Dominicans of all social groups took time off from usual Sunday activities to join the call for a stop to violence against women. Leaders of the country’s political party were there to show their support for women.
When the march reached the Centro de los Héroes, a manifesto was read. The organizers demanded the government approve a comprehensive organic law against gender violence and to eliminate from the Civil Code the provision that allows legal marriage before 18 years. Also rejected is the cooperation of judges and prosecutors with femicides. There was a call for education in equality and that political parties comply with the gender quota in the electoral law.
Attorney General Office (PGR) statistics indicate that 66 women were murdered by their spouses this year. Of these, two (Anibel González and Juana Domínguez Salas) were murdered after state prosecutors from the PGR struck irregular deals that allowed the men to go free from jail. Both murderers were released from prison through agreements reached by falsifying the signatures of the deceased with the apparent complicity of officials assigned to the Attorney General’s Office.
Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez reported last Friday, 22 November 2019 that 88% of the victims of femicides in the Dominican Republic had not filed a complaint with the authorities against their aggressors.
The “March of the Butterflies” started at Santo Domingo’s Mirador del Sur Park and walked down Av. Jiménez Moya to the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) and the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) headquarters. The protest was named in memory of the Dominican sisters Patria, Minerva and María Teresa Mirabal, who were murdered in 1960 by Dictator Rafael Trujillo.
To close the event, Maridalia Hernandez, Xiomara Fortuna, Adalgisa Pantaleón, soprano Nathalie Peña Comas and folklorist Roldan Marmol performed. The loudspeakers carried the voice of late Sonia Silvestre in her song dedicated to the Mirabal sisters.
This Monday marks the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, held around the world in memory, precisely, of the death of the Dominican heroines, who were colloquially known as “butterflies” during the dictatorship.
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25 November 2019