The Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, shared successful experiences in the fight against gender-based violence

Before representatives of Public Ministries and Prosecutor´s Offices from various Ibero-American countries, he highlighted the importance of designing guides and protocols that allow guiding investigative and judicial actions to clarify crimes against women.

During the AIAMP meeting –IV Reunión Plenaria de la Red Especializada en Género (REG) de la Asociación Iberoamericana de Ministerios Públicos – AIMP  which was held in Buenos Aires (Argentina), the Attorney General and President of the AIAMP, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, urged to strengthen the work between countries to design coordination and cooperation mechanisms that make it possible to combat gender- based violence.

In his speech before the representatives of the specialized prosecutors of Latin America, Spain, Portugal and Andorra, he highlighted the importance of using inclusive language, and creating guides and protocols to be effective in the investigation and prosecution of cases of femicide, homicide, sexual violence , among other behaviors that affect women.

“In my opinion, the work of the public ministries is not only the reaction to the commission of the crime and the investigation, but also to coordinate strategies to be able to put an end to the criminal dynamics that can be committed against our women, in the entire structure of the gender work that you have been working on in such an important way,” said Attorney General Barbosa Delgado.

In this sense, he highlighted the need to join the efforts of the different countries which are part of the AIAMP Specialized Network on Gender with the capacities of other nations to act against the different criminal phenomena that cross borders, and represent a risk to the integrity and women’s lives.

“The trafficking of migrants implies, for the most part, violence against women, because women also become a central element, a booty, an element to be able to extort to obtain resources, and to ignore the family environment (…) in that case, for example, a network like this can play a fundamental role with its contact points so that, we can know about trafficking networks that exist and to know what kind of crimes are being committed”, emphasized the Attorney General.

In Colombia, in 2022 progress has been made in clarifying 60% of the homicides of women, and 95% of the cases of feminicide known throughout the country, with 25 departments that reached 100% clarification rates.

“How was it possible? With itinerancy. Prosecutors and investigators go to the places and knock on the doors of the houses, and tell them: this is the answer to your denounce, do you know anyone else who experienced this? And they say, I’m going to call and people start to show up. We register the complaints and we make a follow up. (…)it has generated is fear because it has decreased by 40%, in some regions, this commission of crimes also due to the actions of the entities”, explained the Attorney General.

Bilateral meetings

On the other hand, the Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, held a meeting with the Attorney General of Argentina, Eduardo Ezequiel Casal, and various issues related to drug trafficking and crime were discussed. New joint strategies were also planned to promote two investigations against transnational organizations linked to human smuggling of migrants to the United States and human trafficking for sexual exploitation purposes.

Likewise, the Attorney General Barbosa Delgado shared with the Attorney General of the City of Buenos Aires, Juan Bautista Mahiques successful experiences in the fight against local drug trafficking, corruption, gender-based violence, cybercrime, mistreatment of animals and crimes that affect natural resources

Both officials discussed about the possibility of opening a space for cooperation between the AIAMP and the International Association of Prosecutors (IAP), of which Bautista Mahiques is president, to share the products and results obtained by the networks or groups of both associations, so that they can have inputs to consolidate investigations against crime.

When we speak, results follow.

The information contained in this press release corresponds to the narration of the objective news provided by the officials in charge of carrying out criminal investigations within the Office of the Attorney General. By the time this communication is disclosed, the legal status of the people mentioned is still pending to be resolved by the competent judicial authority, always under the presumption of innocence contemplated by Article 29 of the Political Constitution and Article 7 of Law 906 of 2004.