The United Nations System in Bolivia condemned on Friday the femicide of a 17-year-old girl who was a human rights activist and who a few days ago was found dead and with signs of sexual violence in the Bolivian city of El Alto, neighboring La Paz.
She was identified as Noelia, “she was part of a group of young brigadistas in El Alto, who carry out actions to prevent violent dating,” explained the United Nations in a press release.
These groups were trained by the Centro de Promoción de la Mujer “Gregoria Apaza”, with support from the United Nations Population Fund (Unfpa), he added.
The organization recalled that Noelia’s body “was found lifeless in a vacant lot” last February 14 and that “her death adds to the more than 80 femicides registered during 2023 and to those that happened in these first two months of the year”.
“These cases are manifestations of the most brutal and extreme violence against women, perpetrated – almost always – by people who have close ties with them, whether they are family members, partners or friends,” he lamented.
The UN also ratified its commitment to continue supporting the Bolivian State’s “advances” in the implementation of norms, public policies and “effective actions for the prevention of violence”, as well as strategies for the “attention, punishment and reparation of the rights of the survivors” of these events.
He also called on institutions and society “to contribute to building a culture of non-discrimination and zero tolerance to violence in families and communities”.
Noelia’s body was found last week in a vacant lot in the Tarapacá area of El Alto, “after the confession of her two assailants”, two boys also 17 years old, according to a publication by the “Gregoria Apaza” Women’s Promotion Center.
The entity denounced that the father of one of the teenagers “tried to bribe the family” of the teenager so that they would not report the incident, which did not happen.
The main aggressor was sentenced on Monday to 6 years in the “Qalauma” Rehabilitation and Social Reinsertion Center for juvenile offenders.
The sentence in this case is less than the 30 years without the right to pardon established in the law against violence against women in force since 2013 because the defendant is a minor.
The other teenager is under house arrest, is being investigated as an accomplice and could receive a sentence of 3 years imprisonment.
Noelia’s family and friends, along with other activists, staged a sit-in protest at the courthouse gates in El Alto to demand justice.
Bolivia registered 81 femicides in 2023 and another seven from January to February 16, according to data from the Attorney General’s Office.
Different feminist organizations have been claiming for years that the law against gender violence is not fully complied with due to judicial delays, lack of economic resources and lack of trained personnel to deal with these complaints, among other aspects.
Parliament has not yet dealt with a reform presented in July 2022 by the Government of Luis Arce to strengthen this regulation.