Florencia Guiñazú, Argentinian footballer, killed by her ex-spouse – Libération

2024-04-09 14:11:12

The player of the Atlético Argentino de Mendoza club was strangled at her home by her former partner, while her 7-year-old son was in her room. The murderer killed himself.

It is not common to see the world of Argentine football using feminist slogans. However, they were unanimous this Monday, after the announcement of the death of Florencia Guiñazú, 30 years old, killed by her partner who strangled her this weekend. “Ni una menos” (“Not one less”), “Stop killing us”, writes on Instagram the Club Atlético Argentino de Mendoza, taking up the mantra of Argentine feminists, whose militant force has spread across the all of the subcontinent since 2015. We see the professional player there, all dressed up and all smiles.

The tragedy, sadly common in Argentina, took place at dawn on Saturday, in Guaymallén, in the province of Mendoza, in western Argentina. This is where the footballer, also model and tattoo artist, lives, separated from her partner for several months. It’s not the sounds of arguing, around 5 a.m., that alert the neighbors. But a message, discovered much later, written on one of the windows of the home: “Call emergency services, the children are alone.”

Around 4 p.m., one of them decided to knock on the door. It’s the seven-year-old son who opens the door; Florencia Guiñazú’s other daughter is then with her grandparents. When asked where his parents are, he says he doesn’t know, that the door to the master bedroom is closed from the inside and no one answers, that he spent a good part of the day on his console. games. The neighbor calls the police who decide to force the bedroom door to discover the crime scene: Florencia Guiñazú is lying on the ground in a pool of blood, visibly beaten. Bruises on the neck indicating strangulation. The judicial police will immediately confirm the death by asphyxiation. Her partner is in the closet, he hanged himself with a cable. He was the one who wrote the message on the window before committing suicide.

Symbol of an evil that is gnawing at Argentina

Florencia Guiñazú joins the long list of feminicides that are bloodying Argentina. The latest report from the Argentinian observatory on gender violence Ahora that if our fri counts 49 for the months of January and February only this year, or one woman killed every 29 hours. This is more than in 2023 at the same period, already record year with 308 feminicides against 249 in 2022.

However, the thirty-year-old is one of the rare women who dared to report gender-based violence to the police. It was last November 25, she requested an expulsion order against her partner who refused to leave the family home. According to a local newspaper, El Sol, a first violent altercation took place at the time: a neighbor found her in the street, in a state of shock, after the father of her children had hit her and locked her in the bathroom. The authorities did not then bring charges against the father of her children due to lack of evidence. “They were a couple with a very open relationship. But the arguments have been constant lately,” a source close to the matter told the Argentine newspaper.

Beyond her club and the Argentine football federation, the death of Florencia Guiñazú had all the more impact as the young woman was widely followed on social networks. Feminist organizations, also very popular in Argentina, immediately saw it as a symbol of the evil that is gnawing at the country at a time when their fight is increasingly criticized, notably by the current far-right Argentine president, Javier. Milei.