Bolivia to Declare National Alert for Femicide

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Bolivian government should declare a national alert in the near future, due to the increase in cases of violence against women. Jeanine Áñez, the country’s interim president, said she will approve a decree to mark 2020 as the Year to Fight Violence Against Women.

According to Justice Minister Álvaro Coimbra, the government is appalled by last year’s statistics, which ended with 117 femicides.

In 2018, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) report recorded 128 murders of women in the country, placing Bolivia in fifth place among the countries with the highest number of women killed in the region.

Bolivia, with 2.3 femicides per 100,000 inhabitants, lags behind only El Salvador (6.8), Honduras (5.1), Santa Lucia (4.4) and Trinidad and Tobago (3.4).

The Prosecutor General’s Office warned that nine femicides, 685 cases of physical violence and 163 rapes have been reported so far in 2020. The number of deaths is more than double that of 2019 – when four deaths were recorded between January 1st and 7th, said Juan Lanchipa, Bolivia’s prosecutor general.

“This calls our attention, and we hope that the authorities can take preventive action. We know that the government is taking on the task of carrying out emergency actions, because the numbers urge us to take joint actions among institutions to prevent the escalation of gender-based violence and femicide,” Lanchipa said.

According to Bolivia’s prosecutor’s office, the majority of deaths were due to asphyxia caused by their attackers. One death was from gunshot wounds and another from beatings.

According to the Minister of Justice, the “national alert” seeks to involve all state bodies, not only from the point of view of logistics, projects, and plans, but also the mobilization of economic resources.