Chile: Femicide who killed his ex-girlfriend and mother was sentenced to life imprisonment in a case that inspired a new law

It was the case that prompted the so-called “Gabriela Law” that expanded the classification of femicide to dating relationships in Chile.

On April 12, it was confirmed that Fabian Cáceres Aravena would be convicted of his crimes, the investigators of the case reported that they requested qualified life imprisonment, which was ultimately granted by the Chilean justice system.

Before the Gabriela Law, these cases were not judged as femicide, since this act could only be committed in the eyes of justice by someone who was the husband or cohabitant of the victim. With the entry into force of the rule that bears the name of Gabriela Alcaíno in homage to her memory, the typification of dating violence and the legal definition of “public femicide” were added, which occurs when the murderer is the boyfriend, ex-boyfriend or simply a person with whom the victim had some kind of romantic connection or sexual.

Testimony of father and husband

“When Gabriela and Carolina were going home, I gave Carolina a hug and told her that I loved her very much. And when I said goodbye to Gabriela, I kissed her forehead and told her that it was what I loved the most,” says Fabián Alcaíno in an interview given to Chilean television. Thus, she recalls her last meeting with her daughter Gabriela and her former partner, Carolina Donoso, who participated in a family birthday before the crime.

On the early morning of June 11, 2018, Fabian Cáceres Aravena, 18, would brutally murder both women. The crime would only be discovered the next day, when Alcaíno found the bodies in the house where the two lived.

Femicide and homicide

On the morning of Tuesday, June 12, Rodrigo Alcaíno, Fabian's brother, received that message through Facebook. It was written by a co-worker from Carolina, surprised by her absence. The text alerted his former partner, since Gabriela, a high school student at Rubén Darío school, had not attended classes and was not answering his repeated phone calls.

Accompanied by the police, Fabian Alcaíno arrived home, where he found the women stabbed. The victims were found in the dining room and the person responsible for the crime did not steal any species.

“It was a homicide of passion within the family, we are going to analyze whether there is participation of the pololo”, said prosecutor José Solís at the time, when he was consulted. Suspicions already pointed to Fabian Cáceres Aravena, renowned for his celopathic features.

That was the crime

In the early morning of June 11, Fabián Cáceres Aravena left his house in the direction of Gabriela's home, hiding a knife in his clothes. Already on the spot, the young man jumped the entrance and hid in a dark place in the courtyard. The noise alerted Carolina, who opened the door and was immediately attacked by her daughter's former pololo. The woman was stabbed 31 times to the chest and abdomen.

Hearing the screams, Gabriela went down to the first floor. In an irrational act, the subject proceeded to sexually assault her and stabbed her repeatedly. According to the background of the investigation, Cáceres Aravena washed up, returned home and tried to erase traces of the crime. Despite cleaning his clothes and sneakers, his prints were marked at the scene of the crime. Later, police reports confirmed that his footwear kept traces of blood.

Ley Gabriela

Under the law governing 2018, the crime was not considered a femicide, because the homicide committed against a woman who was not the author's spouse or cohabitant did not correspond to this legal figure. That, until March 2020, when the Gabriela Law was enacted in Chile.

The new legislation incorporates the murders of women by couples without cohabitation and of parents with children in common. The law also establishes a new crime of femicide based on gender, which includes any murder of a woman for the mere fact that she is one. In addition, it establishes special aggravating factors for this crime, such as the victim being a minor or pregnant, or in a situation of disability.

In addition, in the crime of femicide, the judge cannot apply the mitigation of criminal responsibility “of acting for stimuli so powerful that they have naturally produced rapture and obcecation”. At its most relevant point, the law establishes penalties ranging from the highest degree of imprisonment to qualified life imprisonment, that is, from 15 years and one day to 40 years.

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