Feminisms and diversities demand justice for Lara, Morena, and Brenda.
Hundreds of women marched in Plaza Flores to demand justice for the three girls murdered in Florencia Varela. They are planning to meet in front of the National Congress on Saturday.
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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina. A crowd of women, girls, men, organizations and individuals gathered this Wednesday in the self-convened mobilization in Plaza Flores to demand justice for Morena Verri (20), Brenda Loreley Del Castillo (20) and Lara Morena (15) Gutiérrez. They had been missing since Friday and were found on Wednesday, September 24, murdered and dismembered in Florencio Varela. The claim had replicas in different parts of the country.
After the news broke in the early hours of Wednesday, people gathered on their own to stop the killing and shout, "Stop killing us!" The main rally was led by the Argentine Association of Prostitute Women (AMMAR) Yo No Fui collective in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Flores.
The rally was scheduled for 7 p.m., but people started arriving throughout the afternoon, and by that time there were already hundreds of self-conveners. Navigating the plaza's thoroughfares was difficult due to the number of people eager to participate. After finding a suitable place to stop the march, a circle was formed around some figures of transfeminist activism.
“Today there are three fewer. Today there are three families that are broken, and there will be many more if we don't mend the broken social fabric . If we don't acknowledge that this doesn't happen to just anyone. It happens to the poor. The poor are the disposable subjects of this national government. It's us, and it's our lives that are at stake. Justice for our fellow women and let this not happen again!” said Georgina Orellano, sex worker and general secretary of AMMAR, to the crowd that formed a circle in the center of Plaza Flores.
"We're here because our classmates used to hang out in this neighborhood. It was where they worked and where they'd been expelled. They've been reporting police harassment for a year," Orellano explained. One of the investigation's hypotheses is that the neighborhood is the strategic point where the perpetrators met some of the girls.
“Justice is that we take to the streets”
Orellano continued: “Justice means taking to the streets and bringing feminism back into the mainstream agenda the cross-cutting nature of what happens to poor people. Put your bodies on the line, girls. Get off social media.”
Alejandra Rodríguez, a member of the Yo No Fui collective, also spoke of a collective grief. "We believe that all of this is happening because of the precariousness of life we're being forced into by these policies of death, by this State that has withdrawn from our lives."
“Block the street! Block the street!” began to grow louder in the Plaza. Following activist Nina Brugo's remarks, the crowd headed toward Rivadavia and blocked the avenue, right in front of the Flores Cathedral. A march then began around the Plaza, behind a black banner bearing the slogan “Stop killing us. All lives matter.”
Macelo Ferrari walked hand in hand with his teenage daughter. “I understand that we must mobilize and support this so that it can manifest itself, so that it can be expressed. Today I came above all to be with my daughter.” Beside him, as the march moved to the side, Azul Ferreira added: “We mustn't kill each other anymore. Every person has a family, has a life to live, whether it's a woman or anyone else. Enough with the femicides, people.”
Patriarchal violence on the rise
The triple homicide occurs in a context of escalating violence. From January 1 to August 31, there were 164 crimes of gender-based violence, according to the Adriana Marisel Zambrano Observatory of Femicides in Argentina, directed by La Casa del Encuentro. Furthermore, the National Observatory of Hate Crimes recorded a 70% increase in hate crimes in the first half of 2025, compared to the same period last year.
"This triple femicide of young women occurs in a context where economic violence fuels drug trafficking networks and destroys grassroots organizations. Three women murdered amid political and media violence that fuels hatred against us," expressed the Ni Una Menos collective's social media accounts.
The National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe, and Free Abortion was also present with its large green flag. “ The State is suffering the dismantling of gender policies. It ignores, questions, and denies the possibility of femicide. We are experiencing a woman murdered every 36 hours. This, moreover, is linked, and is not a minor fact, to complicity with human trafficking and drug trafficking networks, both in Buenos Aires City and in the province of Buenos Aires,” said Viviana Norman, a member of the Campaign.
All victims are equal
Some mass media outlets, primarily television, installed a "debate" on the agenda about whether the murdered women were black widows and/or prostitutes, which generated condemnation from various organizations. "Everyone is asking if they were whores or black widows. What the hell does it matter? Do they deserve to end up murdered in a bag?" The AMMAR network condemned them. They emphasized: "There are no good or bad victims. There are femicides."
“We are in the streets repudiating three atrocious crimes and denouncing the cruelty in communication. This continued violation of those who have been violated in their lives, the re-victimization. We demand that the State be present defending women's rights and we ask many media outlets to be respectful of three young women who have been brutally murdered, and to demand justice ,” said Victoria Montenegro, a Buenos Aires legislator (Unión por la Patria).
Also present was Myriam Bregman (PTS) candidate for national deputy. “It's more important than ever to be in the streets, to continue protesting, and to demand justice for these three girls,” she said, adding, “They want to deny that hate crimes have increased.”
Triple femicide
The bodies of Morena Verri, Brenda Loreley Del Castillo, 20, and Lara Morena Gutiérrez, 15, were found buried this Wednesday in the yard of a house in Florencio Varela. They had been missing since last Friday in Ciudad Evita, when they left their homes heading to a YPF branch located across from the La Tablada roundabout. There, they got into a white van and were never seen again.
Police arrested two men and two women for the crime. Near the house where they were found, forensic experts detected blood stains and a strong smell of bleach.
On Wednesday afternoon, Lara's family and neighbors reported that the front of the victim's grandmother's house had been shot, and Lara's mother requested police protection.
The Minister of Security of the province of Buenos Aires, Javier Alonso, stated that the triple murder was "a drug-related revenge."
The Ministry of Women and Diversity of the province of Buenos Aires issued a statement calling for "the urgent clarification of the facts" and for the process to be carried out with a gender perspective. They also clarified that "according to the initial hypotheses of the investigation, they were victims of a drug trafficking organization."
“Femicides are the most extreme expressions of gender-based violence, and in the context of drug-related crime, they are a stark and ferocious expression of dehumanization, cruelty, and neglect,” they asserted, while detailing that the ministry is currently working “in coordination with the Prosecutor's Office, the municipality of La Matanza, and the Provincial Ministry of Security.”
Around 9:30 p.m., when many of the protesters had left the Plaza, a major police operation was launched, resulting in nine arrests, who have since been released, according to the City Police.
The autopsy, which was released a few hours ago, revealed that the victims were brutally tortured and murdered. The assembly decided that they would march on the National Congress on Saturday to strengthen their demand for justice.
The coverage was carried out jointly with our partner, Tiempo Argentino.
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