Protests in Argentina against Livestreamed Femicide of Three Youth Women

Feminist Protest in Buenos Aires.

Over the past 2 weeks, protests have erupted across Argentina after the killing of three young women by drug traffickers, who livestreamed the murder to a private audience.On September 19, Brenda del Castillo and Morena Verdi, cousins both aged 20, and Lara Gutierrez, 15, were lured with the promise of $300 USD each, into a white van which they believed would take them to a “sex party” on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. On September 24, their bodies were found buried in a house in Florencio Varela. 

Buenos Aires Security Minister Javier Alonso confirmed that the torture and killing of the girls was privately livestreamed to audience of around 45 viewers. During the stream, Alonso said that one of the perpetrators could be heard saying, “This is what happens to those who steal my drugs.” It is believed that the traffickers targeted these women, as an “act of revenge”, for allegedly stealing four kilograms of cocaine. 

Thousands of women have gathered in Buenos Aires to protest these "femicides", the killing of a woman because of her gender. Argentina activist group Ni Una Menos has been at the forefront of these gatherings. “There are no good or bad victims, there are femicides. There are poor young women being murdered. The state is responsible,” a spokesperson for the group said. On September 27, the group organized a march from Plaza de Mayo to Congress to “demand justice for Brenda, Morena and Lara’s femicide." The caption on the group’s  Instagram page read, “There are poor chicks being killed. The state is responsible, No life is wasteful!.”

There were also protests scattered throughout the country in areas such as Córdoba, Mar del Plata, and La Plata. 

The public outcry has been further fueled by controversial policy decisions made by the national government. Earlier this year, Argentina President Javier Milei announced that femicide would be taken away from Argentina's penal code. Justice Minister Mariano Cuneo Libarona said that the government said that “feminism was a distortion of the concept of equality.” President Milei felt as though the term femicide indicated that "a woman's life is worth more than that of a man.”

Additionally, many local Argentines blame public funding cuts for enabling traffickers and gangs to exploit vulnerable populations, especially women. 

On September 30, police in Peru arrested the alleged main suspect of the investigation. As of October 2, a total of nine individuals have been detained by authorities.