In October alone, 1,058 cases of gender violence were admitted to the Guayaquil Judiciary units. A week, about 212.
Her dreams of teaching and motivating more generations to study were cut short on the night of Sunday, November 7, when her husband killed her by stabbing her at least five times in the middle of an argument, at her home, in the coop. Carlos Castro 2, in Guasmo, south of Guayaquil.
Lidia Falcones, 52, was a teacher at a school in the sector and is one of the recent victims of violence against women that does not stop in the country and that reaches its most extreme degree at the moment in which her life.
On Ecuador exists the figure of femicide since August 10, 2014, the day the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code entered into force (COIP) So what punishable by imprisonment from 22 to 26 years to whoever takes the life of a woman because of her being one or because of her gender condition. But the penalties can reach up to 40 years in the case of aggravating factors like injuring or killing also another member of the family nucleus and others contemplated in the legislature.
And although throughout these years campaigns, programs and plans have been presented to try to eradicate violence towards the woman, cases and official figures that are exposed show the increase in this problem, which is also addressed in the World Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which is remembered every November 25.
A man murdered his partner and then committed suicide; the case occurred in Guasmo, in the south of Guayaquil
In these seven years, since August 2014 to the court of November 7, 2021, 508 cases have been processed solo for femicides in Ecuador, not counting the other forms of violent deaths of women What murders, rape with death, kidnapping with death, hit man, homicide, abandonment of person with death and robbery with death, according the statistics what does he have Council of the Judiciary (CJ).
Counting the 755 cases of other forms of violent deaths of women in these seven years of validity of the COIP, 1,263 victims of femicides and other types of violent deaths have been registered in Ecuador from August 10 from 2014 until the cutoff of 7 November 2021, according to the data of the CJ.
At 2019 were 149 women murdered, between femicides (62 cases processed) and the other types of violent deaths (87 processed). In 2020, the number rose to 165, of which 77 were only femicides and the rest (88), other types of violent deaths.
AND so far in 2021, processes are recorded by 196 women who died violently. Of these, 57 are for femicides and 139 for other types of violent deaths, according to the Judiciary.
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For civil society organizations and groups who also keep, on their own, records of femicides and violent deaths of women, the situation is considered alarming because the numbers are not falling and because now other forms of violent deaths are also rising.
They see with anguish the increase in violent deaths of women for organized crime, where, they say, their bodies are used as “war spoils” for fights and conflicts between gangs or criminal gangs that use weapons and, therefore, there are and are increasing the cases of women shot to death.
For the Alliance for Femicide Mapping in Ecuador There are 172 cases of femicides this year or violent deaths of girls and women due to gender from January 1 to November 15, according to the registry of this civil society group that considers this 2021 as the most violent since femicide was typified in the country.
Of these 172 violent deaths, the majority are concentrated in Guayas, with 69 cases; followed by Manabí and Pichincha, with 16 cases, respectively.
“The post-pandemic moment shows that violence against women is a latent problem and that a coherent, concrete state action is necessary, with a sufficient and efficient budget allocation. You can’t think of an equal opportunities plan if you don’t think of how to mitigate and prevent violence against women in Ecuador, ”says Geraldina Guerra, from the Alliance for Mapping Femicides in Ecuador.
She adds that the State owes a debt to the victims of violence, including girls and adolescents, and that the Government needs to invest sufficient budgets and time to overcome problems and limitations such as having a single social worker to cover three cantons in the northwest. from Pichincha, as an example.
With traumas and without psychological or economic help, orphans by femicides in Ecuador are on the rise and without healing wounds
For women’s rights groups the red alert call for state authorities is urgent who have competence in the route of care for victims of violence to achieve effective action in all territories, both urban and rural.
This is because women come to ask for help, but they would not be treated efficiently, he assures, and gives an example to the rural sector, where he maintains that there are political lieutenants and prosecutors who would not attend to cases quickly, or to issue aid tickets in rural areas such as the cantons of Pichincha.
They ask for more trained and specialized public officials, that they are present from the moment the events occur, as in the cases of femicides, where a team from the justice and security system is required to collect all the necessary evidence and carry out the investigation “from a gender and specialization perspective. to approach the victim ”, say women from these civil society groups.
They also request what public institutions like the national police have up-to-date computer systems and modern that allow the authority or the official at the time of the act to know if that victim had an aid ticket, a complaint filed, among other details, in addition to the coordination of the investigation between the parties, adds Geraldina Guerra.
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Maria Josefa Coronel, Director of the Council of the Judiciary (CJ) in Guayas, says violence against women is a complex issue, since has been and is standardized even by women, and this prevents many from recognizing that they are attacked, from making the respective complaints and continuing with the processes.
Coincide also with Guerra in which there are limitations in this path of attention because specialized and trained teams are needed that can determine and differentiate violence against women (physical, psychological …) at all levels and spaces, from the Police, technical teams, Public Prosecutor’s Office and also the Judiciary.
He says that since the prosecutor is the owner of the investigation, he must bring to the judge all the probative elements of the crime of violence against women.
For Coronel, not even the judges are sensitized and trained enough in these cases, and those who are fully trained for this they are not supplied to meet the high demand for cases of violence against women.
He gives an example of the income in the month of October in Guayas, in the Judiciary. Only in the Guayaquil units 1,058 cases of violence against women were admitted. Of these, 777 causes entered as complaints of first reception or by lawyers. AND 291 causes they entered as a request for protection measures by Prosecutor’s Office.
An average of 212 cases of gender violence enter the Judiciary units in Guayaquil alone per week. Of these, 155 are admitted by complaints of first reception by action of a private lawyer, and 57 a week as a request for protection measures (which are urgent or emergency to save the life of that woman at that time).
Given these figures, Coronel says they have already held meetings to see what other measures can be taken.
On September 27, the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, activated the so-called Comprehensive National System to Prevent and Eradicate violence against women, which includes the launch, within a period of one year, of the so-called Single Registry of Violencia (RUV), which would seek to achieve “zero femicides in the country.” (I)
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