Acción solidaria

Lic. Héctor José Cabrera Rivero

Attorney General for the State of Yucatan

I am writing to you with concern and urgency because I have been made aware that the life and physical integrity of a woman who for years was sexually assaulted by her stepfather are at risk.  Her stepfather impregnated her when she was 11 years old and began to sexually exploit her when she was 15.

She reported this to the Public Prosecutor in February of 2010 and the case was taken to court, but without the DNA test which would have shown that the girl is her daughter, conceived when she was a child, and the product of a sexual assault.  The Yucatan Superior Court of Justice dropped the charges of rape against her attacker, who is now only charged with procuring – which is not considered to be a serious crime in the trial that is currently about to finish.

In October of 2010 MAR submitted a new complaint, this one for statutory rape.  More than 350 people accompanied the demand sent to you as well as the Governor and the Yucatan Institute for Gender Equality: to carry out the DNA tests and take the case to court as quickly as possible.

The Public Prosecutor did not carry out the DNA test – it does not have the instruments to do so and did not take responsibility for the cost – but MAR was able to afford it with national and international solidarity and submitted the test results on September 1, 2011.

15 months after the report was submitted and 6 months after receiving the test results, you have not made an indictment on the case, which is now closed and has been in the Public Prosecutor's Consignment Area since November 2011.

This fact is especially serious because, particularly in cases of gender violence, the actions of public servants charged with these investigations must be swift and efficient in order to avoid the repetition or commission of violations that may be impossible to redress.

For the above reasons, I urgently request that you:

Bring before the Corresponding Judge Preliminary Investigation 363/22ª/2010, opened before the Public Prosecutor´s twenty-second office, for the crimes of statutory rape, domestic violence, and any others that may result, in such a way that these serious acts of gender-based violence do not go unpunished.

 

CC:  C. Ivonne Aracelly Ortega Pacheco. Governor of the State of Yucatan

CC:  Georgina Rosado. Director of the Yucatan Institute for Gender Equity