By Daisy Galaviz.
Luisana Carolina Ascanio Pacheco, 33, was murdered on the night of Friday, August 21, in Ocumare del Tuy, Miranda state.
She was sentencing to die because she was, allegedly, the girlfriend of Jhonjanderson Castro Celis, alias “El Tigre,” leader of a criminal organization who had died hours earlier in a clash with the polemical corps Special Action Forces (Faes) of the National Police. Luisana is one of the 18 femicides registered in Venezuela in August 2020.
According to figures from the NGO Monitor Utopix, 18 femicides occurred in Venezuela during August, for a sad total of 175 cases to August 2020. In the first eight months of 2019, 114 murders of women were registered, meaning femicide is up 65% year on year.
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In the eighth month of 2020, 12 women of the 18 victims got killed by their partners. Also, four died at the hands of criminal gangs, as was the case of Luisana Carolina, allegedly killed by members of a criminal organization that had a rivalry with the group, whose supposes commanded her late partner.
Sadly, murdering the partner of a dead rival (male or female) has become a standard practice for Venezuelan criminals. Additionally, the United Nations has tied Faes to crimes against humanity, including extrajudicial executions, and has recommended several times that the corps be disbanding.
The age range in which most of the femicides occurred was between 26 and 45 years old; seven of them died due to wounds caused by firearms, three from stabbing, and three from asphyxiation.
Of the 18 women killed in August, six were mothers, and four had reported their attackers. About the suspects, nine got arrested by the police, and five fled, according to data provided by the Utopix Monitor.
Additionally, the United Nations has tied Faes to egregious crimes against humanity, including extrajudicial executions, and has twice (this Wednesday for the second time) recommended that the corps its disband.
According to data from Utopix, from March 13, the day the Maduro regime decreed a strict quarantine to prevent the spread of COVID-19, to August 31, 2020, 106 femicides occurred in the country.
