Femicides in Ecuador: 68 Victims So Far This Year

More than 60 women have died in Ecuador so far this year, from Jan. 1 to Aug. 8 for being women, said Alianza Mapeo, a group made up of different organizations that investigate gender violence cases in the country.

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Ecuadorean law considers these crimes of murder against women and girls as femicides. The report includes victims who are younger than 86. The report also recorded four Colombians, a Peruvian and a Venezuelan killed within Ecuadorean territory.

“Their family and close friends have suffered damage beyond repair because of the systemic gender violence against women in the country”, said an official document released by the groups and social movements behind Alianza Mapeo, such as Aldea Foundation and National Network of Foster Homes.

Statistics show that:

34 percent of the victims were stabbed, 15 percent strangled, 14 percent suffocated, 7 percent had their throats cut. Another 30 percent were killed by bullet wounds or decapitated.

In over 62 percent of the cases, 37 cases in total, the aggressors were romantically involved with the victims, while the 37 percent were strangers.

Almost 50 percent of the victims were minor moms, and eight of them had previously been reported as missing.

54 percent of the aggressors used pointy weapons (knives), and five of the murderers then turned the weapon on themselves to commit suicide.

Since 2014, Alianza Mapeo has reported 684 cases of murdered women in Ecuador, at a rate of three women killed per day.

Diario Correo informs that this year alone there's been over 280 femicides in Latin America. The number was provided by feminists movements and associations from 15 countries of the region. The countries with the highest number of victims are Mexico at 104 and Brazil at 69.