U.S. Democratic Party presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has built her campaign around her self-proclaimed dedication to fighting for women’s rights, as well as her superior experience in the realm of foreign policy.
Many feminists have disputed that, and the women on the receiving end of her foreign policy, in particular Latin America, are even less likely to see the former Secretary of State as a champion of their rights.
For Honduran feminist artist Melissa Cardoza, Clinton’s policy in Central America has shown her true colors as an instrument of empire representing patriarchal, not feminist, ideology.
“As is well known, she supported the coup d’etat in my country, which has sunk a very worthy and bleeding land further into abject poverty, violence, and militarism,” Cardoza said of Clinton’s legacy in Honduras. “She is part of those who consider only some lives to be legitimate, obviously not rebel women and women of color that live here and who do not, at least not all, fit in with imperial interests.”
Cardoza added that so-called feminists calling on women to support Clinton should be warned against voting solely on the basis of identity politics, and made aware of the neoliberal lining of Clinton’s agenda.
“Sure, there is a very neoliberal feminism, although that formula seems unthinkable to me, but it’s those who think they can humanize the most violent way of life of heinous, criminal, ecocidal capitalism,” she said.
In Honduras, women suffer widespread gender violence amid a broader crisis of human rights, fueled by ever-increasing militarization and impunity since the U.S.-backed 2009 coup that ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. Under then-Secretary of State Clinton, the U.S. State Department aided the coup by blocking Zelaya from returning to power after he was ousted.
“As a member of a feminist organization severely affected by the support of the U.S. for militaristic policies of recent governments, I must say that it is important that voters take the time to do a critical structural analysis of all of the information in the campaign proposals and previous actions of those running for president,” she said. “United States support for militarily invasive policies in other countries has a negative impact on the women in these countries."
“The current dictatorship under Hernandez is part of her creation,” said Cardoza. “The misery doesn’t just affect women with more brutality, but also our bodies are exposed to the militarist ideology with which they uphold poverty and kill us; to the conservative fundamentalism with which they deny the exercise of our sexual autonomy; and to the possibility of being creative people and not just workers for their factories and way of life.”
In Honduras, the femicide rate increased by over 260 percent between 2005 and 2013. In 2014 alone, at least 513 women were murdered, and in 2015 one woman was killed every 16 hours. The country earned the moniker of “murder capital of the world" in the wake of the 2009 coup, with 15 assaults per month now perpetrated against journalists, human rights defenders, and the political opposition. Honduras is also now considered the most dangerous place in the world for defenders of the environment.
What’s more, the coup ushered in neoliberal policies of sweeping privatization, making Honduras “open for business” to U.S. and transnational companies, at the expense of workers and a self-sufficient economy.
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