The Deadly War on Women in Latin America
In the heart of Latin America, where vibrant cultures and deep traditions collide with entrenched violence, an epidemic rages against women. Latin America has one of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world, with femicide reaching crisis levels. According to regional reports, an estimated 11 women are murdered daily in the region due to deeply embedded patriarchal norms, weak justice systems, and widespread impunity.
In Brazil, a woman is murdered every two hours, and in Argentina, a femicide occurs roughly every 30 hours. Meanwhile, the pandemic and economic instability have worsened the crisis, with reports of gender-based violence escalating by 40% in some countries during lockdowns. According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), more than 4,000 women were victims of femicide in the region just in 2022; this figure likely underestimates the true extent of the crisis due to underreporting and misclassification of cases. El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico report some of the highest femicide rates in the world, with El Salvador recording 6 homicides per 100,000 women. Despite growing awareness, progress remains slow and numbers continue to rise. In Colombia, at least 612 women were murdered in 2023, according to the country’s Institute of Legal Medicine. In some cases, femicide is linked to human trafficking and gang violence, with groups like MS-13 and Barrio 18 using the homicides of women as a form of control and terror. Regardless of international condemnation and the rise of feminist movements like Ni Una Menos in Argentina, femicide rates have doubled in the past decade, raising urgent questions about why so many women are being brutally murdered and why so few perpetrators are being held accountable.
While governments offer shelters and hotlines, these initiatives barely scratch the surface of a crisis embedded in patriarchal norms and neglect. While governments have established legislative measures to combat this violence, the gap between policy and implementation remains striking, leaving thousands of women without protection. Even in nations with strong legal frameworks, justice remains elusive. This epidemic of violence is not simply a result of individual crimes but is deeply rooted in historical patterns of misogyny, structural inequality, and state negligence.
Femicide in the region is rarely an isolated act of violence; it is often the brutal culmination of systematic sexual abuse and gender-based power dynamics. Most women who are murdered are first subjected to sexual violence and physical abuse, highlighting the deep-rooted misogyny that ultimately enables these crimes. The World Bank states that sexual violence is not only a precursor to femicide but also a tool of control, disproportionately targeting women from poorer communities. In many cases, the perpetrators are partners or even family members, but in others, they are part of criminal organisations, security forces, or even state institutions, revealing the systemic nature of the problem. Rape culture and judicial apathy allow these crimes to go unreported and unpunished, sending a dangerous message that violence against women comes with little to no consequence. As long as sexual violence remains ‘normalised,’ femicide rates will continue to rise. Tackling this epidemic means addressing not just the murders but the violence that comes before them.
The region’s femicide epidemic is not just a failure of law enforcement– it is a failure of society itself. Decades of deeply rooted misogyny, impunity, and neglect have turned the region into one of the most dangerous places in the world for women. While feminist movements have forced governments to acknowledge the issue, change remains slow and insignificant. Laws mean nothing when police officers dismiss abuse reports, judges let killers walk free, and governments treat femicide as a statistic rather than a regional emergency. The question is no longer whether Latin America recognizes its femicide crisis, it is whether it has the will to stop it.
Image courtesy of David García Montero via Wikimedia Commons, ©2020. Some rights reserved.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Review team.
