A woman burned alive in a town square by her jilted ex-boyfriend died following five days of agony, Peru’s women’s minister said Friday, slamming police for their slow response.
Katherine Gomez, 18, was admitted to the hospital last Saturday suffering from burns to 60 percent of her body.
“She fought for her life but, unfortunately, the amount of damage she suffered made it impossible for doctors to save her life and they told us she has died,” Minister Nancy Tolentino told RPP radio station.
The grim case has shocked Peruvians.
According to police, the perpetrator was a 19-year-old Venezuelan who fled the scene after dousing Gomez with petrol and setting her alight in a central square in Lima.
Just days earlier, Gomez had decided to end their relationship.
Tolentino criticized police for only issuing an arrest warrant for the suspect, identified as Sergio Tarache Parra, on Thursday, five days after the deadly crime.
“Police promised me they would do everything possible to find him,” said Tolentino.
She also urged young women not to meet their violent exes alone because “it is risky.”
She warned them to neither accept “compromises nor relationships with a person who does not respect you, who violates your rights.”
Peru, a country of 33 million, recorded 136 femicides in 2022, a similar number to the two previous years.