The case of femicide of the adolescent valentina cancels in Maldonado, in the hands of her ex-boyfriend – who had already received three complaints and a restraining order – returned to debate the gender policies of the Uruguay where, between 2001 and 2022, 615 women were murdered for reasons of gender.
Yesterday afternoon, the Police found the body of the 17-year-old teenager, buried on a beach in Maldonado. The perpetrator of the act was her ex-boyfriend – who confessed to the femicide and the place where he had buried her – and who had three complaints made for physical and psychological violence and one perimeter restriction.
He femicide de Valentina returned to the table the debate on gender violence and the policies that the Uruguay about. In 2017, articles 311 and 312 of the Penal Code were modified
There he typified the figure of femicide where the minimum sentence is 15 years in any act committed “as an act of discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, race or ethnic origin, religion or disability”, and also that which has been committed “against a woman for reasons of hatred, contempt or contempt, due to his condition as such”.
NGO warns of a structural failure against gender violence
In dialogue with the Arriba la Gente program, the director of the organization “El Paso”, which is in charge of working with victims of gender violence and child abuse, Andrea Taunaassured that those who govern today must be pressured, as well as in the future, so that there is a real change, a cultural change.
The director established that the fault came from the National Administration of Public Education (ANEP) because the victim and his perpetrator belonged to the same high school, as well as a failure on the part of the Police and the Power of attorney.
“This issue does not matter to anyone, at least not to those who are responsible. Absolutely everything fails. We have a law that says exactly what needs to be done, but this is not given the priority that it should be given,” Tauna criticized.
On the other hand, he warned about the lack of resources to apply the regulations. “The system is falling apart because there is no hierarchy. There is a very clear law but they do not give him a budget and he has a battery of very clear actions to take ”, he questioned.
The government admits failures in preventing the femicide of Valentina Cancela
the director of InMujeres, Monica Bottero, admitted this Thursday that “the risk was not correctly assessed” in the case of Valentina Cancela. “Between January and July there were 24,480 complaints for gender violence. A risk assessment is made because custodial protection measures or anklets cannot be put in any case. Obviously the risk was not correctly assessed,” he acknowledged, reported Telemundo.
“When there is a femicide that presented, in some way, some type of previous risk that it could happen, there is a feeling that we failed, we cannot deny it,” he said, referring to the fact that the femicide had three previous complaints for physical violence and psychological.
Bottero reflected that “the gender violencedomestic, in couple ties, has a root and a connotation that is not strictly criminal”, and urged the educational communities, families and other “community environments that are aware” of the link to “intervene in time”.
Femicide rates are growing
According to a study of “Uruguay Femicide”which has the objective, on the one hand, of showing the increase in femicides in the Uruguay, but also to highlight a lack of coordination on the part of the government to obtain statistics on femicides, between 2001 and 2023, 675 women died for reasons of gender.
In this sense, in recent years, and specifically last year, an increase of 23% was glimpsed in relation to 2021 where there were 37 femicides and 21 attempts. Meanwhile, the average age of the victims was 37.5 years. The age range between 19 and 29 years is the one with the highest incidence with 25%, followed by that of 30 to 39 years with 24.6% and, in third place, women between 40 and 49 years.
According to data from Bottero de Inmujeres, in Uruguay Until July 30, there were 24,480 complaints for episodes of domestic violence. At INAU, they have handled almost 10,000 situations so far this year. “The answers are given, sometimes we fail, we must admit it,” he said.
Source: Ambito
