Another sexual assault of a woman in Chiapas
Gerardo Otero (otero@sfu.ca)
Wed, 17 Jan 1996 10:50:26 -0800
>From: "CECILIA RODRIGUEZ" <moonlight@igc.apc.org>
>Organization: NATIONAL CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY
>Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 19:59:13 +0000
>Subject: Another sexual assault of a woman in Chiapas
>
>La Jornada January 15, 1996
>
>Letters to the Editor
>
>They denounce the rape of a Tzeltal indigenous woman by
>judicial police in Chiapas
>
>Sir Director:
>
>The persons signed below, members of social, civil and
>political organizations, as well as individuals, once more
>come to your prestigious newspaper to demand justice and an
>end to the violence in which women of Chiapas are living.
>
>On December 16th, Julieta Flores Hernandez, an 18-year old
>Tojolabal woman, was detained in the collective farm of
>Nueva Palestina, in the municipality of Ocosingo, Chiapas,
>as she tried to avoid the detention by state police of her
>father, who was accused of blocking roads and killing a PRI
>member of the collective farm.
>
>Julieta was tortured and raped by 8 judicial agents, and
>taken before the Sixth Criminal Judge in Tuxtla Gutierrez
>and accused of murder, theft and attacks against
>communication media, but because of the lack of evidence she
>was freed on January 9th.
>
>The rape of this young indigenous woman adds to the number
>of cases of women who have been raped in Chiapas (the 3
>young Tzeltal women, the three nurses, companera Cecilia
>Rodriguez, etc.), and in some of which have been involved
>members of the security forces. Once more the state of low-
>intensity warfare, in which the men and women of Chiapas
>live, shows that women are the targets in this unequal
>confrontation, because they said "Enough Is Enough!", to the
>situation of injustice, exploitation and discrimination in
>which they have lived for more than 500 years.
>
>Last November 25th a document was delivered to the Secretary
>of Governance in which diverse cases of violence were
>denounced, and through the Director for Attention to
>Citizens a meeting was sought with the Secretary of
>Governance, Emilio Chuaffet, in order to seek a solution
>and to demand the delivery of justice in these cases. To
>date no response of any kind has been made, and now we have
>a new case of rape against a woman of Chiapas by members of
>a police body.
>
>By this means we ask again for a meeting with the Secretary
>of Governance. We make a call to the civil society, so that
>it is aware of these deeds; of the representatives of the
>Mexican government we demand justice for our sisters, and an
>end to the use of rape as a political punishment.
>
>Marcela Lagarde, Sara Lovera, Maria Guerra, Lucia Lagunes,
>Georgina M. Rangel, Leticia Puente, Sonia del Valle, Elena
>Baptista, Rosa Maria Gonzalez, Martha Guadarrama, Patria
>Jimenez, Josefina Chavez, Silvia Gonzalez, Maria de Lourdes
>Rodriguez, Elisa Benavides G., Maria Eugenia Romero, Adela
>Bonilla, Barbara Cadena, Berzabeth Corona, Georgina Rivas,
>Nellys Palomo, Edith Dehemsa, Martha Figueroa, Teresa
>Olvera, Guadalupe Cardenas, Olivia Velzquez, Brenda
>Velazquez, Claudia Meza, Graciela Freyermuth, Mariia de la
>Luz Garcia, Deputy Rosario Robles, Deputy Leticia Burgos,
>Deputy Adriana Luna Parra, Deputy Carlota Botey, Deputy
>Maria Rosa Marques, and Patricia Ruiz Anchondo
>
>