VZCZCXYZ0019
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHGT #1601/01 2202112
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 082112Z AUG 07
FM AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3528
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 4450

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 001601 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KWMN SOCI GT
SUBJECT: WOMEN'S RIGHTS GROUPS HOST PRESIDENTIAL FORUM ON 
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH 
 
¶1.   Summary: Three women's rights groups hosted a political forum 
on reproductive health on August 2.  Politicians and NGO leaders 
discussed contraceptive rights, women's social status, maternal 
mortality, health care, sex education, and prevention of sexually 
transmitted infections, specifically HIV/AIDS and HPV.  Among key 
concerns raised were lack of public awareness and access to public 
health services, especially in rural and mainly indigenous areas. 
End summary. 
 
¶2.   NGOs Call for the Health and Development of Women (ISDM), Youth 
Network Incidejoven, and Network for the Reproductive Health of 
Indigenous Women, with USAID assistance, co-sponsored a political 
forum on reproductive health.  Presidential, vice-presidential, and 
congressional candidates across the political spectrum participated. 
 Alba Judith Cap Batz, from the Group for the Reproductive Health of 
Indigenous Women, gave a presentation underlying the importance of 
political dialogue on all aspects of reproductive health in 
Guatemala. 
 
¶3.   Cap Batz pointed out that there are various laws that address 
family planning and reproductive health, but that most of these laws 
have yet to be enforced.  The poor quality of reproductive health in 
Guatemala, especially in indigenous areas, reflects a poor overall 
quality of health care.  According to Cap Batz, the Guatemalan 
government spends less than one percent of its annual budget on 
health care, which is the lowest percentage of any country in Latin 
America.  Of every 100,000 indigenous births in Guatemala, 219 end 
in maternal mortality, reflecting the inadequacy of health care 
services in rural areas.  Twenty-eight percent of Guatemalan women 
of reproductive age expressed a desire to engage in family planning 
but were not able to do so.  The average Guatemalan woman has 4.4 
children, despite reportedly wanting to have only 3.4 children. 
 
¶4.  According to Cap Batz, sex education in the country is dismal. 
Forty-two percent of men and women in Guatemala are sexually active 
before they are 18 years old, despite knowing little to nothing 
about how to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies and 
sexually transmitted infections.  Every day, 25 Guatemalans are 
infected with HIV, and 9,000 people are expected to become infected 
this year.  Cap Batz closed the presentation by evoking the human 
rights group's slogan, saying that Guatemalan women must stop 
passively accepting this situation with "eyes closed, mouths shut, 
and arms crossed." 
 
¶5.  Political Candidates, who were invited to speak for five minutes 
each, shared their concerns and plans to improve reproductive 
health.  Oscar Rodolfo Casteada, presidential candidate for Partido 
de Avanzada Nacional(PAN), asserted the importance of reproductive 
health and expressed frustration that women's health programs in 
Guatemala have not improved over the years.  He vowed to take a good 
look at the issue. 
 
¶6.  Miguel Angel Sandoval, presidential candidate for Unidad 
Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (UNRG-MAIZ) said that his 
party's plan of government includes a plan for women's rights and 
sexual rights.  He also criticized Guatemala's historically 
conservative government, blaming it for the lack of sex education 
and public awareness among most Guatemalans.  He also criticized the 
double standard in Guatemalan society, in which men cheat on their 
spouses and infect them with HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted 
infections. 
 
¶7.  Zury Rios-Montt, a congressional candidate for Frente 
Republicano Guatemalteco (FRG), pledged to allocate Q36,000,000 
(approximately USD 4.7 million) for reproductive health, including 
sex education, health services, and increased access to indigenous 
populations.  She asserted that women are "the heart of the nation" 
and claimed that, although she is Catholic, she does not allow her 
personal morals to dictate her politics.  She also denounced the 
recent exorbitant airport expenditure and other government spending 
on buildings and infrastructure, implying that these funds would be 
better spent on health care. 
 
¶8.  Pablo Werner-Ramirez, vice-presidential candidate for Democracia 
Cristiana Guatemalteca (DC), promised to keep politics out of his 
speech and to be frank.  He complained that the current government 
was leaving the important issue of women's rights and health to 
NGOs.  He recounted conversations he had had with the DC's expert on 
public health, who had convinced the party that this was an issue of 
great importance.  Nineth Montenegro, a congressional candidate for 
Encuentro por Guatemala (EG), expressed the necessity for the 
government to begin spending more on health, saying that the 
government was still spending too little on reproductive health, 
especially toward indigenous populations. 
 
¶9.  Mariano Rayo, congressional candidate for Partido Unionista 
(PU), claimed that the municipalities that had elected his party 
were already spending more of their budgets on reproductive health 
and that PU's plan was to allocate more funds from the national 
budget to focus on the issue.  He presented a number of plans, 
including educational reform explicitly mandating sexual education 
 
for all K-12 students, promoting responsible fatherhood, and 
combatting corruption within medicinal companies.  He also promised 
to focus on promoting cervical cancer prevention and improving 
medical insurance. 
 
¶10.  Romeo Menendez, chief of the health policy team for Partido 
Patriota (PP), said that reproductive health should be central to 
any health budget.  He asserted that indigenous populations need 
culturally adapted services, including education and health 
services.  He said that his party would consider access to emergency 
contraception to be a human right.  He criticized Guatemala's 
patriarchic society that ignores women who do not choose to or are 
not able to have children.  Citing a study that reported that, at 
any given time, 4 percent of Guatemalan women are pregnant, Menendez 
proposed sexual education programs in all primary and secondary 
schools to address the pregnancy issue and other issues of 
reproductive health. 
 
¶11.  Youth from the NGO Incidejoven, expressed their generation's 
need for sexual health services, while Consuelo Esquivel, of ISDM, 
noted that women understand the importance of these elections and 
that addressing these issues is vital for the development of a true 
democracy. 
 
¶11.   Comment: Reproductive rights is a very controversial issue in 
this predominantly Catholic country, many candidates tend to avoid 
the issue, and even those who attended the forum had little to say 
about how reproductive health fits into their specific policy 
platforms.  Nonetheless, because women's rights, and especially 
indigenous women's rights, have been largely ignored for so much of 
the history of Guatemala, it is an important step that so many 
parties sent representatives to this forum.  Conspicuously absent 
were representatives from Unidad Nacional de Esperanza (UNE), the 
party of presidential frontrunner Alvaro Colom, and Gran Alianza 
Nacional (GANA), the party of third-place presidential candidate 
Alejandro Giamattei and of current president Oscar Berger.  The NGOs 
that organized this event, with help from USAID, will be 
indispensable in raising public awareness and maintaining political 
focus on women's rights and reproductive health, especially at the 
national level.  End comment.