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When Resisting Is Not Enough: The killing of Latin American Feminist Activists (2015–23)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2024

Simone da Silva Ribeiro Gomes Open the ORCID record for Simone da Silva Ribeiro Gomes [Opens in a new window]
Simone da Silva Ribeiro Gomes*
Affiliation:
Simone da Silva Ribeiro Gomes is an associate professor at the Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The article analyses an original database of 177 Latin American women activists killed that had some connection with feminist social movements from 2015 to 2023. A growing body of literature has focused on the killings of socio-environmental activists in Latin America and where they occurred. However, their activisms are under-researched, precisely because feminist social movements and activists have frequently been killed while advocating for women’s rights in the subcontinent. This article focuses on the circumstances, a few reasons portrayed in newspaper events, and the perpetrators of such violence. Based on a literature review, I argue that taking into account the recent narcodynamics of the region, it is possible to understand such violence within the context of drug-related violence, but also—and more likely—to consider those killings as political feminicides. Political feminicides are then examined largely through transfeminicides and peasant/communitarian activists.

Keywords

FeminismviolenceLatin Americapolitical feminicides
Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , February 2025 , pp. 96 - 113
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of University of Miami

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