Protesters march for three victims of femicide: media

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Buenos Aires on Saturday to demand justice for three young women whose torture and murders were live-streamed on social media, in a case that has shocked Argentina.

- 

The victims’ relatives held a banner with their names — “Lara, Brenda, Morena” — and placards with their images, flanked by supporters as they marched to Parliament.

“It was a narco-femicide!” “Our lives are not disposable!” read signs and banners as protesters banged on drums at the march, organised by a feminist group.

The bodies of Morena Verdi and Brenda del Castillo, cousins aged 20, and 15-year-old Lara Gutierrez were found buried Wednesday in the yard of a house in a southern suburb of Buenos Aires, five days after they went missing.

The crime, which investigators tied to drug gangs, was perpetrated live on Instagram and watched by 45 members of a private account, officials said.

“Women must be protected more than ever,’ Brenda's father, Leonel del Castillo, told reporters at the protest. He had earlier said he had not been able to identify his daughter's body due to the abuse she had endured.