“Feminicide” murders overwhelm the authorities

Santo Domingo.- Sandy Faustino Benítez stabbed his wife Melina Ventura Batista, 29, several times and then fled the scene of the murder, but not before seriously injuring her sister Luisauris, 27.

The Police arrested him Sunday in the La Pared sector sector of Haina, for murdering “feminicide” victim no. 173 just this year. There were 210 in 2010.

More than 1,200 women have been murdered by their partners in the last five years, of which 80% never denounced cases of their prior mistreatment to authorities, according to official figures.

Violence against women, as with the general cases, has become “a monster which is devouring Dominican society,” for which various sectors have raised their concern.

Prosecutor for Woman Affairs Roxanna Reyes warned that cases of violence against woman have surpassed the authorities’ ability to deal with them.

She said more than 62,000 complaints of gender violence were received nationwide just in 2010. “We cannot go much further, we’re living it day to day, with cases which we didn’t see five years back.”