On the 31st of August, in spain 40 women have been murdered due to sexist violence in 2023, 10 more than in 2022 at this time of the year. 45 minors have been orphaned. Of all of them, only nine had filed previous complaints against their attackers. Total, since there are records -year 2003- 1,224 women have been murdered by gender violence. With 15 victims, this summer has been the worst since 2018.
These worrying figures, which show stagnation in the historical series, contrast with the context in which they are occurring. Public spending to confront gender violence has skyrocketed since the formation of the coalition government between the PSOE and Unidas Podemos in January 2020 and the consequent creation of the Ministry of Equality, which has since led Irene Montero. For this year, a budget of 573 million euros was set for the ministry, more than triple that of 2020, and last February the distribution of a fund of 177 million was approved, 36% more than the previous year, between the CCAA, “to combat all forms of sexist violence”.
The months of July and August are, as the records show, a difficult period in which murders increase. On August 7, a 27-year-old woman of Moroccan origin was beheaded in Almeria for her husband, also Morocco, in front of the three children – all minors – of the couple. A day later, a couple with three underage daughters in common was found dead in whitewell (Córdoba). Both had injuries consistent with a firearm. The 31-year-old woman had filed previous complaints against the man. That same day, in The lagoon (Tenerife) the body of a 91-year-old woman who shows signs of having suffered violence is found. Her husband, 92, was arrested that same afternoon by the Police.
Days later, on August 17, the body of a 50-year-old woman appeared next to that of her husband in the Madrid neighborhood of Moratalaz. They had been dead for two days, and it was the smell that caused the neighbors to call the police. They had two children of legal age, and she had not filed any previous complaints. Within a week, a 63-year-old woman was murdered in Chipiona (Cadiz) by her husband, a 73-year-old man. They had a son and two adult daughters. A day earlier, the Ministry of Equality had confirmed that the murder of a woman committed on May 6 in Granada it had also been a sexist crime. In this case, she had two minor daughters.
This Wednesday another sexist murder was confirmed, this time in bejar, Salamanca, of a 40-year-old woman with two daughters and two minor sons. Her partner, a 49-year-old man, had received complaints of domestic violence against her father and his brother in 2005. Barely 24 hours later, a retired police officer barricaded himself in the morning with his wife as a hostage in the house they shared together in the Valencian town of Algeria, and in the afternoon the death of both was confirmed. In the absence of this latest event being officially confirmed as a sexist crime, this woman, named Raquel, is the latest victim of gender violence in Spain.