Triple Femicide Rocks Argentina After Domestic Abuse Protest

Argentina was rocked Sunday with news of a grisly triple femicide, just days after thousands of women took to the streets across the country and the region to demand an end to violence against women and girls under the banner “Ni Una Menos,” or Not One Less.

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The suspect, identified in local media as a 30-year-old man and martial arts expert Daniel Salazar, killed his former partner Claudia Lorena Arias, her aunt Marta Susana Ortiz and grandmother Silda Vicenta Diaz. He also injured a baby and a child in the attack in the Mendoza suburb of Godoy Cruz, more than 650 miles northwest of Buenos Aires.

The 11-year-old boy injured in the attack managed to call 911 to report the slayings, La Nacion reported. The boy and an infant– less than a year-old–were both hospitalized. Both children were admitted to intensive care, Mendoza’s El Sol newspaper reported. Health officials told El Sol that the boy suffered several brutal stab wounds, while the baby had “intentional” injuries around the neck.

Arias is the mother of both children, and Salazar is the baby’s father, according to local media.

Police detained Salazar at Mendoza Central Hospital, where he reportedly fled, covered in blood, after carrying out the attack, according to local media.

The precise causes of death of the three victims — Arias, 30; Ortiz, 45; Diaz, 90 — are being investigated by authorities.

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Security Minister Gianni Venier reported that Salazar had also left the gas open in the house with a candle alight in an attempt to destroy the evidence in a gas explosion. 

The triple femicide comes just days after thousands of women marched in Buenos Aires last Wednesday against femicide and gender violence after the brutal rape and murder of 16-year-old Lucia Perez reinvigorated the movement.

The demands of the march were echoed in dozens of cities across Latin America and Spain.

According to data from human rights organizations, a woman in Argentina dies every 30 hours from domestic 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.