Concerns had been raised that violence against women would rise in Latin America during lockdowns implemented to help slow the spread of the coronavirus
Coronavirus is changing the world in unprecedented ways. Subscribe here for a daily briefing on how this global crisis is affecting cities, technology, approaches to climate change, and the lives of vulnerable people.
By Christine Murray
MEXICO CITY, June 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Violence against women has soared in Latin America during the coronavirus pandemic, with a 50% increase in domestic abuse reports in Colombia alone, a top aid group said on Tuesday, confirming fears that lockdowns would put many women in danger.
Femicide, the murder of women because of gender, rose 65% in Venezuela in April, and online searches for protection from gender-based violence increased 30-fold in El Salvador and Honduras, U.S.-based nonprofit International Rescue Committee said in a report.
Concerns had been raised that violence against women would rise in Latin America, where almost 20 million women and girls suffer sexual and physical violence each year, during lockdowns implemented to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Coronavirus: our latest stories
Prosecutors, victim support groups, advocates and the United Nations all raised fears that women would be locked at home with their abusers and unable to leave to get help.
"Women and adolescent girls... in confined spaces 24 hours of the day, some completely stuck with their perpetrators," said IRC Latin America director Meghan Lopez.
Latin America is now a center of the global pandemic, with more than one million cases across different countries and many yet to reach the peak.
"I would say right now the epidemic in Central and South America is the most complex of all of the situations we face globally," said Michael Ryan, top emergencies expert at the World Health Organization, on Monday.
In Mexico, emergency calls reporting attacks on women in Mexico jumped more than 50% in the first four months of the year compared with the same period last year, government data showed.
The country's president has denied the rising violence.
The Organization of Salvadoran Women for Peace reported a 70% increase in complaints of violence against women in Central America between mid-March and late-May.
But the numbers may be an undercount, as women find it harder to seek help or report abuse with lockdowns in place.
Related stories:
Latin America shelters struggle to help women in coronavirus lockdowns
Ethiopia taps army of women health workers to fight coronavirus
(Reporting by Christine Murray; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
