Lilith
09-15-2006, 06:34 PM
(gg)
BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - They are calling it the
"crossed legs" strike.
Fretting over crime and violence, girlfriends and
wives of gang members in the Colombian city of Pereira
have called a ban on sex to persuade their menfolk to
give up the gun.
After meeting with the mayor's office to discuss a
disarmament program, a group of women decided to deny
their partners their conjugal rights and recorded a
song for local radio to urge others to follow their
example.
"We met with the wives and girlfriends of gang members
and they were worried some were not handing over their
guns and that is where they came up with the idea of a
vigil or a sex strike," mayor's office representative
Julio Cesar Gomez said.
"The message they are giving them is disarm or if not
then they will decide how, when, where and at what
time," he told Reuters by telephone.
Gomez said the city, in Colombia's coffee-growing
region, reported 480 killings last year.
Crime and violence have dropped in Colombia since 2002
when President Alvaro Uribe was first elected
promising to crackdown on left-wing rebels fighting a
four-decade insurgency and the illegal militia groups
who formed to counter them.
But cocaine-trafficking gangs and armed groups still
roam parts of Colombia and murder and kidnappings
remain a problem despite the fall in crime statistics.
BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - They are calling it the
"crossed legs" strike.
Fretting over crime and violence, girlfriends and
wives of gang members in the Colombian city of Pereira
have called a ban on sex to persuade their menfolk to
give up the gun.
After meeting with the mayor's office to discuss a
disarmament program, a group of women decided to deny
their partners their conjugal rights and recorded a
song for local radio to urge others to follow their
example.
"We met with the wives and girlfriends of gang members
and they were worried some were not handing over their
guns and that is where they came up with the idea of a
vigil or a sex strike," mayor's office representative
Julio Cesar Gomez said.
"The message they are giving them is disarm or if not
then they will decide how, when, where and at what
time," he told Reuters by telephone.
Gomez said the city, in Colombia's coffee-growing
region, reported 480 killings last year.
Crime and violence have dropped in Colombia since 2002
when President Alvaro Uribe was first elected
promising to crackdown on left-wing rebels fighting a
four-decade insurgency and the illegal militia groups
who formed to counter them.
But cocaine-trafficking gangs and armed groups still
roam parts of Colombia and murder and kidnappings
remain a problem despite the fall in crime statistics.