, promoting collective work and exchanges among social organizations, non-governmental organizations and individuals who are working to address the problem of violence against women and girls.

* To coordinate interventions that denounce violence against women, defining it as a continuum that affects women of all ages, social classes and sexual, political and/or religious orientations, particularly as part of November 25, International Day against Violence against Women.

* To make all sectors of society more aware of the fact that violence against women is a political problem and that profound changes must be made to the structure of social relationships that are based on a power imbalance between men and women.

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* To propose and demand approval of public policies and laws that prevent, investigate, punish and ultimately eradicate all forms of violence against women; also, to ensure that the State produces and disseminates information to this effect.

* To promote research that explores the different expressions of violence against women and the connections among them.

* To monitor the application of government programs that address violence against women in the context of conventions that have been signed and ratified by the Chilean government, promoting social and citizen oversight.

Urgent Cultural Changes

The campaign "Careful! Machismo Kills" is focused on denaturalizing violence against women, on debunking the generalized concept that it is normal for women to be punished when they do not meet expectations related to the role that is culturally assigned to the feminine gender. It also encourages women to stop tolerating all forms of machismo, abuse and aggression and urges all social, cultural and political sectors not to be complicit in this situation. Our efforts also are focused on making it clear that all members of society must repudiate all expressions of gender-based violence, particularly femicide. Finally, the campaign demands that public institutions develop coherent, coordinated and well-funded policies designed to provide effective and timely protection, quality services, material resources and reparations for victims, recognizing them as individuals who have the power to make decisions about their lives.

The campaign was to be developed over a three-year period. The first (2007) was focused on denouncing femicide as an extreme expression of violence against women, identifying violence and discrimination against women as problems that derive from unequal power relationships. The second (2008) looks to increase the visibility of sexual violence, which by its very nature is more difficult to denounce. The third year will focus on symbolic violence.

The statistics speak for themselves. Over 300 women were murdered in Chile between 2001 and 2007. Most were killed by men with whom they had had relationships based on intimacy and trust. Others were murdered by strangers who abused and raped them before ending their lives. "This data has been gathered by the Chilean Network against Domestic and Sexual Violence. There are no official records of these crimes, so our information is based on cases that have appeared in news reports and a review of some judicial files," states Soledad Rojas. "We found at least half of the murders of women in Chile to be femicides committed by men with whom the victims had relationships based on intimacy and trust."

She adds: "Femicide is the most extreme expression of violence against women. It is the result of defamation, abuse and violence as forms of power over women. As a result, describing the murders of women in the media and justice administration agencies as 'crimes of passion' and presenting the aggressors as psychopaths keeps us from recognizing patriarchal cultural patterns of ownership and dominion over women's bodies and lives that have naturalized and legitimated this permanent violation of their human rights for centuries. These men are not mentally ill: they are aggressors who attack women; they are machistas who commit femicide."

Intervention Strategies

This campaign is being developed by women's social organizations that are linked to the Network and individuals from public and private victim's assistance services. The actions include:

* Communications and dissemination efforts carried out by women and organizations linked to the Network, which affirms the social and political action of the women's movement;

* Sustained actions and provision of information to journalists to ensure adequate news coverage of violence against women, appealing to their role as agents of cultural change;

* Work with government officials who should address the problem to deepen and broaden their understanding and promote adequate treatment of these issues. This includes healthcare services, police agencies, judicial services and others.

The campaign also included massive public intervention actions coordinated in each region of the country in which the Network has links with women's social organizations.

The 2007 campaign began with the installation of the Traveling Memorial to Victims of Femicide in Chile (2001-2007). This installation presents the names of the 300 women who have been murdered. Its purpose is to demonstrate the direct relationship between machismo, discrimination, violence against women and femicide.

A wide range of strategies was used to reach people at the community, local and regional levels, including discussions, fliers, posters and the distribution of material to a variety of institutions and organizations. The 2007 phase ended with a march of over 20,000 people who lit up the night with torches in 15 cities around the country.

The Network's assessment of the campaign's success points first to its role in introducing the concept of femicide in Chile. The massiveness of the campaign and the positive outcomes are partly the result of the involvement of women's groups from around the country that reactivated earlier collaborative efforts by such organizations. The campaign's success and considerable scope also are due to our work with the media. Specifically, the Network provided journalists with pertinent facts on violence against women and femicide and secured their commitment to disseminate this information.

"Femicide has come to be viewed as a violation of women's human rights. This is a result of the Network's actions, media coverage of the number of femicides committed this year and the government's identification of this problem as a matter of concern and public policy," Soledad concludes.

For more information, please contact:

Soledad Rojas Bravo Gloria Maira Vargas Patricia Olea Castro Coordinators of the Red Chilena contra la Violencia Domestica y Sexual, http://www.nomasviolenciacontramujeres.cl.