Spain struggles to stem the scourge of feminicides

Failures of the authorities, difficulty of the victims to become aware and then to file a complaint: in Spain, a recent rebound in feminicides has resurrected a "social tragedy" that the country, however sometimes considered as a model, fails to stem

Spain struggles to stem the scourge of feminicides

Failures of the authorities, difficulty of the victims to become aware and then to file a complaint: in Spain, a recent rebound in feminicides has resurrected a "social tragedy" that the country, however sometimes considered as a model, fails to stem.

Esther, 30, escaped death eleven years ago in Galicia (northwest).

"There are a lot of things that I did not see", laments this woman, who does not wish to give her name. "Violence, we excuse it, we trivialize it. There had been no beatings until then..."

And then one day, her spouse "tries to throw [la] from the balcony".

Saved by a neighbor, she lodges a complaint, accompanied by a relative who opens her eyes. She will only distinguish the "first signals" of the passage to the act a posteriori: the isolation of her entourage, the remarks on her way of dressing, the nights when she is forced to sleep on the floor...

But she doesn't want to think of herself as a "victim". "The victims are those who are no longer there to talk about it," she says.

In December, 11 women were killed by their spouse or ex-spouse in Spain, according to official statistics, making it the deadliest month since 2008. January's figure remained high with seven femicides.

A "social tragedy", according to Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska. "This is not a private matter, as we could say before," he insisted at the end of December.

In a secret place with purple walls, a dozen operators answer the emergency number on gender violence. "016, Hello, how can I help you? Is he next to you there?".

Started 15 years ago, this service exceeded 102,000 calls in 2022, a record. "The 016 is the first step in getting out of a violent situation. It's not about convincing women to do something, but about explaining to them the options available to them. Because the consequences in the end, they are the ones who face it", explains its general coordinator, Susana Gálvez.

Despite the mobilization of the authorities in a country that has made the fight against sexist violence a priority for twenty years, victims take on average more than 8 years to file a complaint and even 12 to 20 years in rural areas, according to Teresa Peramato , Attorney General in charge of violence against women.

"Very often, they are the last to see that they are victims of violence. They have trivialized it and are afraid of reprisals, they distrust justice, are economically and emotionally dependent" on their executioner, she says.

Like Esther, Noelia Miguez was "in denial".

In 2015, her ex-boyfriend tried to strangle her before stabbing her eight times. Now 29, she only survived by pretending to be dead. It is only afterwards that she will remember "the first humiliations, the insults, the threats, the spitting".

Beyond the difficult awareness, the judicial system must ask itself at what level it could "fail", insists Teresa Peramato.

In nearly half (43%) of the feminicides recorded in 2022, the victims had already filed a complaint or their killer was known for a history.

Other victims, like Noelia Miguez, learn by filing a complaint that their attacker has "already been tried for an affair with another girlfriend".

To prevent this, the government announced on Thursday that the police could warn women who file complaints that their spouse has a history of violence. A notification which will however not be "systematic but will depend on the evaluation of the case by the police".

"It could save the lives of so many women," Esther wants to believe. "How many have already been convicted before starting a new relationship? The executioners have two faces. Before you realize that you are with someone dangerous, things can happen," she says.

Teresa Peramato also recognizes that the risk prediction system is "improvable", while the VioGèn platform, fed during the filing of complaints and which makes it possible to assess the probability of taking action, is criticized.

Hayat's assassination in January in the Canary Islands showed his failings. This 46-year-old woman had filed a complaint at the end of December against her ex-spouse before retracting. The risk level had been downgraded on the platform, according to local media. The next day she was killed.

It is necessary "to strengthen the awareness of the population (...) to fight the minimization of the risk", also pleads the NGO Fundacion Mujeres, reference in the fight against gender violence.

The relatives of the victims are thus only at the origin of "1 to 3% of the complaints", underlines Teresa Peramato. And Noelia, she no longer wants to hear "I knew but I didn't say anything".

Joshua Alonso lost his mother, murdered in 2017 in a fire caused by his ex-companion. Since then, he has devoted himself to "educating the younger generations" during workshops where he deconstructs "the micromachismo that makes society unequal".

But according to him, the road remains long: "if Spain is a reference when there have been more than 1,000 women murdered" since the start of the statistics in 2003, "I do not even want to imagine what is elsewhere".

02/14/2023 05:05:15 -         Madrid (AFP) -         © 2023 AFP