The government delegate in Asturias, Adriana Lastra, has participated in the minute of silence condemning the murder of 52-year-old María Belén for gender violence in Pontevedra. With this terrible murder there are six women murdered at the hands of their partner or ex-partner in 2026.
Since 2003, 1,349 women have already been killed for gender-based violence. Since 2013, 65 children have been killed for gender-based violence against their mother and 509 children have been orphaned by gender-based violence in Spain.
The Government Delegation in Asturias together with the Ministry of Equality and the other Delegations and Sub-Delegations of the Government of Spain and the Island Directorates of the General Administration of the State express their strongest condemnation of the murders for gender violence and affirm in an institutional declaration that they will “persevere” to continue moving from “unity and firmness” towards a society “fairer, more egalitarian and free of male violence”.
The statement was read by Verónica Fernández, head of the Coordination Unit against Violence against Women, of the Government Delegation in Asturias. It stresses that as a democratic society, “no violence against women can be tolerated because they are women.” Male violence is a structural violence, based on sexist discrimination, inequality and imbalance in power relations between women and men, as the text read in the Plaza de España points out.
Likewise, it is recalled that the telephone 016, the online consultations through the mail 016-online@igualdad.gob.es, the WhatsApp channel in the number 600 000 016 and the chat accessible from the web page violenciagenero.igualdad.gob.es works 24 hours a day, every day of the year. In an emergency situation you can also call 112 or the telephone numbers of the National Police (092) and the Civil Guard (062). At 016 you can ask for advice on the resources available and the rights of victims of all forms of violence against women, as well as legal advice from 8h to 22h every day of the week, with attention in 53 languages and a service adapted to possible situations of disability.