Murders Of Women On The Rise In Panama: Alarming Patterns In 2024
Date
1/22/2025 9:29:07 PM
(MENAFN- Newsroom Panama)
Panama closed 2024 with 24 femicides, including that of a transgender woman, which represents an increase compared to the previous year, which recorded 15 such murders, according to a report by the Panamanian Femicide Observatory on Wednesday, January 22, based on official data.
“Beyond the figures, the report reveals worrying patterns, such as the increase in gun violence and its expansion to provinces in the interior of the country,” the document highlights.
The 2024 Panama Femicide Report of the Femicide Observatory obtains data from official figures from the Panamanian Prosecutor's Office, which in its annual report counts 23“femicides” (legal name in Panama), while the observatory records 24 when taking into account the murdered transgender woman.
The document records that feminicides increased to eight last year compared to 2023, (when the lowest number of women murdered was reported since data was collected in 2014). Thus, the average number of annual femicides in the country has been 22.
In addition, according to the study, in 2024 there were nine attempted femicides and 25 violent deaths (all female homicides not classified as femicide according to the assessment of the case prosecutor and the Law).
Of the 24 femicides, at least two were minors (the youngest was 2 years old) while 62% of the victims (15) were between 20 and 39 years old, according to this report which reveals that the province of Panama, where the capital is located, is the area that recorded the most murders of women.
Furthermore, most of these murders were committed with a knife (9) or a firearm (6) and almost half (48%) of them were perpetrated by the victim's partner or ex-partner, while in two other cases the aggressor was a close relative.
A total of 10 of the 24 femicides in 2024 occurred in public spaces and eight took place in the victims' homes; there are no details of the rest. Thus, in the majority of femicides that occurred in the home,“the aggressor was the victim's partner or ex-partner,” the report notes.
Because at least 11 of the victims of gender-based violence had sons or daughters at the time of the femicide, some 20 minors“were left motherless as a result,” the report notes.
Although Panama does not report high rates of femicides like other countries in the region, in recent years feminist organizations have warned of the brutality with which women are murdered by their partners.
The Femicide Observatory is a project that was born in 2020 in Panama by two journalists and based on official data“to highlight the problem of femicides and violence against women”
The information published is the result of an alliance with the Panamanian Prosecutor's Office, although it has its own database compiled with data collected through publications in the media.
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