The Government delegate in Asturias, Adriana Lastra, attended this morning, together with staff of the Government Delegation in Asturias and members of the Security Forces and Corps, the minute of silence condemning the murder of two women for gender violence: Mercedes, 64 years old, died in Pedreña, -Cantabria - and María Paloma, 53 years old, in Barbastro, Huesca. All of them expressed their strong condemnation of these machista murders and sent their deepest condolences to their families and friends.
With these terrible murders there are 13 women killed at the hands of their partner or ex-partner in 2026 and 1,356 since 2003, when these data began to be collected. Mercedes was murdered in Cantabria on March 14, while María Paloma was murdered on January 17.
Since 2013, 67 children have been killed for gender-based violence against their mothers and 514 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 Andrea Pavón, General Secretary 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 remembered that the phone 016, 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 website violenciagenero.igualdad.gob.es They work 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.