Remembering Rosa Elvira Cely

Participants in today's ceremony carry a sign about another victim of gender violence. 

Almost exactly three years ago, Rosa Elvira Cely, a 35-year-old cafeteria employee was savagely raped and left to die in the upper part of Bogotá's Parque Nacional. Discovered unconscious by police the next morning, Cely died while awaiting treatment after being shuttled from one hospital to another.

The viciousness of the crime and senselessness of Cely's death has made the crime an emblematic one for activists against violence against women, who staged a commemorative ceremony today on the site of the crime.

Despite publicity campaigns and stricter punishments - Cely's attacker, who was mentally ill, was sentenced to almost 50 years in prison - violence against women continues to be an epidemic in Colombia. A recent report by the Defensoria del Pueblo said there were 38 cases of such violence per day in Colombia - and those are only the cases reported and recorded publicly. Congress has two laws pending on the issue, one of which would make femicide a specific crime, and another increasing penalties for acid attacks.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Paper Butterflies in La Nacho

Fold it this way.

During a bike tour today, we got a lesson from Alexei in folding paper butterflies, part of Bogotá's week against violence against women.

Look - I made a buttefly!

Participants wrote anti-violence messages on the butterflies' wings and glued them to the wall.

'Down with machismo!'

'Strong ovary!'

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá's Dangerous Campaign Against Gender Violence

A banner hung on the Plaza del Che in the Universidad Nacional publicizes 'The week of no violence against women.' 

 Don't hit a woman...tomorrow.

ADN newspaper reports that Nov. 25 is
the 'day without violence against women.'

That's the message Bogotá seems to be sending out these days. Violence against women - or any sort of violence - is a terrible thing. But the instruction not to commit violence today, this week or this month seems to send an implicit message that committing violence tomorrow, next week, or next month IS alright.

It's the same message I get from those useless warnings stenciled on Bogotá streetcorners and alleys:

'Urinating prohibited on this street.'

So on the next street it's okay?

While it's a good thing to designate a week to draw attention to gender violence - a huge problem in Colombia - they'd better serve their goal by simply drawing attention to the problem, rather than calling on men to stop hitting women 'this week.'

'Urinated Prohibited On This Street.' And on the next street?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

These Men Take a Stand in Skirts

Men in skirts in front of the old Communications Ministry building along Ave. Septima. 

This evening, standing on the front of the old Ministry of Communications and overlooking the partying crowd on Ave. Septima, this group was chanting condemnations of machismo. A valuable message, certainly, in a nation in which good ol' boy violence causes some deaths and many injuries, even if few of the partyers were listening.

But if skirts really make the man, what are we to make of the Scotsmen?

Arm raised against machismo.

Ave. Septima was packed with partyers.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Protesting Violence Against Women

These women, some of them shirtless, marched thru La Candelaria protesting against violence against women, on the International Day Against Violence Against Women. Gender violence is certainly a cronic problem in Colombia, where drinking rates seem high and a macho culture persists.

According to this article, during the first four months of 2013 more than 500 girls and women were murdered in Colombia. The article in El Tiempo reports that activists plan to transmit anti-violence ads to football fans. The strategy makes sense, altho it's also ironic that football, and the drinking assocated with it, is a driver of many kinds of violence, including violence against women.

A protester wore a sign comemorating a victim of gender violence. 

Take your shirt off against violence. 

Topless participants in the protest.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

How to be a Real Man

Real men and women!

Do Colombian men need to retool their concept of masculinity? That's what a group calling itself 'The Red Couch' or 'The Collective for the Erotic Revolution, Sun and Moon' is calling for. 

'To be a male, all you have to do is be born
with a penis and testicles...'

They rallied today by the Parque Nacional handing out cards which read: 'Defining your manhood according to the size of your penis is thinking that all that you are can be measured in centimeters.'

"The idea of this campaign is to question the traditional and hegemonic idea of masculinity, in which men are taught to repress themselves, to be strong, not to cry," said psychologist Alejandra Quintero.  "The idea is to question this and let them be who they are."

Certainly, ideas of masculinity in Colombia and much of the world depend too much on violence, physical strength and sexual performance. But I don't find Colombian maleness to be quite as simplistic as that in Chile and Bolivia, where the supreme expression of male friendship was getting drunk together and falling down.

 Simplistic ideas of masculinity, of course, often lead to violence, particularly gender violence, and unwanted pregnancies.

Do you know how to be a real man?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Campaign Against Violence Against Women

Today, activists against gender violence arranged these portraits of women, local, young, older, historic and some famous, on the Plaza Bolivar, under the slogan 'We Female Humans Construct Society.' (That's sort of a play off of the mayor's slogan 'Bogotá Humana' and sounds better in Spanish.)

The display, which I was told is to stay for one month, coincides with a municipal campaign against violence against women.

Setting up the portraits.

La Pola and Manuela Saenz, famous revolutionaries, but no advocates of non-violence.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

No More Violence Against Women!

'Life sentences for rapists'

The capoeira dancers also lent support. 

Thousands of people filled the National Park in Bogotá today to protest against violence against women. Such violence has been in the news recently because of a series of vicious attacks, including the rape, torture and murder in the National Park of Rosa Elvira Cely, a crime which galvanized public sentiment. There has also been a recent wave of acid attacks in which spurned lovers have thrown acid into the faces of the victims, almost always women.

'If they touch one of us, they touch all of us. Not one more!'

Tragically, the kind of men who commit these atrocities are sick and not likely to respond to laws or rallies. However, raising public consciousness can make women more aware and the general public less apathetic than they often are to abuses.

A suspect arrested for the Rosa Elvira's murder had, it turns out, been convicted of killing another woman in 2002, but was released after only 15 months in prison because of mental problems.

Leaving notes on a message tree. 

'My body is not a battlefield, nor war booty.' Tragically, all the illegal groups involved in Colombia's armed conflict have committed widespread abuses against girls and women, including forced recruitments, forced abortions and the use of young girls as quasi sex-slaves by making them sexual partners for older militia leaders. I wonder whether the Young Communists (Juventud Comunista), who made this sign, also criticize the guerrillas?

Almost all of the police at the event were women. These wore pink flowers. 

'Life is sacred!'

This guy was preaching with his mannequin. 

'Not one more! We demand no more impunity!'

Women police officers read signs carried by young women denouncing gender violence. 

Rose petals scattered around a sculpture of a prostitute by Bogotá's National Park. 

'We are not objects. We deserve respect. No more violence against women.'

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours