The last femicide of 2022 occurred at the hands of Antonio de Jesús Blanco Mora, who stabbed to death his older sister Iveth, 40, on the morning of December 31. According to neighbors, the man was eight days old. “free”, after receiving the “family coexistence” benefit, which the Government of Daniel Ortega granted to 1,300 inmates nationwide on the 23rd of that month.
The crime occurred in the Martha Quezada neighborhood, in the II district of Managua, and according to sources close to it, it would have been triggered by an argument between the brothers over the property where they lived. the fratricide arrived “fighting” the house since he was released.
“They were drug and alcohol users. In the heat of the drinks they were arguing over possession of the house, who was the owner and they say that he stabbed him six times in the back”, a neighbor told the official TN8 media.
Iveth’s body was left lifeless on a chair and after the murder, Blanco Mora, who is known as “El Chino”, went to another relative to confess his crime: “I ‘passed’ her, I killed my sister,” he said.
According to the news portal of the National Police, the citizen was arrested in January 2018 after stealing a cell phone and assaulting a 25-year-old young man, in the Martha Quezada neighborhood. Blanco Mora was 22 years old. It is unknown if at the time of his release he was detained for that crime or for others.
Hours before the death of Iveth, in the Omar Torrijos neighborhood, in District III, Miriam del Carmen Mayorga Vallecillo was assassinated. The 30-year-old woman was hanged by her partner, known only as “Kiko”.
According to the testimony of Miriam Vallecillos, the victim’s grandmother, the woman suffered family violence.
“Whenever she came to see me, I looked at her with blows all over her body and eyes, because she hit me, and this time I think he killed her.”Vallecillos told the official Radio Ya.
69 femicides in 2022
With the death of Miriam and Ivette, which according to feminists is considered a femicide as it is a hate crime against a woman, the number of murdered in 2022 rose to 69. Meanwhile, another 110 women are survivors of frustrated femicides, according to data from the observatory Voices, from Catholics for the Right to Decide.
Nicaraguan feminist groups have denounced that several of the completed and frustrated femicides, which have occurred in the last four years, have been committed by men who were in prison, but were released by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
Between 2018 and 2022, the regime is estimated to have released some 20,000 common prisoners while tightening the de facto police state and increasing the number of prisoners of conscience, a review of CONFIDENTIAL to the press releases of the Penitentiary System and the official propaganda media. In 2022 alone, there were 4,850 inmates released in four groups. Meanwhile, the number of prisoners for political reasons rose to 235.
In 2020, feminists from various organizations denounced that the regime had released more than 500 men who were convicted of femicide or gender violence; Of these, at least five men were identified who had sentences of 15 or 20 years and only served three years.
Violence against women increased since 2020
Extreme violence against women has increased in Nicaragua since 2018. According to data from the Voces observatory, analyzed by CONFIDENTIALin those five years some 335 women were murdered and another 513 survived femicide attempts.
However, these independent statistics could be even higher because there are cases that occur in communities with little access and therefore are not reported in the media.
Although the increase has been noticeable since 2018, it is since 2020 that the number of completed and frustrated femicides has increased considerably. According to the Voces observatory, in that year there were 71 women murdered, this figure, which is the highest in the last decade, was repeated in 2021 and in 2022, it had a slight decrease to 67, details a preliminary report by Catholics, shared on the afternoon December 31 and does not include the two deaths that occurred on December 31.
Among those murdered, there are ten who were minors. They detailed that, until November, at least 62 children and adolescents were orphaned as a result of gender violence. The departments that accumulate the highest number of femicides are Managua and the Caribbean Coast.
The data reveals that women victims of frustrated femicides are growing exponentially. In 2018, 76 survivors were reported, but in 2020 the annual figure was 115. The following year, 140 were reported and in 2022, 110 were reported. This last data is updated until August.
Last November, the Nicaraguan Feminist Articulation warned of the increase in violence against women in the country, led by femicides, disappearances, adolescent pregnancy, and crimes of sexual violence against minors.
“Sexual abuse, especially against minors, continues to be high despite the underreporting and the fact that no complaints are made. According to the Institute of Legal Medicine, between January and July of this year, 2,256 abused minors under 17 years of age were reported,” they said in a statement.
They denounced that the Ortega and Murillo dictatorship “encourages impunity and defenselessness in the face of sexist violence, making it impossible and leaving women helpless to file complaints, subjecting them to processes of mediation of crimes, protecting aggressors and releasing murderous inmates and rapists without complying their convictions.”
