Atenco victims take Mexico to Inter-American human rights court over sexual torture

Record ID: 84880

  • Title: Atenco victims take Mexico to Inter-American human rights court over sexual torture
  • Date: 4th October 2016
  • Summary: POLICE PICK UP TRUCK WITH OFFICERS AT THE BACK DRIVING AWAY OFFICER IN MIDDLE OF ROAD AT SCENE OF PROTEST
  • Embargoed: 19th October 2016 21:58
  • Keywords: human rights Mexico Atenco women torture Inter-American Human Rights Court
  • Location: MEXICO CITY, SAN SALVADOR ATENCO, STATE OF MEXICO, MEXICO
  • City: MEXICO CITY, SAN SALVADOR ATENCO, STATE OF MEXICO, MEXICO
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA00452LDLQB
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    A group of women who were reportedly the victims of sexual torture at the hands of police officers are taking the Mexican state to the Inter-American Human Rights Court to demand justice be done.
    Backed by the Miguel Agustin Pro Human Rights Centre, 11 women want the officers involved in their rape to face trial and to ensure that sexual torture is no longer an instrument used by police.
    The incidents in question took place in San Salvador Atenco, a municipality of the state of Mexico, which had been the scene of populist protests against the government since 2002, when local farmers successfully halted government plans to build a national airport on their land.
    Four years later, on May 3, 2006, a group of flower sellers who had negotiated a labour agreement that was to have allowed them to set up stalls in a nearby downtown area arrived at the market square and found police waiting for them. In the ensuing protest, which would last for two days, dozens were seriously injured, and two people-including a fourteen-year-old boy- were killed.
    According to reports, 47 women were detained in the violence and brutally sexually assaulted.
    A decade on, they have taken their fight for justice to the Inter-American Human Rights Court.
    "Unfortunately, we're talking about a case of rape on a large scale, of extreme brutality and also with the purpose of discriminating against women. The use of sexual torture against women as a tool for repression, of fear, of de-mobilisation. And ten years of impunity. Also it is a case where there is evidence against high-ranking officials at the state and federal level involved in impunity," said Stephanie Erin Brewer, a human rights defender at the Miguel Agustin Pro Human Rights Centre.
    It has been a long ordeal for justice in Mexico.
    After local authorities publicly dismissed their calls for justice, the women of Atenco initially turned to the federal attorney general's office with their case. In 2009, the Mexican Supreme Court issued a statement affirming that there were widespread human rights abuses at the hands of police and urging the prosecution of those responsible. Yet, though dozens of police officers were identified by prosecutors as presumed perpetrators of the violence against these women, only three people have been tried. One was given a sentence of time served, and a small fine, which was overturned on appeal.
    "During the detention and during transportation I was tortured physically, psychologically and sexually. I was caught up in the penal process for more than two and a half years. It was a very heartbreaking experience and it has left a big impact on my life, to be detained and tortured under those conditions," said Barbara Mendez, a victim of sexual torture.
    A recent report co-produced by the Nobel Women's Initiative and Just Associates found that Mexican security forces were often the worst perpetrators of sexualised violence used to "intimidate and subdue" women.
    Victim Patricia Torres wants an end to sexual torture in Mexico.
    "That this not be repeated, that there be justice, that there be truth and truth at the highest level because we're taking it to the Inter-American Court," said Torres.
    The Atenco case is one of Mexico's most brutal but has been caught up in legal limbo.
    The federal government has claimed that, because the perpetrators are state police, they must be prosecuted in the State of Mexico. Controversially, President Enrique Pena Nieto was governor at the State of Mexico during the Atenco incident.
    The Inter-American Human Rights Court is an autonomous judicial institution based in Mexico. Decisions made by the court are binding to signatory nations such as Mexico.
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