The emergency service 911 in Costa Rica is receiving in average 268 reports of domestic violence every day, which translates into one call every 5 minutes.

The majority of the victims are women (80%), the number of calls increase during holidays and weekends when the husbands or romantic partners are home; soccer games also seem to be a trigger since every time there’s an important soccer game, the number of calls increases considerably. During the Holy week, for example, the number raised by 27.5%.

“It is very common during festivities, holidays, weekends and game days. Even, ironically during Mother’s Day, is one of the days when more reports of domestic violence are received”, commented Adriana Rodriguez, operator from the emergency service in an interview with La Nacion.

The callers many times are also children calling to report abuse suffered by the mother.

During 2017, a total 98,095 calls reporting domestic violence were received and injust the first three months this 2018 the number of calls received has been of 24,498

According to the Gender Observatory of the Judicial Power between 2007 and 2016 there were a total of 287 women murdered by men with whom they had a romantic relationship; in 2017 there were a total of 26 femicides.