By Wendy Anders

The day after International Women’s Day, a woman was nearly decapitated and left dead by her husband in a small town in Costa Rica.

The country continues to move forward with protections of women’s rights in the workplace, in health care services, and in the streets with new anti-harassment legislation proposed, increased domestic violence services offered, greater gender awareness, and increased equal enforcement of labor and other rights.

However, the culture of violence against women is a long-standing problem that is resistant to rapid change, as evidenced by a steady occurrence of episodes of attacks, mostly domestic, against women, and adolescents and children, mostly female, in different parts of the country.

A 29-year-old Costa Rican man was captured by police late yesterday in the sleepy, agricultural central-western hill town of Naranjo, Alajuela shortly after attacking his wife in their home with a machete which caused her to die at the scene, said Michael Soto, press official for the Public Security Ministry’s Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ).

Gómez Sánchez was described by the OIJ as having attacked his wife, Shirley Jimenez, after the two had an argument stemming from her announcement that she would be leaving him and taking their two children with her. The two children were in the home during the attack and witnessed the murder scene, said officials.

OIJ officials believe the man was under the effect of drugs, but this fact has yet to be confirmed by forensic investigators. Gómez, who has no previous crime record, was found hiding in a grassy lot near the crime scene and was brought in for detention, said Soto.

“According to the information gathered, the woman had made the decision to leave the home with the children, and yesterday communicated it to her husband, which triggered the act of domestic violence,” continued Soto.

When the situation became violent, the couple’s two children aged six and eight fled the house to seek assistance from a nearby family member.

When they returned they found the woman’s lifeless body, which had severe slash wounds from the machete to her hands, arms and neck in the couple’s bedroom, said Soto.

The children are in the custody of the Child Welfare Agency (PANI) and receiving psychological treatment.

Comments on a number of Facebook sites where posts and photos of the gruesome story have been posted show dozens of comments by men and women alike applauding the rapid and effective police work in capturing the suspect, and decrying the perceived laxity of judges in recent violent cases of rape and other attacks where suspects have been released the day after their arrest, with their only restrictions being to report every two weeks to the court and being barred from leaving the country.

Local residents clearly feel the judicial system is not being strict enough with violent offenders. This FB post captured sentiments expressed by many others:

Roger Duran Carranza: Pobres oficiales tanto que arriesgan con esas ratas para que los juezes los suelten otro día da tristeza con el sistema penal de este país

Roger Duran Carranza: “Poor officials who put themselves at such risk with these rats so that the judges release them the next day makes one sad about the penal system of this country.”