In 2021, 4,473 women were murdered in Latin America for gender-related reasons, 12 a day.
Feminicide persists as a reality and there are no clear signs that it is decreasing”, warns a report released yesterday by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in the framework of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
In this context, Marcela Villalobos, president of Amnesty International Mexico, warned that, in the midst of militarization in our country, femicides continue unstoppable. “To say that a policy is being implemented to eradicate violence against women, while at the same time empowering the Armed Forces, giving them more resources and functions in the streets, is totally contradictory,” she stated in an interview with Pascal Beltrán del Río for Imagen Radio.
In 2021, the highest rates of femicide in LA were registered in Honduras (4.6 per 100 thousand women), Dominican Republic (2.7) and El Salvador (2.4). The 15-29 age group concentrates the cases.
At least 4,473 women were victims of femicide in Latin America during 2021, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) reported yesterday, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
The figure represents an average of 12 violent gender-related deaths of women per day in the region, according to a report by ECLAC’s Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean (OIG).
“Feminicide or femicide persists as a reality and there are no clear signs that the phenomenon is on the decline,” the report says.
In 2021, the highest rates of femicide in Latin America were recorded in Honduras (4.6 cases per 100,000 women), Dominican Republic (2.7 cases), El Salvador (2.4), Bolivia (1.8), Brazil (1.7) and Mexico (1.6).
In the Caribbean, Belize and Guyana have the highest rates, 3.5 and 2.0 per 100,000 women, respectively.
The figures “are unacceptable,” says José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, quoted in the text.
Adolescents and young women between 15 and 29 years of age make up the age group in which the highest proportion of femicide cases are concentrated.
“Gender-based violence against women and girls takes place systematically and persistently in the region; it knows no borders, affects women and girls of all ages and occurs in all spaces, from the domestic sphere to public spaces,” warns the ECLAC report.
Of the data collected, more than four percent of the cases correspond to girls under 14 years of age.
The text also reflects that at least 781 minors lost their parents to violent death, although only ten countries have records of this data.
“Faced with the statistical silence in most countries, it was feminist organizations and activists who began the process of compiling data and building information on femicides in several countries in the region,” it states.
The statistics, which reveal “the persistence of patriarchal, discriminatory and violent cultural patterns”, give an idea of the situation in the region, but the data, the organization warned, must be used for the “design of comprehensive public policies on violence against women and girls”.
“Our obligation is to redouble our efforts so that women and girls in our region can truly exercise their right to live a life free of violence and discrimination,” added Salazar-Xirinachs.
All countries in the region have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention of Belém do Pará, and all have legislation focused on ending gender-based violence, the agency adds.
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