VZCZCXYZ0003
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #1476/01 3012001
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 272001Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 2342

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001476 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR G/IWI 
DEPT ALSO FOR WHA/BSC 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KWMN KPAO PHUM PREL AR
 
SUBJECT: ARGENTINA: NOMINATION FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN OF COURAGE 
 
REF:  STATE 126072 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary.  Argentina has a long history of courageous women 
leaders who have worked tirelessly to protect fundamental human 
rights, educate a new generation of citizens growing up in an era of 
democracy, and combat drug and human trafficking.  This year's 
nominee, Nelida Borquez, is cast from the same mold.  A survivor of 
domestic and family violence herself, she has championed for over 20 
years women's rights to live free of domestic and sexual violence. 
Nelida's efforts to increase public and official awareness of 
violence against women in the impoverished Buenos Aires suburb of La 
Matanza have empowered battered women to come forward to denounce 
the crime.  Acknowledging Nelida's efforts will help to raise public 
awareness of domestic violence, and may enhance prospects for 
strengthened cooperation from the Argentine government to protect 
victims, and punish the perpetrators, of this demeaning crime. 
¶2.  (U) Full legal name of nominee: Felipa "Nelida" Borquez 
 
Job title/association: Program Director for the Prevention of 
Violence Against Women, Domestic and Sexual Violence 
The Rosa Cazarreta House for Women 
 
Date of birth: May 25, 1946 
 
Country of birth: Argentina 
 
Citizenship: Argentine 
 
Address: El Lazo 1059, 1765 Isidro Casanova, La Matanza, Provincia 
de Buenos Aires, Argentina 
 
Telephone: (54-911) 56-158-5778 
   (5411) 4467-7045 
 
E-mail: casarosachaz@yahoo.com.ar 
 
Passport number: 05326753F 
 
¶3.  (U) As a child, Nelida Borquez witnessed and was subject to 
violent abuse from her father.  As a young woman, her husband 
inflicted physical, emotional, and psychological abuse.  The cycle 
of violence continued after her husband died, when her subsequent 
domestic partner began abusing her.  Like many victims of domestic 
violence, she suffered the abuse in silence, never daring to seek 
help. 
 
¶4.  (U) At the time, Argentina had just returned to democracy after 
seven years of brutal rule under a military dictatorship.  Economic 
mismanagement, however, led to a hyperinflationary environment with 
ever-increasing levels of poverty, prompting Nelida Borquez to begin 
working with a group of community leaders in the impoverished Buenos 
Aires suburb of La Matanza to run soup kitchens to help meet their 
community's basic needs.  While serving meals with other women in 
her community, they began to discuss their personal troubles only to 
discover that they had one tragic experience in common: they were 
all victims of domestic violence.  To their surprise, many of the 
perpetrators were the very same community leaders with whom they 
worked.  These conversations helped Nelida realize she was not 
alone, and the women frequently turned to one another for support. 
 
¶5.  (U) Meanwhile, some elements of the federal government took 
notice of the good work they were doing in their communities and 
offered these women scholarships to pursue university studies.  Many 
of them used the opportunity to study feminism and the law, and 
through their studies learned that the violence they suffered at 
home was not normal.  It was a crime.  Nelida and her colleagues 
resolved to do something about it by founding and establishing a 
women's-only community center in their hometown of La Matanza.  The 
center provides psychological assistance to victims through group 
therapy, helps victims file complaints with the police, and conducts 
weekly violence prevention and anger management workshops with male 
aggressors. 
 
¶6.  (U) While the law prohibits domestic violence, including spousal 
abuse, violence against women is defined as a misdemeanor, and 
complaints are addressed in civil rather than criminal courts.  The 
law only prescribes penalties for domestic violence when it involves 
crimes against sexual integrity, in which case the penalty can be as 
much as 20 years' imprisonment.  However, lack of vigilance on the 
part of the police and the judicial system often led to a lack of 
protection for victims.  Machismo, or the belief in male domination 
over women, seems to be the cultural norm in many parts of 
Argentina.  Such attitudes not only enable domestic violence, but 
also sustain it since many police and other authorities have 
demonstrated a reluctance to intervene in what they consider a 
private matter beyond the reach of the law.  According to local 
press reports, family violence in Buenos Aires city has increased 
369% from 1995 to 2008.  In August, Amnesty International reported 
that a woman dies every two days in Argentina as a result of 
domestic violence.  The organization estimated that at least 81 
women had been killed in Argentina by their spouse, former partner, 
or other family member from January-August 2008.  In La Matanza 
alone, approximately 10,700 complaints of domestic violence were 
filed from 2005-2007 according to the local NGO Women's Agenda. 
Even these statistics may not accurately capture the magnitude of 
the problem, as domestic violence is a hidden crime with many cases 
unreported. 
 
¶7.  (U) Nelida's efforts to increase public and official awareness 
of the problem in La Matanza have empowered battered women to come 
forward to denounce the crime.  Under Nelida's direction, the 
community center has since grown to become a network of 14 centers 
throughout the city of La Matanza.  They assist thousands of victims 
a month.  With the modest financial assistance from the city of La 
Matanza, UNIFEM, and the Spanish Agency for International 
Cooperation, the center now offers programs to help victims become 
survivors.  To break the victim's financial dependence on their 
abusers, the center also teaches victims and other members of the 
community sewing skills, which they can then use to make garments 
for the center's cooperative, work for themselves, or work for a 
local sewing factory.  They will soon offer classes in graphic 
design and printmaking as well. 
 
¶8.  (U) Nelida Borquez's tireless advocacy for women's rights has 
succeeded in bringing public and official attention to domestic 
violence.  When she learned that police stations in La Matanza were 
not filing domestic violence complaints and were instead referring 
victims to the only Women's Police Station in town, she launched a 
public campaign to educate women of their rights, and the police of 
their obligation, to file such complaints at the nearest police 
station.  Although she, her staff, and the victims who seek 
assistance from the centers have received numerous threats from the 
perpetrators of domestic violence, they labor on, thus far, without 
incident. 
 
¶9. (U) Acknowledging Nelida's efforts will help to raise public 
awareness of domestic violence, and may enhance prospects for 
strengthened cooperation from the Argentine government to protect 
the victims, and punish the perpetrators, of this demeaning crime. 
Such recognition could help bolster the Argentine Supreme Court's 
recent precedent-setting efforts to improve women's access to 
justice through its new Office of Domestic Violence inaugurated in 
September.  This is a pilot project to improve access to justice for 
domestic violence victims in Buenos Aires City. 
 
¶10.  (U)  Buenos Aires emboffs for women's issues are Heidi Gomez, 
gomezhn@state.gov and Mara Tekach, tekachmm@state.gov. 
 
WAYNE