Agostina Vega case: femicide in Córdoba exposes gaps in justice and cuts to gender-protection policies
A 14-year-old girl was murdered and her remains found in an empty lot in Córdoba, amid police delays and reductions in state programmes for the protection of women.
Agostina Vega case: femicide in Córdoba exposes gaps in justice and cuts to gender-protection policies
A fourteen-year-old adolescent was murdered in the province of Córdoba and her remains were located on a vacant plot of land on the outskirts, in an incident that raised alarm bells about the effectiveness of the state's response to gender-based violence.
Agostina Vega disappeared in late May. Her family members approached the authorities repeatedly to report her absence, but police officers delayed for several days before activating the search protocol, assuming the young woman had left of her own volition. When her body was finally found, crucial days had already passed.
During a press conference held afterwards, the judicial official in charge of the case refrained from acknowledging errors in the conduct of the security forces and chose instead to highlight the performance of the dog handler who located the remains. A journalist present confronted him live, in a scene that spread across digital platforms and channelled the frustration of large segments of society towards a justice system that, according to complaints, often downplays the seriousness of these crimes.
The incident is part of a series of crimes with gender-based connotations that occurred within a short period. Shortly before, a seventeen-year-old girl was found dead inside a water tank in the province of Misiones, after remaining missing for fifteen days. That same weekend, a thirty-year-old woman called police for assistance because her live-in partner was holding her captive. Police officers remained outside awaiting a written order. When they entered the property, the victim had already died.
These incidents took on greater significance against a backdrop of shrinkage in the state apparatus linked to the protection of women. The current administration eliminated the specific ministry that handled these policies, reducing it to a minor department within the Justice portfolio. Furthermore, the telephone line that previously provided exclusive assistance for situations of gender-based violence was converted into a general service for any type of assault, despite official records indicating a rate of one crime of this nature every twenty-nine hours.
The Executive justified the changes by arguing that previous programmes lacked concrete results. However, activists and organisations maintain that the lack of funding and structure hampers the effective implementation of current protection regulations.
More than a decade ago, the homicide of another fourteen-year-old girl in the province of Santa Fe sparked a massive social mobilisation against sexist crimes. Since then, the groups leading that cause have documented thousands of deaths linked to gender-based violence. The annual marches in memory of that first victim gathered thousands of people once again, this time demanding that advances achieved not be diluted in the face of the state's reductions in this area.
_Source: BBC Mundo via Acento_
Source: Google News AR — Crime