The Bolivian Attorney General’s Office reported on Monday that in the first six months of 2024, 45 femicides and 19 infanticides were reported, and that in most cases the perpetrators are in pretrial detention.
The director of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes against Life and Personal Integrity, Elizabeth Viveros, reported that in the first half of the year there were 45 femicides, of which most are concentrated in La Paz (11).
Viveros explained that 26 cases are in the preparatory stage, that is to say that the aggressors are in pre-trial detention. In only 14 of them a sentence of 30 years in prison was achieved.
This Saturday, the Bolivian justice system sentenced a 27-year-old man to 30 years in prison without the right to pardon, accused of killing his 28-year-old ex-partner.
The incident occurred in March 2022 and caused outrage in society after learning of the brutality and viciousness with which the now sentenced man acted.
However, while there are cases that end with sentences, in the highland country there are recurrent femicides.
The director of the Public Prosecutor’s Office informed about the murder that occurred over the weekend of a 69 year old woman in the eastern city of Santa Cruz. She was a victim of sexual assault and lost her life due to multiple blows.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the majority of femicides in Bolivia are committed by the victims’ ex-partners who were no longer living with them at the time of the crime.
On the other hand, Viveros reported that in the first semester of 2024, 19 infanticides were reported and La Paz concentrates, as well as femicides, most of the cases (11).
It is followed by Santa Cruz (4), Cochabamba (2), Oruro (2) and the other five departments did not register any infanticides.
The Bolivian Public Prosecutor’s Office was able to obtain a sentence for two of the cases, while nine other cases have the aggressors in preventive custody. The rest are in legal proceedings.
In the last hours, a 7 year old boy lost his life in the town of Caranavi (valleys of La Paz) after being suffocated by his mother’s neighbor. Police arrested the aggressor and he is currently in preventive detention.
Bolivia has had Law 348 in force since 2013, which punishes femicide with 30 years in prison without the right to pardon, the maximum penalty in the country’s legislation.
Different women’s organizations have been claiming for years that this rule is not fully complied with due to judicial delays, lack of economic resources and lack of trained personnel to deal with complaints of gender violence, among other aspects.
In April, a group of legislators from the ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) promoted a reform to Law 348, considering it “anti-men”, which was rejected by the opposition and the pro-government wing of President Luis Arce’s government.
The constant femicides and infanticides place Bolivia among the most violent countries in the region.