MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Mexican lady who killed a person defending herself when he attacked and raped her in 2021 was sentenced to greater than six years in jail, a choice her authorized protection referred to as “discriminatory” and vowed to attraction Tuesday.
The ruling towards Roxana Ruiz spurred anger from specialists and feminist teams who mentioned it speaks to the depth of gender-based violence and Mexico’s poor file of bringing perpetrators of sexual violence to justice.
“It might be a foul precedent if this sentence had been to carry. It’s sending the message to girls that, you already know what, the legislation says you possibly can defend your self, however solely to a degree,” mentioned Ángel Carrera, her protection lawyer. “He raped you, however you don’t have the proper to do something.”
The Related Press doesn’t usually determine sexual assault victims, however Ruiz has given her permission to be recognized and participates in public demonstrations led by activists who assist her.
Whereas the Mexico State courtroom discovered Monday that Ruiz had been raped, it mentioned the 23-year-old was responsible of murder with “extreme use of legit protection,” including that hitting the person within the head would have been sufficient to defend herself. Ruiz was additionally ordered to pay greater than $16,000 in reparations to the household of the person who raped her.
In Could 2021, Ruiz was working promoting french fries in Nezahualcoyotl, one of many 11 municipalities within the Mexico State with an ongoing gender alert for femicides and one other one for compelled disappearances of girls.
Whereas having a beer with a good friend, Ruiz, a Indigenous Mixteca lady and a single mom from the state of Oaxaca, met a person she had seen across the neighborhood. After hanging out, he provided to stroll her dwelling and later requested to remain the evening as a result of it was late and he was removed from dwelling.
Ruiz agreed to let him sleep on a mattress on the ground. However whereas she slept he climbed onto her mattress, hit her, tore off her garments and raped her, in accordance with Ruiz’s authorized protection. Ruiz fought again, hitting him within the nostril. He threatened to kill her, and within the battle to free herself she killed him in self protection.
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In a panic, Ruiz put the person’s physique in a bag and dragged it out to the road the place passing police arrested her.
Regardless of telling police she had been raped, Carrera mentioned a forensic examination was by no means taken, a vital step in prosecuting sexual violence circumstances. As a substitute, an officer responded that she in all probability wished to have intercourse with the person at first after which modified her thoughts, he mentioned.
“I remorse what I did, but when I hadn’t finished it I’d be lifeless at present,” Ruiz advised the AP in an interview final yr, including, “It’s evident that the state desires to close us up, desires us to be submissive, desires us closed up inside, desires us lifeless.”
Girls’s rights teams have repeatedly accused Mexican authorities of revictimizing survivors and failing to evaluate circumstances with a gender perspective.
Ruiz spent 9 months in jail on fees of murder with extra of legit self-defense, and was lastly launched to await trial.
Almost half of Mexican girls have skilled sexual violence of their lifetime, authorities information exhibits.
In 2022, the Mexican authorities registered a complete of three,754 girls – a mean of 10 a day – who had been deliberately killed, a big bounce from the yr earlier than. Solely a 3rd had been investigated as femicides.
That quantity is probably going only a fraction of the true quantity attributable to rising disappearances and lack of reporting of violence within the nation.
Angelica Ospina, gender fellow for Worldwide Disaster Group in Mexico, mentioned she worries that the sentencing might empower victimizers whereas discouraging girls from reporting gender-based violence or defend themselves.
The case factors to simply how “normalized” gender-based violence is in Mexico and different elements of Latin America, Ospina mentioned.
“When a lady defends herself, the system is especially environment friendly in processing and sentencing her with out making an allowance for the situations wherein she killed the person,” Ospina mentioned.
In the meantime, exterior the courtroom, girls carried indicators and chanted “justice!” A tearful Ruiz stood earlier than the group, thanking feminist teams and the ladies who had supported her by way of the years-long judicial course of.
Chatting with the group, she considered her 4-year-old son.
“My son, I hope to see him once more. I hope to stick with him, to be the one who watches him develop up,” Ruiz mentioned.