BUENOS AIRES

A court in Argentina’s city of Mar del Plata convicted two men Thursday for the 2016 rape and murder of 16-year-old Lucia Perez in a case highlighting gender-based violence and the fight for justice that families are waging in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Judges sentenced Matias Farias to life in prison for sexual abuse, drug dealing and femicide and gave Juan Pablo Offidani an eight-year sentence as an accessory to the crime.

Perez's case received notable attention in recent weeks after Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez met with her family on International Women's Day on March 8.

Fernandez lent his support in the latest trial, criticizing the country’s justice system on Twitter for its “lack of gender perspective” in the previous trial, saying "in the name of any of the girls who are not here, we are not going to allow impunity.’

In 2016, Perez was drugged, raped and murdered. Two years later, Farías and Offidani were acquitted of femicide and murder, with the judges unable to determine whether Perez had given consent.

They were found guilty, however, on charges on drug dealing and each received eight-year sentences.​​​​​​​

Their acquittal triggered nationwide protests from the social movement Ni Una Menos (Not One Less), which called for justice against acts of gender-based violence towards girls and women and femicides in the region.

Two years later, another court quashed the convictions, forcing the case to go to another trial.

According to Perfil, the investigation found that the two men had met Perez outside school and had sold her marijuana. After the exchange, they kept in contact with her. On Oct. 8, they picked up Perez in a vehicle and took her to one of their homes, where she was sexually abused after being given cocaine and then murdered.

At least 4,473 women were victims of femicide in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2021, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.