Bogota, Colombia – The information made her breath catch in her throat. There, on her Fb feed, was a submit with a picture of her mom’s ex-boyfriend.
The caption introduced a femicide: the intentional homicide of a girl due to her gender.
Jennyfer Ramirez was solely 17 years previous on the time, a high-school scholar and the eldest of three siblings. She had been ready at her uncle’s home, the place her mom, 33-year-old Leidy Navarrete, was anticipated to reach.
It was December 23, 2022. Solely two days remained earlier than the Christmas vacation.
However as Ramirez learn the Fb submit, she realised her mom would by no means come. Navarrete was the sufferer referenced within the caption. Her ex, Andres Castro, had pressured his approach into her residence in southern Bogota that morning and strangled her to dying earlier than she might depart for work.
Ramirez felt like she might now not breathe. Overwhelmed with the shock, she fainted.
“It was at all times the 4 of us collectively, my mom and the three of us,” mentioned Ramirez, now 19. “From one second to a different, every little thing modified.”
Ramirez, her brother and her child sister are what home violence advocates think about the “invisible victims” of femicide: kids who’re left with out a mom or beloved one upon whom they rely.
Such murders can usually depart youngsters orphaned with none dad and mom in any respect, significantly when the perpetrator is a father or guardian.
However new laws handed in Colombia’s Congress seeks to supply state help to the kid survivors of femicide, like Ramirez and her siblings.
The invoice is a part of a rising development of laws in Latin America that gives compensation and funds for psychological well being companies to kids fighting the aftermath of gender-based violence.
“It acknowledges that, within the means of femicide, the mom isn’t the one sufferer,” mentioned Consultant Carolina Giraldo, who helped draft the invoice. “There are oblique victims as nicely.”
