Argentina: wave of anger in the country after a new feminicide
Audio 01:07
Rsula Bahillo's family and friends gathered at the young woman's funeral on February 10, 2021. She was stabbed to death two days earlier.
His ex-companion, a police officer, was arrested.
AP - Natacha Pisarenko
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
In Argentina, indignation is strong after the death of Úrsula Bahillo, 18, stabbed by her ex-companion, a police officer from the province of Buenos Aires.
She had lodged a complaint against him ten times and had warned her friends: “If I am killed, you know who is to blame.
In the home town of Úrsula, as across the country, anger is mounting at the inaction of the authorities.
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With our correspondent in Buenos Aires,
Aude Villiers-Moriamé
Tuesday, February 9, in the evening, a demonstration by the friends of Bahrsula Bahillo, in front of the police station in the city of Rojas, was violently repressed.
A young woman was injured in the eye by a rubber bullet.
Riots also broke out in this small town where this latest feminicide that moves Argentina took place.
The death of Úrsula Bahillo has stirred up anger in the country.
"
Ni una menos
" ("
Not a woman of less
"): this is what the feminist activists chanted gathered in the heart of the capital, Buenos Aires.
They do not accept that macho violence still kills.
Anitza and Marina, both 32, regularly demonstrate against
violence against women
.
They testify: “
I think it is the indignation, the pain and the empathy that mobilizes us, the fact of thinking that this could happen to any of us.
We have had enough ... Úrsula is not the first, it will not be the last, and the institutions are not giving an answer.
"
Ahora!
Casa de la provincia de Buenos Aires in CABA.
# JusticiaPorUrsulla # EmergenciaNiUnaMenos # FueraBerni pic.twitter.com/KNac2ThO0U
- MuMaLá Nacional (@MuMaLaNacional) February 10, 2021
Sexist violence within the police singled out
Argentina has had a strong feminist movement since 2015. The first Ministry for Women's Rights was created a year ago by the new Peronist government.
But Silvia Ferreyra, coordinator of
the feminist organization Mumalá
- born in Argentina and active throughout Latin America -, believes that the measures taken so far are insufficient:
“
The police are one of the institutions most marked by machismo and patriarchy.
We need to set up real training on gender-based violence, so that each complaint is received as it should.
"
According to the Mumalá observatory (Mujeres de la Matria latinoaméricana), 12% of the alleged perpetrators of feminicides committed since the start of the year are police officers or ex-police officers.
In January, 20 women were killed in Argentina, an average of one every 37 hours.
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Argentina
Womens rights
Society
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