"I killed my partner, the body is in a bag under my bed": brutal confession of a femicide in Peru

José Falcón went to a police station to report that he had strangled his ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Flores. The shocking figures of gender violence.

"I want to point out that I killed my partner.The body is in a bag under my bed," Jose Falcón told a police station in Peru last Sunday. Before appearing in front of the police, the 30-year-old man had strangled Stephanie Flores, 20 years old. The murder was true, but he lied about something: she was no longer his girlfriend, they were separated for two months after three years of relationship.

After having murdered him, Falcón went to the police station and confessed everything. The authorities immediately reacted and stopped him. The speed of the police response, however, was not the same when Stephanie Flores reported her case and asked for help a month earlier. At that time, the young woman lived a hell: the jealousy of her ex was transformed into insults, blows and threats. These repeated situations led her to fear for her life, but she received no protection.

This is what the little girl's father, Crisanto Flores, said unconsciously: "On March 23, my daughter reported him, attacked him and tried to strangle him, complained to the Ministry of Education. the woman, the prosecutor's office and the police station, but they did nothing. "In addition, he badured that the young woman had ended his relationship with Falcón despite the fact that he had refused.

The femicide, committed in the Lima district of Los Olivos, is the most recent reported by the national police of Peru: it is the fifth of last week and the other 50 until 2019. This figure represents a third of which is reported last year.

Femicide, pain and impunity

Last Wednesday, the murder of Kelly Olivares was also reported. The girl was found asphyxiated on a beach in Lima and, according to her family, harbaded by a man.

Two days later, three other suspected femicides were reported: María Damián, 21, whose body was thrown into a street garden in Lima; Margarita Villasana, who died in a hotel after receiving several cuts to her body; and Sonia Chumpitaz, 40, nearly nine months pregnant and found dead in her room.

According to figures from the Peruvian Ministry of Women, last year, 149 femicide victims were registered in Peru and 113,727 complaints of violence against women were registered. Statistics show that in Peru, a woman is murdered almost every other day for bad-related attacks.

For human rights defenders and feminist organizations, the efforts of the Peruvian state to tackle gender-based violence are not enough.

(TN)