President sounds alarm over the murder of women in Costa Rica

Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís said Monday that he is deeply concerned about a wave of femicides that took the lives of three women during the last week.

“I express the government’s solidarity with the women who were brutally murdered… three victims of the femicides that make our country mourn and remind us of this terrible, unceasing violence against women,” Solís said.

Costa Rican law defines femicide as the murder of a woman by her spouse or significant other, according to the National Women’s Institute (INAMU). However, femicide is also used in some cases to describe the murder of a woman because of her gender.

One of the three femicide cases in the last week that drew particular attention within Costa Rica was the murder of a woman in La Amapola de Puerto Jiménez, in the country’s Southern Zone, who was beaten to death by her partner with a metal pipe.

Costa Rica has seen five femicides so far this year, Solís said. The number suggests an alarming increase when compared to the 16 cases recorded in 2017 by the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ). Since 2010, Costa Rica has registered 224 femicides.

“It’s not strange for that to happen at a time when the country in general experiences, as a result of the arrival of more and more drugs, an unusual increase in violent crime,” Solís said.

Costa Rica registered more than 600 homicides in 2017, the highest level in its history, with a rate of 12 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.

“The tragic deaths of women at the hands of their partners… is an obligatory reminder to keep developing public politics that empower, protect and guarantee women’s rights against all types of violence,” Solís said, adding that he defends his administration’s record of promoting public policies to defend women’s rights.