So far in 2021 there have been 159 femicides and 20,000 complaints filed in a country where the judicial system seems incapable of providing an effective response to these crimes
âThis is the street, criminals abusing girls of every age. This is the street. Girls are raped and thereâs nothing that can stop it, however much theyâre protected thereâs always someone shooting,â goes a song by Guatemalan rapper Mai de Rimas. They are lyrics that accurately describe the harsh reality of daily life for women and girls in the Central American country, where they are victims of femicide, rape â 18 per day in 2021, according to the Public Prosecutorsâ Office â sexual harassment, mistreatment and disappearances. So far in 2021, the Womenâs Observatory has reported 159 femicides and violent deaths among women, a number that reached 457 in 2020. The Guatemala National Institute of Forensic Science (Inacif) revealed that the majority of these deaths in 2021 have been caused by firearms (80). Last year, the police officially recorded the murders of 358 women, while Inacif carried out 504 autopsies connected to deaths from crimina