The Women Of Peru Are Suffering From A 'Shadow Pandemic'
It's a grim roster of alerts. A woman, age 19, last spotted in July wearing sky blue jeans, a black sweater and black sneakers. A 16-year-girl missing since she left her home one morning in July. A 14-year-girl last seen heading to the supermarket at the end of June; she was wearing blue shoes.
Such are the reports of missing women and girls that can be found on the Facebook page of Mujeres Desaparecidas, or Missing Women, a Peruvian advocacy and support group for families. The case reports are shared by distraught families and friends seeking help from the public in their search for loved ones who have been caught up in a grim statistic: Thousands of women — many of them girls and adolescents — have gone missing in Peru since January, including at least 1,423 reported missing since the country entered a state of emergency amid the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March.
"These aren't just numbers. They are real women being erased," says Katherine Soto, who years ago.
