Sandra, a resident of the Toledo town of Alcabón, lost her life a week ago when her husband, an abuser, ran over her with his car after an argument while she was walking home. through a regional road. This 41-year-old Bolivian is the latest death in a summer marked by Spain’s worst gender violence. It is not in vain that this is the second summer season (July, August and September) with the most sexist crimes because there are reliable records about this scourge.
Twenty-five women died this summer at the hands of their husbands, boyfriends or ex-partners. A figure that was almost unknown in twenty years, the time when Spain counted the dead from this plague. Only one other summer has been worse, that of 2018, when sexist killers killed another woman, 26. In the past three months there has been an average of two murders per week, with three different- another episode of three deaths in just 24 hours.
Such drama comes from July and August with one of the highest number of gender crimes in the last decade (eight and seven), but above all from a disastrous September. Last month, ten women were killed by their partners or ex-partners in locations across the peninsula. This is the darkest September since the Spanish register of victims was established in 2003 and the culmination of a terrible year for sexist violence. The 50 women who have been killed since January 1 have surpassed those who died last year and make the current worst first nine months in thirteen years.
The Government will propose a European VioGén that alerts the police where tourists or foreign residents are abusive
The avalanche of crimes forced the Ministry of Equality to meet this Wednesday with its crisis committee, where together with those responsible for the Interior, Justice, the Prosecutor’s Office and the autonomies, it analyzed the homicides of the month, to see which ones steps can be taken. to avoid death in similar circumstances. The committee is convened every time five crimes are violated and this year there have been five, January, May, July, August and now.
The Secretary of State for Equality, Ángela Rodríguez, pointed out after the committee that the gender crime figures of the summer show that we are facing “a real national emergency” and assured that this wave of murder can only be stopped by two specific actions.
The first is the call to all citizens, especially the relatives and friends of the victims, to “break the complicit silence of the aggressors”, to alert 016 or the police of any sign of abuse, because Many neighbors and acquaintances of the dead this year knew what was happening and did nothing to prevent the impunity of the brutal man, he said. Of the 25 killers in the summer, only five, 20%, were reported due to ill-treatment, making it difficult for security forces and social services to try to rescue victims and prevent crimes.
“Political will is needed”
The second demand is purely political and is aimed mainly at autonomous communities and city councils, especially those that have Vox members in their cabinets. He assured that “it is important to leave denial when there are 50 deaths on the table” and asked them to make the fight against gender violence a priority. He pointed out that the only way to stop this scourge is to really engage in a “proactive” identification of victims who do not report or ask for help, “that is the only time to save them. ” This “proactive” detection, he assured, must be promoted in institutions at all critical points for victims: in schools and institutes, health centers, mental health consultations, in family courts, in services home care, disability assistance or dependency care. A woman cannot spend years going to a mental health consultation, as happened to a woman who was killed this summer, without anyone realizing that she was abused, he added. .
He criticized that there are autonomies and municipalities that have not implemented the legal and regulatory reforms made in the last two years to improve the fight against sexist violence despite the fact that they received the necessary funds for this from National Government. He indicated that the key to this fight is the “political will” to address it and that in Spain “we need more political will from many areas” and that all the administrations “take what the BOE says seriously.”
Rodríguez also announced that the Government will propose to the EU a European-wide 016 telephone number and also the creation of a continental VioGén, expanding the Spanish police system capable of assessing the risk of those abused women and their children and recommend preventive measures. and security. They will ask their colleagues to at least study the sharing of data and background on violence against women so that the police can control abusers who come to Spain with tourist visas for medium and long term stay, which caused many deaths.
Equality also aims to spread the Atenpro system of assistance and protection more widely to victims who seek help in the courts or in health or social services and facilitate their access. It is a 24-hour phone service accessible through a device that always keeps the woman’s geolocation. It serves so that the victim can get advice, so that he can ask for help in dangerous situations thanks to the constant knowledge of his situation and the connection with the security forces and for managers to make control and security calls from headquarters every fifteen days or a month.
