Maria Mena M. / Cochabamba
For 15 days, baby Ashlyn was beaten and bruised on her head, face, back and neck. Finally, a kick ruptured her small liver causing internal bleeding that ended her life. She was only one year and nine months old when her stepfather, who was supposed to take care of her, gave her a fatal “beating” in a rented room in the South of Cochabamba.
“In the 15 days that she lived with her new partner, Ashlyn’s mother began to find bruises on her daughter’s body, but he (the stepfather) told her that the girl was falling, she did not realize that he was hitting her. The heartless man strangled the baby, but what ended her life was internal abdominal bleeding because she destroyed his liver with a kick. Clots were also found in her skull, on her face, and marks on her neck, ”Fátima Terrazas, representative of the Mujeres de Fuego collective, told Página Siete.
The death of baby Ashlyn outraged the population and raised the number of infanticide victims to 12 so far this year. In just three months, in La Paz there were four murders of boys and girls, in Santa Cruz two, in Potosí two, in Tarija one and in Cochabamba two.
Last year, 46 boys and girls were killed by their parents or closest relatives, who had the obligation and responsibility to care for and protect them. Of those 46 infanticides, only nine cases ended with a sentence or extinction due to the death of the perpetrators, according to data from the Free Voices Foundation.
violent and heartless
Around eight in the morning of March 25, the lifeless body of a baby was admitted to the Cerro Verde health center, south of the city of Cochabamba. The mother and stepfather José AM argued that the girl had fallen from a one meter high fountain.
However, after the physical examination of the minor, the doctors identified long-standing injuries, for which they reported the case to the Ombudsman for Children and the Special Force to Fight Violence. Her mother and her partner were arrested as suspects in Ashlyn’s murderer, who had not yet turned two years old.
After investigations, the Police and the Prosecutor’s Office found contradictions in the stepfather’s statements. Soon he was considered the main suspect in the death of the little girl and they pointed to her mother as her accomplice.
The Mujeres de Fuego collective contacted the relatives of the little victim and the stepfather. From these statements, the series of mistreatment to which the baby was subjected at the hands of her caregiver was evidenced. The history of violence that the man had not only with his stepdaughter, but also against his own family was also discovered.
“When I went to see her, the baby’s face was all bruised, her little eye was covered. She was afraid of him. The boy was violent. She did not live with my sister for a long time, they had just gotten together, she was not her father, she was her stepfather, “the minor’s aunt said through tears during Ashlyn’s wake in Cerro Verde, last Monday, March 28.
“Her own mother was almost beaten to death and one of her sisters was hit with a stone and so far she cannot recover. That is what the relatives of José AM have told us, who are willing to give all the support so that they give him the maximum sentence of 30 years”, revealed Terrazas.
The stepfather’s violent behavior was recurrent. He also has a criminal record that will be presented to the Prosecutor’s Office to be part of the investigations.
Photo: Page Seven / File
warning signs
Ashlyn’s mother had a five-month relationship with José AM before she decided to take him home, where her little girl was. From the first days of living together, the girl’s body revealed signs of violence, but her mother preferred to believe the arguments of her new partner.
“15 days ago she took him to live in her room. She indicates (her mother) that her little daughter began to appear with bruises on her legs and her back, but she believed her partner when she told her that the little girl fell. That was not the truth. He was beating her from the beginning. Since they fell in love for such a short time, she did not get to know her violent side, ”laments Terrazas.
A forensic examination by the Forensic Research Institute revealed that the baby died from hemorrhagic shock, hepatic laceration, closed abdominal trauma and polytrauma. But old wounds were also found, leading authorities to believe that Ashlyn was “tortured” for 15 consecutive days.
“It could have been a fist, it could have been an object, but apparently the baby was kicked. Because she was so small, one year and nine months old, she could not withstand the force of a 25-year-old adult man. She was even missing strands of hair, so she may have picked her up, punched her, and kicked her into the air. It is that she was very small. That man had no consideration, he hit her like she was an adult. During all that time he subjected her to a series of tortures, but he killed her by destroying her liver, causing internal bleeding, ”reports the representative of Mujeres de Fuego.
to the open
After the murder of the girl, the Police arrested the stepfather as the main suspect in the crime and her mother for concealment and complicity; however, a few hours later the woman was released. Currently, the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating her participation and responsibility in the death of her daughter because she did not report her partner, despite the obvious signs of violence she observed on the girl’s body.
On March 27, after the precautionary hearing, the fourth Criminal Investigation Judge of Cochabamba determined the preventive detention of José AM, accused of the crime of infanticide. The defendant has been serving his prison sentence since Monday in the El Abra maximum security prison.
“The aforementioned aspects establish that the stepfather, who was left to care for little Ashlyn because the mother worked outside the home, would probably be the author of the baby’s death, who would also have previously beaten her,” it reads. in a statement from the Departmental Court of Justice of Cochabamba.
In the precautionary hearing, the defendant’s defense attorney, Julio César Montalvo, tried to reinforce José AM’s version that the girl fell from a height of one meter. “It was not possible to distort the forensic medical certificate that indicates that the girl died of internal hypovolemic shock, destroying an internal organ that is her liver. It was due to a fall, because that is what my client says,” argued Montalvo.
Despite the signs of violence and the evidence shows that Ashlyn’s death was not accidental.
defenseless victims
Ashlyn’s death was the second recorded infanticide in Cochabamba this year. The first case occurred on January 28, when a three-year-old boy was beaten to death by his father and his stepmother. After torturing him, they denied him medical attention and when he died, they buried him clandestinely in a community in northern Potosí.
La Paz is the department that registers the most infanticide this year with four cases. The first was recorded in January: a young couple was sent to prison accused of the death of their one year and nine month old son from a blow to the head. The minor presented “injury to the upper brain center, brain laceration, fracture of the vault and edge of the skull due to closed head trauma.”
That month a man denounced the death of his granddaughter and accused his daughter. The four-year-old girl was strangled to death, but her mother claimed that she would have died of an illness. During interrogation, the 24-year-old woman confessed to the crime and was given an abbreviated trial. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison for infanticide.
Also at the beginning of the year, an infanticide preceded by the femicide of the child’s mother shocked Santa Cruz. On the night of January 15, a 28-year-old man went to the police to confess that he had smothered his partner and his son with his hands until they were killed. “It is vital that the cases move forward and there are sentences,” said Terrazas.
“We live in a society that annuls boys and girls”
Supported by various studies on the subject, the professional identifies five clinical profiles of the infanticidal parent.
The psychotic filicide is that father or mother who kills their children without a rational reason. His actions may be the product of hallucinations, mania, or delusions.
Negligent filicide relapses into careless abuse and can lead to the death of a child. While the profile of the suicidal filicide is applied to parents who kill because they perceive that the child’s death may be associated with their own suicidal ideation.
There are two other typologies that are considered criminal: the murder of the unwanted child when they consider it a nuisance and, finally, filicide for revenge against the spouse (also known as Medea Syndrome) is applied to parents who kill a child secondary to a deliberate effort to cause the other parent to suffer.
“Research indicates that other psychiatric symptoms may predispose women to filicidal ideation and behavior. One study found that 41% of depressed women with children under three years of age had thoughts of harming them. Women with psychotic depression showed more of these types of thoughts, and 5% of depressive women had acted based on their thoughts by harming their children”, warns Ponce de León.
In any case, infanticide is evidence of a society in crisis.
“We live in an adult-centric logic that nullifies children, much more so if they are under five years old. Crimes against children reveal a great crisis in the values of the whole society”, explains Griselda Sillerico, from the Ombudsman’s Office, in a recent interview.
Photo: Page Seven / File
He strangled the baby, but what ended her life was internal abdominal bleeding from a kick
Fatima Terrazas, activist.
When I went to see her, the baby’s face was all bruised, her little eye was covered by a blow. I was afraid of him
Ashlyn’s aunt.
The stepfather remained in the care of the girl, since the mother worked and would be the author of death
TDJ Cochabamba
46
INFANTICIDES
were registered in Bolivia in 2021;
of all of them only nine cases
They ended with a verdict.
