Femicide: two sisters killed before divorce hearing

Santiago del Estero. This province was shocked by another double femicide, the second registered here this year. In the Lot 40 area, a few kilometers from the town of Los Juries, a man stabbed his ex-partner and sister to death. The bloody episode happened after 13 and the femicide, identified as Rino Garnica, 45, has been arrested a few minutes after the double crime committed by the local police.

The victims were found by neighbors. They were on the ground, a short distance from each other, and in a huge pool of blood. Upon arriving at the scene of the crime, police found that the two had numerous knife wounds and that the children of the two women had witnessed the double femicide. The sisters were still alive, but died on their way to the Añatuya hospital.

Silvia Rojas, 31, the murderer’s former companion, had left the house a week ago, tired of Garnica’s attacks. Everything seems to indicate that since then he had lived in the house of his sister, Silvana Rojas, 35, and that on several occasions the femicide had approached to demand, with insults and threats, that the woman resume the romantic relationship.

It also emerged that Silvia had made a reserved presentation due to threats against her ex-partner and that a divorce hearing was scheduled for tomorrow in the courts of the city of Añatuya. Witnesses of the conflicting link assure that harassment has increased in recent days.

Las primeras averiguaciones, a cargo of the fiscal Andrea Darwich, junto a la coordinadora de fiscal María Emilia Ganem, determinaron that Garnica llegó al domicilio de su excuñada pasado el mediodía y que, al igual que en otras oportunidades, exigió a Silvia que retornara a his home. At that point, Garnica stabbed her ex-partner and ex-sister-in-law, who allegedly tried to defend her sister.

A few minutes later, Garnica was arrested, who He confessed to being the author of double femicide in block 40, located in the south-east of the province, almost on the border with Santa Fe, 271 kilometers from the capital Santiago. Investigators and magistrates attended to examine the details of the case and determine the investigation into the killer who was being housed in a cell in Section 48 of Los Juries.

This is the second double femicide reported this year in Santiago del Estero, where another murder of a woman due to gender violence also took place.

On January 11, in Monte Quemado, in the north of the province, a man killed his ex-partner with a shotgun while she was holding their son in his arms. He immediately went to his ex-mother-in-law and shot her with the same 16-caliber weapon. And on the 23rd of last month, in the town of Icaño, another femicide committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a truck that drove along National Road 34, shortly after beating his ex-partner to death.

The various feminist organizations in the province have expressed their repudiation and called for “exemplary sentences” for all femicides. From Mumala (Women of Latin American Matria), they indicated on the social network Facebook that “the interior of our province continues to be the most dangerous place to live as a woman”.

Murder and suicide

The double femicide known in this province is another visible manifestation of the epidemic of gender-based violence which continues to spread. The murder of the young Úrsula Bahillo, which took place last week in the city of Rojas in Buenos Aires, exposed the flaws in the victim protection system, as the femicide, the policeman Matías Martínez, had many complaints against him and no effective measures have taken to protect its threatened victim.

This case led to a meeting between President Alberto Fernández and his Ministers of Justice, Security and Women, Gender and Diversity, to analyze alternatives to stop femicides.

Beyond this political reaction, the femicides did not stop and, in addition to the bloody episode investigated here, Today, the death of another woman was revealed as a result of gender-based violence. This case was registered in Formosa and the femicide was again a police officer.

The victim, identified as Mirna Elizabeth Palma, was shot dead by her ex-partner, who committed suicide at the scene of the crime.

The 44-year-old teacher died when she was shot dead by retired policeman Carlos Medina, 59, at his home in the town of Estanislao del Campo formosa.

And another 40-year-old woman was stabbed 27 times by her partner in the Santa Fe town of Rufino. The assailant, identified as Facundo Crocco, did not stop stabbing Carina Blangetti until he considered her dead and this allowed medics to save the victim’s life. The man has yet to be found by police in Santa Fe.

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