Argentina is reeling from yet another case of femicide Sunday as a man killed his two former partners in a heinous double femicide Saturday night in the northeastern province of Entre Rios.
OPINION:
Latin American Women’s Problem: We Keep Getting Murdered
The suspect, Reinaldo Ojeda, a member of the Argentine Naval Prefecture in the city of Parana, killed the two women in the span of approximately 15 or 20 minutes Saturday night in the city’s Mosconi neighborhood, local media reported.
Ojeda killed the first victim, identified as Romina Miriam Ibarra, a 37-year-old mother of two and former partner of the shooter, with a bullet to her head while she was in the bathroom of her home. Ibarra was reportedly the mother of two of Ojeda’s three children.
He then went to the home of his most recent partner, which took him between 15 and 20 minutes according to local authorities, and gunned her down with two shots. Some reports refer to the second victim, whose identity has not been made public, as Ojeda’s current, while others suggest the relationship ended within the past month.
A neighbor in the area also suffered injuries after Ojeda fired his gun at him as well. The man was transported to the hospital and, according to local authorities, is in stable condition.
Local media reported police arrested Ojeda after the double femicide. Argentina’s La Nacion reported that the suspect surrendered to authorities after initial resistance, “without denying the facts.”
Two weeks ago, a man killed his former partner and two female members of her family in a grisly triple femicide on Oct. 23 that also left two of the first victim’s children injured. The killings came just days after tens of thousands of women marched in Argentina and across Latin America to demand an end to violence against women and girls.
Just weeks earlier, 16-year-old Lucia Perez was viciously raped and murdered on Oct. 8. Prosecutors said Perez suffered “brutal, inhumane sexual abuse” and died from her serious injuries. The heinous case reinvigorated Argentina’s movement against gender violence and femicide under the banner “Ni Una Menos.” The slogan translates directly to “Not One Less” as an urgent call for not one more victim of femicide.
According to data from human rights organizations, a woman in Argentina dies every 30 hours from gender violence, and since 2008, 1,808 women have been violently killed in the country. Since the beginning of 2016, at least 170 women have been murdered in the country. It is estimated that more than half of victims are murdered by current or former romantic partners.