A 27-year-old woman was stabbed to death in Córdoba, Argentina, by a former partner who had repeatedly violated a restraining order and other conditions of a suspended sentence for prior threats, according to provincial authorities. The suspect, Maximiliano Baudraco, 40, was detained near the scene in Santa María de Punilla after the attack, which an autopsy confirmed involved more than ten knife wounds, including one that perforated the victim’s aorta and lung. The couple’s three children, aged between two and nine, were present in the house during the killing, local prosecutors said.

In Brazil, a 23-year-old woman survived a separate attempted femicide in Espírito Santo after being stabbed more than ten times by her ex-boyfriend, who was arrested at the scene. The victim, identified only as Sara, told investigators that the man had previously dragged her by the hair and left marks on her neck, and that his mother had acknowledged other former partners were also assaulted. Meanwhile, an Australian court sentenced a 38-year-old man to two years and six months in jail for stabbing his former partner and striking her with a baseball bat, though the judge found he had acted in excessive self-defence after being attacked at his home by the woman and others. In the southern Argentine city of Caleta Olivia, police arrested a man who allegedly went to his ex-partner’s house after a football match and attacked her; he was later released pending further investigation.

The Córdoba case has drawn particular scrutiny because the Patronato del Liberado, the agency responsible for supervising offenders on conditional release, had informed the executing judge on at least two occasions that Baudraco was not complying with mandated psychological treatment, community work, or the mutual restriction order. Patricia Corbalán, the agency’s director, stated that her office lacks police powers and can only report violations to the judiciary. “We are the eyes of justice,” she said, adding that the decision to revoke conditional liberty rests solely with the court. The judge in question, Facundo Moyano Centeno, had previously been criticised over another case in which a convicted murderer on house arrest was later charged with a separate femicide.

Viewed from regional capitals, the incidents have reignited debate about the capacity of under-resourced supervision systems to prevent lethal violence. In Córdoba, the Patronato oversees some 7,000 cases, including 750 individuals under house arrest, with only a handful of offices across the province. Brazilian campaigners note that a woman calls military police for help every 30 seconds, and a femicide is recorded every six hours. The Australian case, while legally distinct, underscored how family violence can escalate even when both parties are armed and the initial aggressor is not the eventual defendant.

Prosecutors in Córdoba have charged Baudraco with aggravated femicide. The three children remain in the care of child protection authorities while a court determines their long-term guardianship. Investigations continue in all jurisdictions, and no final judicial determinations have been reached in the Argentine and Brazilian cases beyond the initial charges.