August 2000

Footage begins with a group of people including Martha Figueroa and Guadalupe Cardenas clustered around a desk looking at photographs in an office. There is a sign that says 1989-2000 Grupo de Mujeres de San Cristóbal COLEM, and other b-roll of the office interior and exterior. There are CU shots of various newspaper headlines about sexual violence and posters from events. Next there is an interview with Martha Figueroa, a lawyer from the women's rights group, Grupo de Mujeres de San Cristóbal in Chiapas. She discusses the abuses that indigenous women in the region face, including domestic abuse; sexual violence linked to armed conflict; abduction, rape, and subsequent forced marriage; trafficking and prostitution; torture by police and government officials. She talks about how indigenous people are being disappeared and marginalized due to poor health services other than sterilization and contraceptives, and the officials' unwillingness to help women who report crimes. She details the horrors of the Acteal massacre in which paramilitaries killed 45 villagers, primarily of women and children, who were gathered in the village church. She explains how the attack was directed at indigenous people and, in particular, women. She describes the case of Catarina Menendez-Paciencia, a woman who suffered so many injuries that she cannot work or marry.