(By Gonzalo Ruiz Tovar, special from Lima) Separated by more than 1,200 kilometers and by 44 years of age, two women these days became the temporary symbols of gender violence in Peru, a recurring problem in a macho country, to which neither the State nor society manage to respond despite the demands of feminist organizations and leaders.
Katherine Gomez, 18, died at the end of March after her ex-boyfriend, 21, doused her with gasoline and set it on fire in a busy square in downtown Lima. Just a few hours later, Juana Larico, 62, was the victim of an identical attack by her cohabitant, 73, in a modest house in the southern city of Juliaca.
For Romero, the country has made certain advances in aspects of the fight against gender violence, but it has yet to reduce the most perverse expression of these attacks: femicide.
Katherine agreed to meet with her former partner, a street vendor whose whereabouts are now unknown, to explain face to face why she was determined to end the relationship. For security reasons, she preferred to meet him in the central Plaza Dos de Mayo in the capital, where there are always many people.
A follow-up with security cameras in the area shows how the murderer, Sergio Tarache, for whom the equivalent of $13,000 is now being offered as a reward, bought gasoline in a nearby place. Faced with Katherine’s reluctance to resume their courtship, he showered her with fuel and lit her with matches.
Tarache fled on foot, taking advantage of the fact that people preferred to help the victim instead of chasing him. The cameras show him in an unbridled flight through the downtown streets, without the police or anyone else intercepting him.
Now, those close to the victim fear that he has managed to leave for Venezuela, his country of birth.
In Juliaca, Larico apparently managed to defeat death, but with burns on 40% of his body. The Police in this case managed to immediately capture the attacker, who in the first hours refused to collaborate with his testimony.
Dozens of people summoned by the feminist NGO Manuela Ramos held rallies these days in front of the Ministry for Women, not only to express rejection of violence, show solidarity with the victims and demand government responses, but also to protest statements by the head of that briefcase.
“We would like young people to choose well who to be with, because they must be aware that they deserve to live free of violence,” said Minister Nancy Tolentino, which led various sectors to blame her for placing the blame on the victims.
“That they do not accept any commitment or a relationship with a person who does not respect them, who violates their rights, who does not treat them with the dignity they deserve,” Tolentino insisted on that occasion.
Violence is not only expressed in femicides, a figure included in Peruvian legislation since 2014 to add aggravating factors to murders for gender reasons. Every year thousands of cases of physical, psychological and/or sexual abuse are reported and documented.
In 2022, for example, the disappearance of 478 women, including girls and adolescents, was reported and documented. It is estimated that in the vast majority of these cases there is gender violence involved and that the figures could be even higher if all episodes were reported.
In a report entitled “What happened to them?”, the Ombudsman’s Office documents those cases of women whose whereabouts are never known.
“All this is due to the lack of education on gender equality and the prevailing machismo in society. The belief still prevails that women are private property (of men), that they are their domain, (and) they cannot tolerate a woman ending a relationship,” said psychiatrist Vanessa Herrera, from the National Institute of Mental Health.
“From the first crush you can see signs of dominance, control, jealousy. We commonly call this toxic relationships, but they are forms of psychological, physical, and even sexual violence. That is why we must intervene early,” Herrera added for the Andina state news agency.
In recent years, the government tried to implement gender equality policies, but the efforts were insufficient.
In addition, in Congress and in the political arena, conservative forces of the right and left come together to fight against what they contemptuously call “gender ideology.”
“The central element in this type of crime is discrimination and structural subordination against women as a result of machismo,” argued lawyer María Isabel Rosas, former Vice Minister of Women.
“For this reason, it is fundamental and urgent to implement an effective and timely intervention strategy, and that the policies of the Ministry of Women have a positive impact on women and society, avoiding the naturalization of gender violence and social tolerance,” added.
“There is a system that is not working,” admitted the Ombudsman, Eliana Revollar, whose office is at the forefront of the issue.
Although no comparative figures were presented, the Ministry for Women and the Ombudsman’s Office estimate that in the traditionally conservative Peru the problem is even more serious than in other countries in the region.
Source: Ambito
