Hundreds march to protest a femicide in Argentina

Hundreds of women took to the streets of the Argentinian city of Rojas to protest the murder of an 18-year-old woman by her partner. Ursula Bahillo was stabbed to death by her former partner Matías Ezequiel Martínez, whom she had denounced for aggression 18 times, said her mother Patricia Nassutti. The suspect is a police officer on leave for psychiatric problems who is currently hospitalized for a stab wound to the abdomen, suspected of being self-inflicted. He has been detained and accused of femicide. Nasutti said they want him to live "so that he can pay his sentence with life and not with death because it would be much easier for him to die". Úrsula, a native of the town of Rojas, about 300 kilometers north of Buenos Aires, was in a relationship with Martínez, who had already been accused of gender violence in the past. The young woman ended the relationship and denounced Martínez after several attacks. Although the justice system had imposed a restraining order, the police officer allegedly violated the measure on several occasions. The victim was intercepted by Martínez in the center of Rojas and taken in her vehicle to a field, where he murdered her with a "butcher's knife," according to authorities. Since 2015, Argentina has been the epicenter of massive street demonstrations under the slogan "Not one less", which placed the issue of gender-based violence on the public agenda and called for the enactment of laws. Twelve percent of the 30 murders of women in January were committed by members of the security forces, active or retired, according to the Observatory of Women of the Latin American Matria (Mumala). No official statistics are available.

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Hundreds march to protest a femicide in Argentina

Hundreds of women took to the streets of the Argentinian city of Rojas to protest the murder of an 18-year-old woman by her partner.

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