According to the United Nations, eight Latin American countries, including Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Ecuador, have passed similar laws to support the dependents of femicide victims.
The need, advocates say, is great. In 2023, the United Nations estimated that 11 women each day were murdered because of their gender in Latin America and the Caribbean region.
In Colombia alone, at least 1,746 children were left parentless as a result of a femicide between 2019 and 2024, according to the Colombian Observatory of Femicides, an independently run research group that tracks violence against women.
Ramirez and her two siblings are among that number. She explained that her mother’s murder left her feeling lost, as if her life were “senseless”.
“My mother supported me. She explained things I didn’t understand. She gave order to my life,” Ramirez said, sitting next to a framed photograph at her grandmother’s house.
The picture showed Navarrete, a woman with long, dark hair pulled back into a ponytail and a smile spread across her face.
“I feel like my life is in total chaos right now,” Ramirez said. “I have no stability. I have no purpose.”
She hardly celebrates birthdays or holidays anymore. Christmas and Mother’s Day pass without family gatherings or the usual decorations to mark the occasion.
Like many children of femicide victims, Ramirez said she struggles to afford psychological support to treat her trauma. Her father, who drives a cement mixer for work, is unable to pay for therapy, which costs between 180,000 to 400,000 pesos or about $44 to $96 per session.
“If it weren’t for my two siblings,” Ramirez explained, “I wouldn’t have a reason to be alive today.”
British Caribbean News
