Viviana Hernández, now 29, who survived an acid-throwing attack with burns to her face four years ago. Photograph: Mira
By Tatiana RodriguezMore than 100 women in Colombia who have suffered acid attacks from men since 2002 are struggling not only to cope with the scars on their skin, souls and minds, but also with the fear that the crimes will go unpunished.The president recently endorsed a new law to punish perpetrators. In the last several years, for reasons that remain unclear, acid attacks against women have increased by nearly 50%, putting Colombia near the top of the list of countries where this kind of aggression happens.In late May the Colombian Senate approved a law that sets prison terms running from six to 10 years. The penalty rises to eight to 15 years if the acid attack strikes the face and neck of the victim.The law also aims to control sales of acid that costs less than $5 per litre. Under the law, shops selling acid must provide monthly records of sales each month with information about buyers.The law also offers free reconstructive surgery to victims and legal counselling and psychological support. Despite the new law, increased prison terms for attackers remain theoretical, because no one has been sentenced yet. The president signed the law into force in early July.According to the Colombian Institute of Forensic Medicine, there were 55 reported acid attacks in 2010 in Colombia; a drop in the attacks to 42 in 2011; in 2012 the number jumped to 80 and in the first two months of 2013 eight cases were reported to authorities. “Colombia had a rate of attacks of 1.84 per million women in 2011. This figure places the country above Pakistan, with a rate of 0.96, and Bangladesh, with 1.77,” said the Feminicide.net website which keeps records of gender-based attacks worldwide. The Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) said that 80% of the 1,500 reported cases each year in 20 countries occur in Asia. The attacks against women are mostly connected to male-female relations.Countries heading the list of attacks are Bangladesh, which has seen 3,112 acid attacks since 2002, India (153 attacks 2002-2010 reported in the press) and Pakistan (298 attacks 2010-2012).Gender-based attacks in these countries are thought to be more frequent because of deep-seated differences between the sexes. In the Americas, acid attacks have been reported in Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Jamaica and the United States. The Burn Victim Foundation in Colombia said that most gender-based attacks with acid in Colombia are perpetrated by men.The partners or ex-partners of victims continue to be the main culprits although they might pay third parties to perpetrate the attacks. Acid is sometimes also used in street muggings. Other women are sometimes culprits: they may be envious of a rival or be motivated by jealousy, rejection or revenge.The majority of Colombian victims are 20-24 years old. Though frequently poor, the victims of acid attacks come from all social classes. They may be students, wives or prostitutes.Irrational jealousy is behind many of the disfiguring attacks, the feeling being that: “If she cannot be mine, she cannot belong to anyone else.”Sometimes beauty-contest winners suffer attacks out of envy. A well-known case was that of a 22-year-old beauty queen in Norte de Santander province in 2010 who was burned with acid by an unknown attacker.The attack left burns on her face and a year-long case of crippling depression. One particularly serious case was that of the attack on 19-year-old Olga Galindo in January 2010. Her husband, Francisco Almanza, 54, doused her with a mixture of gasoline and acid and then threw a lit match at her.Galindo was hospitalised but died after two weeks. She had been burned on 95% of her body. Almanza went free because of a legal technicality.Colombian representative Gloria Stella Diaz, author of the bill, said the new law was a major step forward for Colombia because attackers will no longer be allowed to benefit from house arrest and could face up to 30 years in prison in aggravating circumstances such as a crime perpetrated against a woman or minor.Female victims of acid attacks in Colombia remain sceptical.Consuelo Cordova, a black Colombian woman who has been forced to beg to survive, suffered an attack with sulphuric acid 13 years ago from a man whom she thought was the love of her life. He has never been punished. “I arrived at the hospital and I couldn’t see anything. I could barely breathe. It was very painful, not only physically, but emotionally, because I never expected that from him,” Cordova said.Cordova has undergone over 43 surgical interventions on her face, chest and back, and she still cannot understand why her former lover attacked her so brutally. “Why have you thrown this at me if I love you so much!” she remembers crying out during the attack.The head of the burn-victims wing at the Simon Bolivar Hospital of Colombia in Para, Patricia Gutierrez, said that acid attacks cause mostly third-degree burns and scars that pull natural folds of skin together and close eyes, nasal openings and the mouth.“These are very deep burns. It takes seconds for the chemical to tear through tissue and it destroys the consistency of the skin, which is an organ that recuperates easily, but marks remain that must be treated and operated on numerous times to improve, but never return to how it was before the attack,” Gutierrez said.Most victims are poor and sometimes contribute to the worsening of their condition, because they seek help from untrained healers or try to cure the burns themselves. They stay away from hospitals because care is expensive but also because they are so deeply ashamed of their burns. “(Many women) feel they have died even though they are still alive. Often they don’t even want to step outside of their homes,” said Clara Ospina, a psychologist with the Burn Victim Foundation in Bogota.Ospina said that coming to terms with loss is very difficult and harder for acid attack victims “because the evidence stays, and each day they feel victimised once again. “When they look at themselves in the mirror, when they learn of a new case or simply when they remember the episode that changed their lives, it is a daily struggle.”Gutierrez said the topic is not easy to address because it is so emotionally charged, but that it is crucial to raise awareness and punish culprits because the victims of acid attacks will have to face discrimination for the rest of their lives, both socially and in the labour market. — DPA