Feminicide in Barranquilla: man murdered his wife with a knife

A new case of femicide was presented in Barranquilla, last Monday, March 21. At night in the Las Americas neighborhood, William Molina Soto, murdered Yasli Ortega, his wife, with a knife. For five years, this Venezuelan couple had settled in the capital of the Atlantic with their two- and six-year-old children.

According to testimonies from relatives, neighbors and witnesses, the man constantly abused the 26-year-old woman and repeatedly threatened her with death. The last assault he received ended his life while his children watched the scene and did not stop crying when they saw how their father murdered their mother.

The Barranquilla Metropolitan Police reported that the 32-year-old man was captured after a “brief operation” in the vicinity of the house where the homicide occurred. Before the authorities, Yasli's relatives reported the previous attacks. “Yes, cursed, I'm going to kill you that you have me stubborn'; they were the phrases that were constantly heard in the Molina Ortega house.

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Information from the authorities indicate that there were three stab wounds received by Yasli, who died on the way to the San Ignacio Clinic. In addition to her children present at the time of the murder, the woman was the mother of a 9-year-old boy, who lives in Mompox (Bolivar) with his maternal grandmother.

Pedro Ortega is the victim's father and when they told him the story of femicide he couldn't believe it. This is how he told the newspaper El Heraldo about that moment: “I was working when they called me to tell me that he had stabbed her, but I didn't think that was serious. They always had quarrels on a constant basis.”

Ortega also stated that the authorities spoke with him, and told him that, “He will have the full weight of the law to fall, because what he did has to pay for it. All this is unfortunate, you never expect these things.”

Another person who denounces the constant attacks is his sister Yazmin. In an interview with CM & Noticias, he said that on many occasions he told Yasli to leave him: “No, I can't leave him because he is the father of my children and I love him,” he said.

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With a broken voice, Yazmin could not express his feelings for the absence of his best friend: “I have no words, this is a great pain, my soul is shattered. This is very hard, I want him to pay for what he did. I know that paying it will not be returned to me, she is not going to revive, but I want him to pay for what he did, not go unpunished, because he killed the mother of his children .”

The Fundación Feminicidios Colombia closely monitors this fact in the country. As of February 26, the organization has recorded that in the first 50 days of 2022 at least 40 femicides were reported in Colombia. Almost one a day. Among them, Leidys del Carmen Suárez, shot by her ex-partner José Luis Tobío, in front of their minor children, in a hotel in Barranquilla.

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