Overview
- The presidency published the presidential initiative on July 19, proposing a Ley General contra el feminicidio to create a single national criminal definition and unified investigative protocol.
- The draft prescribes penalties of 50 to 70 years in prison, lists 19 aggravating circumstances such as victim age, pregnancy, disability, attacks with acid, and the victim’s role as a journalist or human rights defender.
- The proposal allows investigators and judges to use prior records of violence—like hospital admissions or emergency calls—even if those incidents did not produce a formal police investigation.
- It mandates creation of specialized fiscalías with technical teams set by the Fiscalía General de la República and the secretariado, but the law requires Senate approval and state-level code changes to be enforceable.
- Officials cite a 36% drop in average daily feminicides versus 2021 as context for the reform and say the next steps are Senate review and then a potentially lengthy process of harmonizing 32 state codes and publishing the homologated protocol.