Argentina reports a femicide every 39 hours in first four months of this year

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A total of 74 women were murdered in Argentina during the first four months of 2021, equivalent to a femicide every 39 hours, Silvia Ferreyra, national coordinator of the organization Mujeres de la Matria Latinoamericana (Mumalá), said on Sunday, May 2.

“Macho violence does not have an earnest approach to prevention,” Ferreyra explained.

Argentina has a national rate of 0.3% femicides per 100,000 women, Mumalá estimated in its report.

The feminist organization revealed 117 violent deaths of women, transvestites, and transsexuals in the first four months of the year (including femicides, those caused in criminal acts, and unresolved facts) 15 violent deaths of women are under investigation.

It also recorded that 109 attempted femicides were perpetrated, and 70 children and adolescents were left motherless.

LACK OF RESOURCES

Of the total of 74 femicides surveyed by Mumalá, the majority (60) were direct murders, 11 were indirect – linked to girls (2) and boys (9) related to the woman who suffered macho violence – and 3 were trans/travesticide.

“Although we have advanced laws that not all countries in the region have, we have very few resources to be able to put them into practice at the local detection level, where victims can go at the first alert,” explained Ferreyra.

This situation is reflected in the fact that 63% are linked to partners or ex-partners; 14% to acquaintances of the victim; 7% to male indirect relatives; 5% to male direct relatives; and 3% to an unknown link.

Meanwhile, 71% were carried out in the victim’s home or shared home; 10% in the street; 3% at the victim’s workplace; 2% in the offender’s home; and 4% in a vacant lot.

Likewise, 24% of the victims had denounced their aggressor, 14% had contact or perimetral restriction order, and 3% had a panic button.

Another fact is that members of the security forces committed 14% of the femicides, and in 31% of the deaths with firearms, a regulated weapon was used.

Likewise, 13% of the people committing femicide had a criminal record.

Given a new series of restrictions on movement applied in Argentina due to the pandemic, limiting the possibility of seeking help, Ferreyra pointed out that “2020 was not used to strengthen the tools and resources in gender areas to address the second wave of Covid-19”.

The feminist organization once again demanded from the national government the declaration of emergency in gender violence – which it had already promoted with the presentation of a bill last March – “to reallocate and prioritize human and economic resources for the comprehensive care of women and members of the LGTTNBIQ+ collective.”

Source: efe