A one-year-old girl became the 85th victim of femicides in Nicaragua. She is the smallest of all the women who have perished due to the sexist violence that prevails in the country, reported the feminist monitoring organization Catholics for the Right to Decide.
The minor was strangled and thrown into an artisanal well, presumably by her stepfather, identified as Ariel López Pérez, who—according to official media publications—“never accepted the girl because she was not his biological daughter.”
The crime occurred within the Indio Maíz Reserve, in the department of Río San Juan, on December 5, but the minor’s mother, according to reports, had not reported the incident because “the murderer threatened to kill her.”
Related news: Nicaragua registers 80 femicides. The two most recent occurred in the Southern Caribbean and Matagalpa
The mother of the girl who was the victim of femicide left the house where she lived with her daughter’s murderer every day and went into the jungle to mourn the death of her daughter, until on December 19, she told what happened to workers from the Managüita artisanal mine, who helped her capture and denounce the alleged perpetrator, according to reports.
Due to the area in which the crime occurred, according to official media, the Police authorities will arrive until this Sunday, December 22, to arrest the criminal and carry out investigations into the case.
85 femicides so far in 2024
The Observatory of Catholics for the Right to Decide recorded that between January 1 and December 21, 2024, 85 femicides occurred against Nicaraguan women, including the cases of two minors, one and two years old, in the department of San Juan River.
Related news: Machismo and death in Nicaragua: 943 femicides from 2010 to March 2024
The case of the 2-year-old minor, who was also murdered in the department of Río San Juan, the defenders explained, also occurred due to a hate crime. The perpetrator of the femicide hacked to death the girl and the minor’s mother with machetes.
These types of crimes, which involve defenseless minors, show – in the opinion of the defenders of Catholics for the Right to Decide – “the contempt for the lives of women” expressed by the perpetrators.
