The consequences of the coronavirus in Peru go far beyond health and economic problems: the lockdown has led to the disappearance of thousands of women and girls.
Children are keen observers of the world around them. In this case, a little girl recounts fragments of a story that only her mother can complete. Joys Estefani Qqueccaño Huamani, a 24-year-old indigenous Quechua woman, was last seen on the evening of 9 October. According to little Chaska, that day her uncle Jesús Ccana had taken her and her four-year-old sister Illary to his house (a fact also confirmed by the maternal family). Jesús's house is only thirty metres from where the girls lived with Joys Estefani.
In the last known photograph of Joys Estefani, the woman's face is bruised and her head is bandaged, owing to the beating inflicted by her former partner and the father of her two daughters, Arturo Ccana Condori, aged 32. The photo was taken on 28 September and the assault was reported to the police. Arturo was arrested but immediately released. The assault took place a few weeks after Joys Estefani had separated from him. Despite the break-up, the two continued to live near each other in the community of Pampa Ansa, an open valley of reddish, arid earth about three hours from the famous city of Cusco.
The broken windows of Joys Estefani's house are still stained with blood. "We want justice, because the poorest are never listened to and women keep being mistreated. It's not right," says her uncle Nilo Qqueccaño, his voice breaking and his gaze fixed. Yet the abuse suffered by Joys Estefani is all too common in Peru. The data on violence against women speak for themselves. From March to July, during the lockdown, the Ministry of Women recorded 11,000 cases of violence, thirty per cent of which involved minors as victims.
The disappearance of Joys Estefani is not an isolated case either. From January to November of this year, the disappearance of 14,912 people in Peru was reported. According to official police data, more than half are minors and 64 per cent are women. In many Latin American countries, Covid-19 led to strict lockdowns, and Peru is no exception. People were confined to their homes for months, in many cases forced to endure extremely precarious physical, economic and social conditions. According to experts, this situation has worsened the plight of children and women living in violent households. Abuse victims found themselves locked at home with their abusers.
"The Office of the Civil Ombudsman reports that following the various changes to restriction measures, the increase in missing women, girls and adolescents remains constant," a Peruvian human rights organisation wrote in a statement published at the beginning of this autumn. Of particular concern is the high number of girls and adolescents who went missing during the lockdown; these girls most likely fled their homes or fell victim to crimes such as femicide, abduction and human trafficking.
Joys Estefani was just fifteen years old when she married Arturo, in a "peasant marriage", an arranged marriage according to Quechua tradition. Her uncles and aunts had suspected for years that she was being mistreated by her partner. But Estefani lived in a very closed world, spending most of her time between her ex-partner's family and the evangelical church they regularly attended.
After their mother's disappearance, Chaska and Illary were placed in police custody and subsequently entrusted to their grandfather, as their father was a suspect in the case of Joys Estefani's disappearance, which is being investigated as a homicide. "I fear that the Ccana family will make me disappear," says Joys's father, René Qqueccaño, 44.
When we entered the abandoned house where Joys Estefani had been living, it felt like stepping into a silent crime scene. Everything that was inside is now scattered outside. Toys, clothes, rubbish, broken glass. Freshly dug earth is also visible. Inside, there are red marks on the walls, one of which is shaped like a hand. As you approach the building, you hear a noise, as if someone were inside — evoking disturbing parallels between the case of Joys Estefani and that of Marleny Estrada Bolivar, a woman declared missing for nearly two months in Lima, the capital of Peru, until her body was found buried beneath her room. During the visit, Arturo's relatives come around several times, as their house is just a stone's throw away.
"My niece is not an animal, she must reappear," says aunt Nalda Qqueccaño. Together with Joys Estefani's aunts and uncles, as we approach the church she used to attend with her ex-partner and his family, Arturo's brother Jesús suddenly comes out, trembling with rage. In a matter of moments, questions are asked and accusations fly between the aunts and uncles and the brother. "What happened to Joys Estefani? What did you do to her?" the aunts and uncles demand. "And if she reappears, what happens? How will you answer for it? She'll surely turn up within a week," Jesús Ccana replies. "Don't mess with our church," Ccana says aggressively to our photographer while covering the camera with his hands.
According to the Office of the Ombudsman, 114 femicides were recorded between January and November, and as the number of disappearances rises month by month, it is hard not to ask: why are so many girls and women going missing?
"Our hypothesis is that the majority of minors have run away from home due to rape, physical and emotional violence or sexual abuse," says Eliana Revollar Añaño, deputy for women's rights at the Office of the Ombudsman. "But we don't really know the reason. And we don't know the true number of missing girls, or how many have been found and in what condition: alive or dead. The lack of data is a serious problem. The simple fact that there are minors running away indicates that we have failed as a society."
As in Lima, there are many reports of missing persons in the Cusco area and in the city of Piura, in northern Peru. It is estimated that even fewer cases are reported in these regions than in the rest of the country, leading to an underestimation of the problem. Families often avoid filing complaints, in part due to a lack of trust in the authorities. "It often happens that families are blamed for the disappearances. Or that cases are catalogued as crimes committed out of jealousy, and victims frequently end up being blamed as well."
These are the words of Katherine Soto Torres, founder of the group Mujeres desaparecidas Perú (Missing Women Peru) in 2016, following the disappearance under unusual circumstances of her friend Solsiret Rodriguez. Soto Torres's words also reflect the perception that the authorities are not doing enough to search for missing women. She adds that many of the regions where large numbers of disappearances are reported are home to extractive industries, such as illegal mining operations, and these areas are known to be hotbeds of human trafficking for sexual exploitation. The activist is particularly concerned about the situation in the Cusco region.
"The numbers are alarming. This year, to date, more than 800 complaints have been filed, and Cusco is now the second region in terms of number of cases at national level. However, we still do not have a proper national search system that records and disseminates information on all cases, equipped with an instant alert system. If disappearances are not addressed effectively, we will not be able to prevent dangerous situations, let alone find victims while they are still alive," says Soto Torres.