‘Break the Silence’: Colombia Women Protest Rising Femicide

Dozens of Colombian women led protests in Bogota on Thursday against rising femicides in the South American country.

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The protests, organized by the Maisa Covaleda Foundation, used the slogan “Break the Silence” as a way to call out the government inaction on the issue. Demonstrations were held in front of Colombian Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez’s office and several other government buildings, El Espectador reports.

“Every time a woman is raped, beaten, murdered and our country’s institutions remain silent, they become accomplices to the problem,” Maisa Covaleda Foundation said in a statement on Facebook.

“We see it as absolutely necessary to organize a mobilization demanding responsibility from all the institutions that have failed to protect our children and women.”

Rising violence against women and children in Colombia is staggering.

Over 200 women in Colombia have been killed in 2017, according to Colombia’s National Institute of Legal Medicine. This figure includes the recent murders of Sara Palacio, Monica Avila, Jennifer Katherine Caceres, and Leidy Laura Burgos Chanci.

It gets worse.

There were 4,315 medical examinations for alleged cases of sexual violence against children and adolescents in Colombia in the first quarter of the year alone, National Institute of Legal Medicine also reports.

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Firearms, according to the National Institute of Legal Medicine, are the most commonly used weapon in the perpetration of femicides. In the past ten years, the use of firearms in these crimes has increased.

“Ten years ago, assaults with the use of firearms were ranked in fourth or fifth place,” National Institute of Legal Medicine director Carlos Valdes told El Espectador.

“Nowadays, the use of firearms in the mistreatment of women has reached first place.”

Colombia’s Bogota, Atlantico, and Valle del Cauca regions have the highest rates femicide.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, 53 convictions have been issued so far this year. Similarly, 345 cases have been reported, of which, 152 are under investigation and 85 proceeding to trials.