The murder of 26-year-old Erika Aponte, her ex-partner and father of her son, Christian Rincón, who later committed suicide in a shopping center in Bogotá on Mother’s Day, was one of the serious violent acts commonly reported on this memorial date. but is abandoned. The Colombian National Police determined in its annual balance that there were 64 homicides, representing a decrease of 34% compared to 2022. The organization did not furnish specific figures for femicide.
Juanita Duran, a researcher at the Justice and Criminal Policy Laboratory, explains that in the country “peaks of violence are associated with various things, such as the fact that those are the days when people drink. For example, there are very violent days in December. , or there are days when there are football or parties due to a combination of drinks and people-time and family gatherings; and Sundays are usually violent days. For Duran, it is not the most violent day of the year, but the most violent One of the days.
According to the Criminal Justice and Policy Laboratory, during 2022, the Sunday with the most documented violent acts was May 15, the third Sunday, followed by May 8, the second Sunday, and Mother’s Day.
For Duran, a myth has been created that Mother’s Day is the most violent of the year nationally, because you have to understand the specific features of each locale’s context. As the researchers point out, in rural areas where armed conflict continues, like Catatumbo for example, the most violent day is not Mother’s Day. “Any day can be the most violent in those areas. It is a class privilege to say that the most violent is Mother’s Day, because it happens in big cities and in certain neighborhoods and families.
To corroborate this theory, the Criminal Justice and Policy Laboratory established that the Sunday with the most documented violent incidents during 2022 was May 15, which was not a celebration of Mother’s Day. Then came May 8, which was the second Sunday of the month and the day on which this special date was celebrated. Thus it shows that it is a day of high violence, as mentioned by Duran, but it is not the first in the whole year.
Regarding the above, however, the organization’s new general director, General William René Salamanca, stated during his tenure that his first challenge would be to prevent Mother’s Day from becoming “the most violent of the year”. On the other hand, Colonel Herbert Benavidez of the Bogota Police reiterated in an interview canal 1 that these cases are caused by excessive alcohol consumption, with many families ending up in fights where they are injured or killed.
In Bogota, Security Secretary Oscar Gómez Heredia told Time Gomez says “it seems ironic to them” that the date on which life is given to us is remembered and honored. Likewise, Alejandro Londoña, undersecretary of security, told the same outlet that “It is surprising that the dates where we are supposed to be happy, celebrate and hug each other, in some cases it is the opposite: violence, abuse.” Injuries, murders.”
Similarly, Londoño stated that the causes of violence during a traditional date include excessive consumption of alcohol, intolerance and not knowing how to handle emotions; And said such incidents are more common in public places among friends and family, and among couples, it is more common in homes. In this regard, the National Police reported that this Mother’s Day there were 7,581 fights for various reasons: 2,350 between family members, 928 between neighbors, 920 because of excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, and 3,383 for other reasons.
According to a 2022 study by Legal Medicine, of the decade 2010 to 2020, exactly 2010 was the most violent on Mother’s Day, with 198 murders; While the one with the least number of cases was 2015, which had 105. In addition, the institute documented a total of 1,493 murders in Colombia on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Mother’s Day between 2009 and 2018, of which 91% were men. The remaining 9% were women.
