Police have arrested Mariano Cordi, Friday, who killed his ex-wife in front of the Cathedral of Bariloche in Rio Negro, Argentina, Tuesday. Police dogs found the man dehydrated, with some injuries, and with a homemade weapon in a search operation in the Chalhuaco Valley area.
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Argentina: 'Green Scarf' Demonstrates Against Femicides
"He was found alive, near the sector where he left his documents and the homemade firearm," police sources said according to Pagina12. Cordi was carried out on a stretcher and taken to a hospital.
Cordi was arrested this morning after his documents and a homemade weapon were found at the base of the hill. He had been wanted for arrest after killing Valeria Coppa, his ex-partner, in the Plaza de la Iglesia Catedral, near her work.
Valeria Coppa was 40 years old, a mother of two, and worked in a children's home belonging to the Secretary of Children, Adolescents and Family. After her murder, Coppa's mother said she hoped that the man "rot in jail."
The investigation determined that cordi had been obsessed with his victim, who had decided to end the relationship. After the femicide, Cordi visited two friends who confirmed the crime, Pagina12 reported.
In Argentina, the rate of femicides is dizzying. One woman is murdered every 26 hours, according to the latest study from the "Now You See Us" Observatory.
The first reported femicide in 2019 occurred Jan. 5 when Gisel Verela, a 33-year-old police officer, was shot to death waiting for her bus in Mar del Plata by her ex-partner who used her gun against her.
On Friday, feminist organizations rallied in the center of Buenos Aires, Argentina for a massive Green Scarf demonstration (pañuelazo) to denounce the 27 femicides registered in the last month.
"They can kill us, they can rape us, they can beat us, and what the State shows is that nothing happens. So we have to protest in order to see if the number of women and transgender people killed goes down," Sele Fierro, a member of the Socialist Workers Movement (MST), said and added that the massive demonstration is a "blunt response" to femicides in Argentina.