Peruvian Women’s Ministry Calls for Life in Prison for Venezuelan Woman Accused of Femicide

Lima, Aug 25 (EFE).- The Minister of Women and Vulnerable Populations of Peru, Teresa Hernández, announced on Sunday that she would ask the Prosecutor’s Office to increase its request from 30 years in prison to life imprisonment for Venezuelan Sergio Tarache, accused of femicide aggravated by spraying gasoline and setting fire to his ex-partner in 2023.

“The prosecution has requested 30 years in prison and we believe that this is a sentence that does not fit the crime,” Hernández said on the National Radio program Diálogo Abierto.

This Saturday, the Public Ministry requested 30 years, 6 months and 20 days in prison against Tarache for the murder of his ex-partner Katherine Gómez Macare, whom he doused with gasoline and set on fire on March 18 in the historic center of Lima and after being hospitalized for a week, she died due to the severity of her burns.

The minister expressed her disagreement with this sentence requested against Tarache, extradited in January from Colombia, where he fled after committing the crime in March 2023.

And she emphatically expressed the position of her sector, stressing that a 30-year prison sentence is not in line with “the savagery” with which Tarache acted.

He therefore assured that his team, composed of lawyers from the Women’s Emergency Centers (CEM), will coordinate with the Prosecutor’s Office to ensure that life imprisonment is considered the appropriate sentence in this case.

The Second Permanent Collegiate Criminal Court of Lima scheduled the oral trial in this case to begin on September 3.

Tarache, 21, arrived in Peru on January 30 aboard a National Police plane at Tarapoto airport in the San Martín region, escorted by police officers after being handed over by Interpol agents in the Colombian city of Leticia.

At that time, the Ministry of Women demanded the maximum sanction for Tarache, in a message shared on the social network X.

“Katherine Gómez was the victim of femicide at the hands of her ex-partner. After months of waiting and coordinated work between the governments of Peru and Colombia, the murderer will be brought to justice, for which we demand the maximum sanction. We all have the right to live a life free of violence and fear,” the ministry said.

The accused was arrested in Bogotá on April 12 last year and placed in preventive detention while Colombian and Peruvian authorities began the extradition process to Peru.

On May 9, 2023, the Government of Peru approved the extradition request and, since then, the Public Ministry, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has worked to obtain the pertinent request from the Colombian authorities so that Tarache can be prosecuted in Peru for the possible commission of a crime against life, body and health in the form of femicide, to the detriment of Gómez.