Recently, Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera announced his plan to combat violence against women in his country, which reportedly has some of the highest rates of male violence in Latin America.

According to EFE, Garcia Linera spoke with ATB in a television interview. He called on educational institutions and individual families in the "cultural revolution" against the prominent problem of male violence against women.

"Violence is a problem that has always existed, and today at last we've brought it out in the open and are dealing with it systematically because violence against women is the most cowardly criminal deed a man can commit," the vice president said.

Garcia Linera announced that the Bolivian government will begin dedicating money to domestic violence shelters. He added that municipalities and provinces in the country "will be obliged" to allocate money to shelters as well.

The vice president also promised to give more money to the police unit responsible for such crimes.

According to Garcia Linera, police universities will now look at how applicants treat their family before accepting them. The move comes after several police officers and soldiers received jail time this year after being convicted for abuse, rape and at least one instance of femicide, which is defined as the "intentional murder of women because they are women," according to the World Health Organization.

"Starting this year, new students, both for promotion to lieutenant, captain, coronel or general, or to be chosen to enter the police university, must meet the requirement of good family behavior," Garcia Linera said according to EFE.

The Bolivian government passed a law making femicide punishable by 30 years in prison without chance of pardon or parole in 2013. This is the strictest sentence in the Andean country.

Despite the harsh law, not many have been convicted of femicide. Less than 10 men have been sentenced for femicide since 2013. Over 70 women have been murdered in 2014 thus far.

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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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