In the first quarter of this year around 25 women have been murdered, according to the District Attorney of the National District, Alejandro Moscoso Segarra. The statistics released by the Minister for Women, Alejandra German, show that an average of 200 women have been murdered by their partners or former partners every year, over the past seven or eight years.
The official says that these events bring about consequences that are very painful for victims’ families and for a large part of society, and might seem unstoppable, because they go on in spite of efforts by the state and civil society agencies. “This situation has worsened in that over the past months many of the aggressors, after killing their partners or former partners also kill the children and then commit suicide”, she said. German and Moscoso Segarra agreed that more work was needed on prevention in families and at the level of society.
In response to the situation, yesterday the Ministry of Women presented a “Strategic Plan for Prevention, Detention, Response and Penalties for Violence against Women and within the Family 2011-2016” which sets out a series of educational activities and strategies to be carried out throughout all five years with the aim of providing women with a more secure and promising future. German told reporters that the “machista” culture still prevails and influences people from childhood, and that this needed to change, as reported in Diario Libre.