Femicides increase by 31% in Guatemala during 2021

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Femicides registered in Guatemala an increase of 31% between January and August 2021, compared to the same period last year, according to a report released Tuesday by the humanitarian entity Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo (GAM).

The non-governmental organization detailed that in those eight months of 2021, 396 women were murdered in Guatemala. In the same period of 2020, the figure amounted to 302 homicides, which is equivalent to an increase of 31.1%.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Guatemala

This August alone, 43 femicides were registered, explained the director of the Mutual Support Group, Mario Polanco, in a press conference.

The increase of crimes in Guatemala has as its origin “the little attention that the authorities give to the threats and intimidations against women, which lead to homicides against them”, emphasized the humanitarian leader.

The GAM report states that the months with more violent deaths of women in the Central American country have been, so far, January with 68 cases, June with 54, and April with 53.

For her part, GAM analyst, Karla Campos, highlighted that criminal phenomena against women in Guatemala continue to report an increase.

According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the most committed crime in Guatemala during recent years is violence against women.

Campos explained that during the first eight months of 2021, the Women’s Observatory of the Public Prosecutor’s Office registered 58,975 different crimes against women and children in the Central American nation.

According to Campos, most of the crimes against women range from psychological violence to death, and in many cases, the victims’ cohabitants, partners, or ex-partners are charged.

According to the investigating agency, in the first eight months in Guatemala, 21,317 cases of psychological violence, 13,753 cases of physical violence, and 5,717 reports of sexual abuse, among others, were reported.

Meanwhile, the Directorate of Victim Attention (DAV) of the National Civil Police (PNC) registered, between January 1 and August 31 last year, 11,486 complaints of domestic violence against women, 3,393 more than the same period in 2020.

According to experts, the drop in homicides and crimes against women in 2020 was due to the closure and confinement of the country for four months due to Covid-19.

According to international organizations, Guatemala is one of the 15 most violent countries in the world, and in the last decade alone, it has recorded more than 60,000 murders.

So far this year, the Guatemalan authorities have 2,592 homicides of both men and women, according to data released last week by the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (Inacif).