By Cintia Garcia
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
Warning: this article contains graphic details
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA—Thousands poured out to the streets of Argentina, wearing black, demanding an end to violence against women. The protestors called it “Black Wednesday”—a movement sparked by the brutal death of 16-year old Lucia Perez.
According to various news outlets, Lucia Perez was abducted by three men outside her High School in Mar del Plata. The men held Lucia against her will, drugged her with large amounts of cocaine and marijuana, gang raped her, penetrated her with a wooden pole, causing her internal organs to bleed, and from the pain she went into cardiac arrest. The men washed her, changed her clothes, and took her to a medical facility stating she had overdosed on drugs. Upon inspection by the medical staff, it was apparent she had been sexually assaulted—Lucia died immediately upon arrival.
Maria Isabel Sanchez, lead prosecutor, stated: “I know it’s not very professional to say this, but I am a mother and a woman and I have seen a thousand things in my career, but never anything equal to this litany of abhorrent acts.”
As a response to the gruesome death of Lucia, Argentina mobilized to change the culture of machismo prevalent throughout the nation. Protestors held signs, “Ni Una Menos” which translates to “Not one less.” Protestors called upon Argentines to strike for an hour, “In your office, school, hospital, law court, newsroom, shop, factory, r wherever you are working, stop for an hour to demand, ‘no more machista violence.’” In solidarity, other countries joined in the movement by protesting, including Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Bolivia, and Paraguay.
The Ni Una Menos organization announced that, “one woman is killed every 30 hours in Argentina for being a woman.” Supreme Court Judge, Elena Highton de Nolasco, told the media: “cases of femicide are growing in number, they are becoming more violent, more perverse- we even had the news today that there have been 19 femicides in the last 18 days.”
For more information, please see:
BBC—Argentine Women Strike After Fatal Rape of Teenage—20 October 2016.
CNN—Women Protest Rape, Killing of Teenage Girl in Argentina—20 October 2016.
