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Úrsula, 18, was killed by her ex-boyfriend after she had reported him several times before
Photo: Sarah Pabst
Úrsula might still be alive.
The 18-year-old had filed a complaint against her ex-boyfriend, a police officer, at least three times.
But on February 8, 2021, he stabbed her with a butcher knife.
It was a murder with announcement.
"Si no vuelvo, rompan todo," Úrsula had recently written on Instagram: "If I don't come back, everything will fall flat."
Another woman murder, another police officer as the perpetrator: At least 12 percent of all woman murders in 2021 were committed by police officers, ex-police officers or soldiers.
Argentinian women took to the streets in their thousands;
the President Alberto Fernández received the parents in the Government Palace;
the Pope called.
In just 19 days, the prosecutor completed the investigation and in December Matías Ezequiel Martínez was convicted.
He got life imprisonment.
Úrsula dead, the perpetrator in prison.
Actually, the story could end here.
But the parents don't want to allow that: "We will hold everyone accountable who could have prevented the murder," says father Adolfo Bahillo, his deep voice resolute.
After the crime, it came out that the perpetrator should actually have been in prison at the time of the crime.
Matías Ezequiel Martínez is suspected of raping an underage, disabled girl.
Four weeks before Úrsula's murder, a prosecutor requested that Martínez be held in custody.
But January is the height of summer in Argentina, and the policeman remained free.
»If the judge had arrested the murderer on January 5th, Úrsula would be alive today.
But it was probably hot and the judge was sitting by the pool,” says mother Patricia Nasutti.
The judiciary, too slow, again: As early as 2017, an ex-girlfriend had reported Martínez for violence.
Among other things, because he had threatened her with the service weapon.
Martínez remained unmolested for four years.
The verdict came two weeks after Úrsula's murder – four years in prison.
For years, women in Argentina have been protesting against femicide and calling on the state to take more effective action against violence against women. And indeed, the protests of the »Ni una menos« movement (»not one less«) have achieved a great deal: children of murdered women receive an orphan's pension, albeit a small one; a Ministry for Gender, Women and Diversity was established; all civil servants are required to undergo training on gender issues, from the gatekeeper to the president. Abortions were legalized - also an important step for women's rights.
But the number of women murdered is not falling.
There were more than 220 femicides in 2021 alone. A fifth of the women had previously filed a complaint against their later murderer, according to figures from the non-governmental organization Mumalá, which compiles statistics on violence against women.
There are still too few staff in the judiciary.
Too few women's shelters.
Advertisements are not always taken seriously, women are not sufficiently protected, not sufficiently psychologically cared for.
And the judge who could have arrested Martínez before the murder is still in office.
"The state took my daughter from me," says Patricia Nasutti, Úrsula's mother.
She smokes an evening cigarette in front of the front door and looks up at the starry sky: "She's up there somewhere.
We will fight.
For Úrsula, for all the others.«
See in the series of pictures* how Úrsula's mother struggles after her daughter's death:
*Photos produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
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