Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has taken action against acid attacks against women, an alarming trend that has increased in the country through the past decade. Under a new law enacted this week, using chemicals to deliberately injure someone is now punishable with a minimum of 12 to 30 years, depending on the severity of physical damage, reaching up to 50 years maximum, according to the Associated Press.
"We don't want to continue to occupy the dishonorable position of being one of the leading countries in the world in terms of the number of acid attacks," Santos said during the enacting ceremony at the presidential palace in Bogota, reported The City Paper. "We must do everything necessary to protect victims and prevent future cases."
More than 900 victims were scarred, mutilated or even killed by acid attacks in Colombia between 2004 and 2014, which is the third highest rate in the world after Bangladesh and Pakistan, according to GlobalPost. The majority of victims have been women in their 20s or 30s. The new law doubles the previous maximum sentencing, which treated acid attacks as personal injuries rather than as crimes of violence and allowed perpetrators to evade due punishment.
The law is named after Natalia Ponce de León, who became a high profile campaigner for changing the law after suffering severe facial and physical disfigurement by sulphuric acid in March 2014. She was attacked by her neighbor, Jonathan Vega, who retaliated after having his advances rejected, The Latin Correspondent noted.
"The new law helps remedy a big legal loophole and will help prevent the absurd attacks that so many of us have suffered," she said at the ceremony. It was the first time that she appeared in public without a mask to protect her damaged facial skin, having undergone more than 20 reconstructive surgeries, according to the Associated Press.
The law also establishes clearer procedures for treatment of survivors of acid attacks.
Approximately 1,500 acid-throwing attacks are reported internationally each year, and women are the victims in 80 percent of cases, according to the U.K.-based charity organization Acid Survivors Trust International. However, the actual figures are probably higher because many victims are frightened of reporting the attacks.
