The first quarter of 2023 has been the most violent against women: 30 femicides

2023-04-16 09:44:10

Nicaragua has already doubled the number of femicides committed during the first quarter of 2022, which were reported by the independent observatory, Católicas por el Derechos a Decidir. According to reports, in the first three months of 2022 there were 14 women murdered, however, in 2023 the number of victims of sexist violence already rises to 30.

The monitoring of Católicas reveals that between January and March there were 26 femicides and to these will be added the deaths of Tatiana Jirón, Shana Willis, María Auxiliadora Jiménez and Yaneli Peña that occurred in the first ten days of April.

Among the total number of femicides, ten are also reported that were committed abroad and that, in just three months, almost equal the 11 women murdered outside of Nicaragua during the year 2022.

The feminist organization revealed that the most violent month so far was March, when 12 femicides were registered, ten in Nicaragua and two abroad, that is, 44% of the total reported up to then. They also add that most of the perpetrators lived with the murdered or were known.

These women murdered by sexist violence left at least 20 orphaned children, according to a review of CONFIDENTIAL to the cases of the victims.

The last three femicides were committed viciously. Tatiana Jirón, 21, who was originally from San Pedro de Lóvago, Chontales, was found half buried in a mountainous area. She had been missing since March 30. According to the Police, Jirón would have been strangled by Harold Sánchez, with whom she had a relationship. Her body was found 500 meters from her house. The victim left two children in the orphanage.

Shana Ada Willis, 34, was murdered by her partner Jessy Chavarría in a community in Laguna de Perlas, South Caribbean. The man shot her in the head and then ran away from her. She was the mother of two children.

María Auxiliadora Jiménez Hernández, 28, was murdered by her partner Bayardo Obando Tijerino, the man stabbed her 18 times while she went with her two children and her mother to a Health Center, located in Carazo. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Jiménez had suffered violence from her partner for more than eight years.

The latest victim to be reported is Yaneli Peña, an 18-year-old girl, who was found this Wednesday, April 12, in a bush in Ticomo. She had been missing since Monday. Her body was found covered by dry branches, she was face down and shirtless.

Migrant women are also victims of sexist violence

Half of the ten femicides committed abroad against Nicaraguans occurred in Costa Rica, another three in the United States, and one each in Guatemala and Mexico, respectively. The victims were between the ages of 23 and 49.

The Catholic Observatory for the Right to Decide points out that in these cases “the context in which we Nicaraguans are experiencing is also favoring femicides (who murder abroad), who after committing the femicide return to the country and are not captured.” .

They also explain that this type of extreme violence is part of the violations suffered by migrant women, who leave Nicaragua in search of opportunities and find themselves unprotected abroad because for the countries where they go “their lives do not count.”

“Unfortunately gender violence has no borders. Migrant women suffer multiple forms of violence while abroad because they are a migrant woman where they do not have laws that protect them, first of all because they are a woman, even because of their race, because of their nationality, so we see that in the last four years the wave of migration It has increased, and with them the cases of femicide”, they lament.

The femicide that has caused the most international impact was that of the 21-year-old Nicaraguan Anggy Díaz, who was stabbed and beheaded by her husband, the American Jared Dicus. The femicide is being prosecuted in the United States for first degree murder.

The latest reports reveal that despite having confessed to the crime and that there is a report and evaluation of mental competence, Judge 506 of Waller County, who is handling the case, ordered new psychological tests, according to the Telemundo network. The young woman had migrated in 2019 and had been married to the American for a few months.

The other victims who died outside Nicaragua

• Esterling Meza, 24 years old. She was assassinated in the United States by her ex-partner Julio César Morales, also Nicaraguan, who was harassing her. As she described her family, she had ended the relationship because she suffered physical violence from her. Morales shot him in the head. The crime occurred at around 10 p.m. on December 31, 2022, but it was known on January 3.
• Gretel Guerrero, 43 years old. She was murdered in Guatemala by her Guatemalan husband Leonardo Rodríguez, whom her family describes as “a violent guy” because she did not let her communicate with her children who migrated to Honduras. Her body was found with blows to her body and neck.
• Maria Auxiliadora Lopez, 37 years old. They killed her in Costa Rica, when she was in a bar. The man entered and shot him.
• Maria de los Angeles Larios, 46 years old. She was murdered by her partner on a beach located in Quepos, Puntarenas, in Costa Rica. The Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) indicated that she received a call for domestic violence, but when they arrived she was already dead.
• Evelyn de Fatima González Zeledón. She was murdered in Costa Rica by a gunman when she was with her partner in a car. It is suspected that the murder was for the man.
• Martha Poveda Suarez, 49 years old. She was murdered along with her partner, whom she had been with for a short time. According to her witnesses, she had received death threats from her ex-partner, with whom she lived for 11 years, who was abusing her. The crime occurred in Costa Rica.
• Rosa Alpina Morales, 45 years old. She was murdered in Miami, United States by her partner, of Honduran origin. The woman was carrying her year-old son in her arms when the man shot her four times. The child was wounded by gunshots.
• Jessira Massiel Chavarría González, 29 years old. She was murdered by a Mexican cartel that had her kidnapped, who asked her family for a reward to free her. She had left Nicaragua on December 27, 2022 in search of the “American dream.”
• Anielka Maria Silva, 33 years old. Murdered by her ex-partner William Omar Talavera, also of Nicaraguan origin, when they were both in a bar. The man fled and it is presumed that he is in Nicaragua after being sought by the Costa Rican authorities.