The killing of Jocelyn Paniagua Gutiérrez in Alajuela has renewed concern over gender violence in Costa Rica, after relatives said the young mother had previously reported receiving death threats.
Paniagua, identified by local media as 27 years old, was shot Thursday afternoon in Tuetal Norte de Alajuela, near a community hall where a Festival Estudiantil de las Artes event was taking place. She had gone to watch her 12-year-old daughter perform, according to relatives who spoke to local television.
Two men arrived at the scene on a motorcycle and one of them got off, approached Paniagua and shot her in the head. When Red Cross paramedics arrived, she no longer had vital signs.
Her family said the killing did not come without warning. Carmen Paniagua, the victim’s aunt, told local media that Jocelyn had mentioned receiving death threats several months earlier. Relatives suspect the threats may have been linked to a prior relationship, although the motive remains under investigation.
The Ministry of Public Education said the attack occurred near the student arts activity and that institutional protocols were activated. The ministry said no students or education officials were physically injured and that support would be provided to the local school community while judicial authorities investigate.
The case has struck a particularly painful chord because of where it happened. Paniagua’s daughter was at the event, and relatives said they tried to keep the child away from the scene after the shooting.
Authorities have not yet publicly classified the killing as a femicide. In Costa Rica, that legal classification is determined through the investigation and by the institutions responsible for reviewing violent deaths of women. Still, the circumstances described by relatives have pushed the case into a familiar national conversation: women who report threats, families who say warning signs were visible, and a system that is often judged only after it is too late.
Costa Rica’s Judicial Branch defines femicide as the most serious form of gender violence, involving the killing of a woman because she is a woman, often by a current or former partner, though not only in intimate relationships. The country punishes femicide with prison sentences of 20 to 35 years.
The broader numbers show why cases like this rarely feel isolated. Studies cited by Costa Rica’s State of the Nation Program have warned that femicide is only the most visible part of violence against women. Thousands of complaints involving sexual crimes, domestic violence and violence against women enter the judicial system each year, while specialists have repeatedly warned that many victims never report what they are experiencing.
For women facing threats or domestic violence in Costa Rica, emergency help is available through 9-1-1, which connects callers to the country’s specialized response system for domestic and intrafamily violence. INAMU also provides guidance for women seeking legal, psychological and social support.
For Jocelyn Paniagua’s family, the immediate demand is simpler: answers. For our country, her death is another reminder that gender violence is not a private matter, a relationship dispute or a tragedy to be processed only after a funeral. It is a public safety issue, and one that keeps returning with names, families and warning signs attached.
