Priscila Barto, 48 years old, tall, dark skin and sea-colored eyes; She left home when she had only 19 and decided to form her own after joining in marriage with Juan Gabriel Colina, who always exceeded her age by 5 years. What Priscila never imagined was that there in the remote place of Perijá, Zulia State, specifically in the San Andrés sector of the Villa del Rosario, she would become one of the seven out of every 10 women in the world who suffer domestic violence, a history of never ending.
On Tuesday, October 31 of the current year, when the blazing sun with flashing light forced her eyes to squint to look at him, at that moment a kind of paroxysm dragged her to her wedding day; remembered how excited she was and just her aunt Dairee came to the room to wish her luck, luck that she was accompanied by a council, in which she warned that it was good for every submissive wife to stay at home to serve her husband.
29 years later she lives terrified looking day and night how to find the perfect and different recipe that manages to please her husband, so that he does not attack her with blows that on many occasions have caused his eyes to close not because of the hot sun , but because of the swelling and must wait literally prisoner at home, so that the physical bruises disappear. But those of the soul are maintained and are getting worse.
To endure for his two daughters one of 15 and another of 21 years, is a letter under the sleeve that has been deteriorating over time, where silence is linked as an ally of fear that overcomes the desire to face the reality and arrive at a Venezuelan police institution, one of those that daily serves between 15 and 20 women victims of abuse. However, the reality of Priscilla is another, has never filled a record sheet in which would expose the way to form the case, because he prefers not to leave the house.
But decisions like these are expensive because despite the important advances that have been made to eradicate gender violence, staying at home creates significant gaps in terms of statistics of abuse in the country, so data is not price. There are women who do not go to health centers or to the justice administrations, so they are out of the statistics.
Feminism or political strategy
The Venezuelan Government has been characterized by creating a banner of feminism in the country, as a kind of slogan left by the predecessor of the Bolivarian Revolution, the late President Hugo Chávez. Since then, comprehensive laws against gender violence and social equality have been established, however, it seems that these efforts are futile, because recent UN reports and hundreds of NGOs, including the Center for Justice and Peace, The Venezuelan Observatory of Women's Human Rights, Fundamujer and the Larense Family Planning Association place Venezuela among the 15 countries with more femicides in the world.
"Venezuela is one of the countries with the highest figures of violence against women. It is estimated that 50% of Venezuelan women have been, are or will be victims of some type of violence. That is: 4 out of 10 ", explained Beatriz Borges, director of the NGO Cepaz.
Feminism or political strategy? It is the question that anyone asked, because for 2016, more worrisome than the number of affected was the great impunity that exists in the country in this matter: "There is 96% impunity in the complaints made about these cases. Data from the Attorney General's Office indicate that the second cause of violent death in the country is femicide. " And if you compare this evil with others that roots the Creole population, where every day without rest a power struggle is going on in the midst of an economic crisis with an overwhelming three-digit inflation and severe problems of shortages of food and medicines, that instead of improving, on the contrary, they are rooted in social outbursts that are repressed with supposedly plenipotentiary powers.
Unprecedented mistake
On Sunday, November 12 near noon, sitting in an old rocking chair located between the main room and the patio where a languid but cold breeze hit the troubled face of Priscila Barto, who waited in fear of Juan Gabriel Colina to finally tell him that he wanted divorce, because I was willing to start a new life.
Then he questioned himself and thought so "I wish my Aunt Dairee had been wrong in her comment that it was good for a wife to stay submissive at home. My life was going to be a small luck of vulgar ambitions. "
Suddenly he makes an appearance under presumably alcohol effects, Juan Gabriel a man with a prominent nose, solid, white, tall as a basketball player. He wanted to be taken care of when he saw his wife a little reluctant to get up, and then she was shot by the news of the divorce.