A case study about deaths of Venezuelan women in Colombia highlights quite worrying information about the types of violence they suffer, the characteristics of the victims and the places where the incidents took place in the country. With the support of the mapping project of the Francisco de Vitoria Institute of International and European Studies, we analyze data on cases of deaths of Venezuelans in Colombian territory from January 2018 until December 2019.

The findings are worrisome: of all cases of deaths of Venezuelan women analyzed, in 57.3% of those it could be concluded that the woman was victim of a femicide, because she showed signs of having suffered gender violence or because she was killed by a (ex) partner/family member.

34.4% were victims of uncategorized murder, as the motive was not clear and had not yet been clarified. 6.6% stood out as crimes of hate and intolerance, because there were obvious indications that the death occurred due to xenophobia towards the woman. 16.4% of Venezuelan women in Colombia died due to accidents, and the remaining 9.8% died from diseases or health problems. In other words, femicide is the main cause of the death of Venezuelan women in Colombia today.

Femicide, the murder of a women for reasons of sex or gender, is characterized as the most violent expression against a woman’s freedom, integrity and dignity. It is a violent act that is carried out within a dynamic of power where the offender already dominates or wants to dominate the victim. Although this problem exists in all countries and regions of the world, it is especially prolific in Latin America. The Americas, in fact, is the second region where most women are killed because of their gender only behind Africa, with 1.6 femicides for every 100,000 people. In addition, the actual figures tend to be higher due to problems within the justice systems of the countries of the region, which often do not recognize a femicide for what it is because of a lack of expertise or because of machismo.

Profiles of Venezuelan female victims of violent deaths in Colombia

The profiles of Venezuelan victims of violent deaths (femicides and murders) in Colombia can provide us with a more comprehensive idea of who these women are. 10% of victims of violent deaths analysed were minors, whose cases also showed evidence of what could be categorized as a potential case of human trafficking. It was reported that many left their country with an older Colombian man they met shortly before, and upon arriving in Colombia, they lost all contact with their relatives before appearing dead in strange circumstances.