Justice that does not come: five years after the disappearance of Shirley Villanueva

On March 23, 2017, Shirley Villanueva, a young student who had just graduated from the Geographic Engineering degree at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, said goodbye to his mother after having breakfast with her to go to work. His place of work is the Municipality of Callao where he carried out his internship for his professional future. Norma Rivera waited for her daughter's return at night after the working day, but she never showed up. Five years later he is still waiting to know what happened to his daughter.

After a long period in which feminist groups and activists were fighting for the judiciary to investigate the case, a first step was taken in declaring the application for admission, although the First Transitional Court in Lima has not responded to the request. Today is a date when justice is again demanded to find the whereabouts of the 24-year-old girl. How did the case happen?

THE CASE

According to information from the Peruvian press, on March 23, 2017, Shirley went to a local to watch the Venezuela vs Peru football match, where the national team won a 2-2 draw against the vinotinto team. The Republic mentioned that the meeting was held in a place called Sky, located in the vicinity of UNMSM. Wayka points out that security cameras showed the last moments when Shirley is seen alive: she was accompanied by three other young people entering the Primax tap on El Ejército Avenue with Sucre. They are Bryan Arenas, Joseph Velasquez and Edgar Pozo.

However, these men had denounced the Divincri of Magdalena that they had seen the drowning of their former schoolmate. It was on Marbella beach where the young woman was presumed to be. The only thing that was known until then was that the body disappeared without a trace in the face of the attempted feminicide, since the young people were the last ones to have been with Shirley before her disappearance.

The next day, Norma Rivera was unaware of her daughter's whereabouts. Although, as RPP tells it, she received a message at 6 a.m. on March 24 that was sent the day before almost 8 p.m. where Shirley said she was watching the game. Having no answer, Norma decided to call her daughter's workplace where she received the news that she had not arrived. Thus, through the contact of a friend of Shirley's, she learned that three people were with her on March 23.

Norma contacted Bryan Arenas, Joseph Velasquez, and Edgar Pozo. Through the other friend named Ángel Chavez, it was learned that the three gave similar versions: Shirley took a vehicle to her home in Villa María del Triunfo after the Venezuela-Peru match.

“I dialed them and none of them answered me until one of my calls finally came in. Bryan Arenas replied. 'Madam, we have shipped your daughter, 'he told me. 'Are you sure? ' I asked him. 'Yes. As soon as the match ended we embarked it. ' Then I dialed and another one answered. 'Ma'am, Shirley's gone. She was accompanied by Bryan Arenas', she answered me,” Norma Rivera told RPP Noticias in 2018.

Although 24 hours passed since his disappearance and unsuccessfully reported to the police station in Villa María del Triunfo, he managed to contact the Divincri. However, she did not know that they had already filed a report for disappearance despite being the mother, to the point that they did not let her in.

He enlisted support from the Ministry of Women's Affairs in filing the complaint. In an interview this year for La República, Norma recalled how police personnel questioned her why her daughter was alone with three men. “The same investigative policeman said what my daughter was doing with three boys, why did a woman go out alone with three boys. As a mother I was angry and said what that has to do with the disappearance of my daughter. For my daughter, that has nothing to do with it,” she told the Peruvian media outlet. He also recalled that Arenas, Velasquez and Pozo told him that his daughter drowned despite contrary accounts.

THEY ASK TO REOPEN THE CASE

The investigation opened in 2017, but closed a year later in which those involved received a penalty for minor offenses: real cover-up for violation of communications and failure to assist, without serious or direct liability. Five years after the events, they ask to reopen the case because no evidence was considered or prosecuted for the criminal type of femicide.

Flora Tristan was the one who took up the case in 2018. Edith Aiquipa, a lawyer for the feminist organization, said that they filed a lawsuit for amparo on October 15 of that year after considering an irregular process against young people. “There is an attempt to cover up, to disappear the evidence,” Aiquipa told Wayka.

She pointed out that this lawsuit should not take more than six months. “This has been delayed, we are in litigation for three and a half years, the courtroom proved us right in the appeal, said that this lawsuit merits admittance. The transitory constitutional court in Lima should have already ruled and said that the lawsuit is accepted and we continue the process, but so far it does not,” Aiquipa denounced.

SEEKING JUSTICE

A sit-in was called today at 459 Abancay Avenue, in front of the National Library to demand that the 1st Transitory Constitutional Court of Lima reopen the case. Feminist organizations and the Women's Ministry itself also launched their protest on social networks to reopen the case of Shirley Villanueva.

“Justice that delays is not justice. Today marks 5 years since the disappearance of Shirley Villanueva Rivera. We urge the justice bodies to comply with due diligence in the process, resolve the case and punish those responsible in an exemplary manner,” says the MIMP statement on its Twitter account.

“Five years after Shirley's disappearance, nothing is yet known about her whereabouts. We demand that the authorities comply with due diligence in this process and to punish those responsible. We will be vigilant for Shirley, her family, and for all the missing women who deserve justice,” says Flora Tristan's statement.

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