Argentina Femicides: 200 Gender-Violence Deaths in Nine Months of 2026
ARGENTINA · SOCIETY
Key Facts
- —The country Argentina, a country of about 46 million, gave birth in 2015 to Ni Una Menos, a Latin American movement against gender violence.
- —The background Since 2012 the penal code has punished femicide, the killing of a woman because of her gender, with life imprisonment.
- —Why now Two independent observatories have each reached 200 deaths from gender violence by the end of September 2026.
- —What happened Ahora Que Sí Nos Ven counted 200 victims from 1 January to 29 September: 167 direct femicides and 33 related deaths.
- —The numbers That is one death every 33 hours, plus 306 attempted killings; at least 202 children lost their mothers.
- —What it means for you In Argentina, call 911 in an emergency; Línea 144 is the national helpline for victims of gender violence.
- —Still open Both counts rely on press reports; the Supreme Court’s official registry for 2026 will only appear next year.
Two Argentine observatories have each counted 200 deaths from gender violence in the first nine months of 2026, most of them femicides. The figures amount to one woman, girl or trans person killed roughly every 33 hours.
Ahora Que Sí Nos Ven published its count up to 29 September, and the news site El Destape reported it on Saturday. A second group, MuMaLá, reached the same total by 30 September.
Who Counts and How
Ahora Que Sí Nos Ven, Spanish for Now That They See Us, is a feminist observatory. It tracks gender killings through national print and online media, working with the National University of the Delta.
MuMaLá, short for Mujeres de la Matria Latinoamericana, runs its own national observatory. Neither group is an official body, and their methods and cut-off dates differ slightly.
The official figure comes from the Office for Women at the Supreme Court, which builds its registry from court files. It publishes each year’s total months after the year ends.
Similar independent tallies exist across the region, as in Cuba Femicides Reach 54 in Nine Months.
What the 200 Deaths Include
Of the 200 victims counted by Ahora Que Sí Nos Ven, 167 were direct femicides. Another 20 were linked femicides: people killed to punish a woman or while trying to protect her, often relatives.
Seven deaths were cases of instigation to suicide, and six were killings of trans women or travestis. The group also recorded 306 attempted femicides, more than one a day.
In 64 percent of cases the alleged killer was a partner or former partner. Forty-one percent of the attacks happened in the victim’s own home, and 23.5 percent in a home the two shared.
Only 14 percent of the victims had reported their attacker before. At least 202 children and adolescents lost their mothers.
A Second Count Reaches the Same Number
MuMaLá counted 200 gender killings between 1 January and 30 September, the news site La Lupa reported. It also recorded 654 attempted killings and 157 children left without their mothers.
In its count, 12 percent of victims had reported their attacker, and three in four of those had a protection order. Six percent of the alleged killers belonged to the security forces.
The two groups define attempts differently, which explains the wide gap on that figure. On the number of deaths, they agree.
What the Official Registry Shows
The Supreme Court registry found 200 direct victims of femicide in 2025, plus 19 linked victims. That was 12.3 percent fewer than the 228 recorded in 2024, the court said on 29 May 2026.
The 2025 rate was 0.85 victims per 100,000 women, about one every 44 hours. Chequeado, a fact-checking site, noted that the court had not changed its method.
Court files and press monitoring capture cases differently, so the official and civil-society figures are not directly comparable. For the same nine months of 2025, Ahora Que Sí Nos Ven had recorded 287 attempted femicides and 149 orphaned children.
The Policy Dispute
The observatory links the deaths to cuts in prevention policy under President Javier Milei, profiled in Who Is Javier Milei?. He abolished the women’s ministry on taking office in December 2023.
The group says the 2027 budget bill does not mention Línea 144 or the Acompañar programme. Línea 144 is a national helpline created in 2013 for victims of gender violence.
Acompañar, launched in 2020, pays survivors the equivalent of the minimum wage for six months. Both depend on national funding.
“The resurgence of gender violence comes as Milei deepens the dismantling of the public policies meant to prevent it,” the observatory said. MuMaLá spoke of a “state of emergency” and tied it to economic hardship.
A Supreme Court Case to Watch
The Supreme Court is also weighing an appeal over the 2016 killing of Julieta González in Mendoza province. Andrés Di Césare was sentenced to life for aggravated homicide in a context of gender violence.
His defence argues that the femicide clause should apply only to partners or former partners. Women’s groups filed briefs asking the court not to narrow it, the news site Chaco Ahora reported.
A narrow reading could mean lighter sentences for gender killings by acquaintances or strangers, the observatory warns. The ruling is still pending.
What Comes Next
Both observatories will keep publishing regular tallies, and the official registry for 2026 is due in 2027. Congress has yet to vote on the 2027 budget bill that the observatory criticises.
The headline number does not by itself prove a surge, because court data fell in 2025 and methods differ. It does mean that, by any count, a woman is killed in Argentina every day or two.
More: Latin America news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
How many femicides has Argentina had in 2026?
Ahora Que Sí Nos Ven counted 167 direct femicides and 200 gender-violence deaths in total between 1 January and 29 September. MuMaLá also counted 200 deaths by 30 September.
What is a femicide under Argentine law?
It is the killing of a woman by a man in a context of gender violence. Since 2012 the penal code has punished it with life imprisonment.
Are femicides in Argentina rising?
The official Supreme Court registry recorded 200 direct victims in 2025, down from 228 in 2024. Civil-society counts for 2026 come from press reports, so this year’s trend is not yet settled.
Where can someone get help in Argentina?
Línea 144 is the national helpline for victims of gender violence. In an emergency, call 911.
Sources: Ahora Que Sí Nos Ven, 29 September 2026; El Destape, 3 October 2026; Chaco Ahora, 1 October 2026; La Lupa (MuMaLá count), 1 October 2026; Supreme Court of Argentina (CSJN), 29 May 2026; Ahora Que Sí Nos Ven (2025 report), 29 September 2025; Chequeado, 3 June 2026.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief