Breathe
By Flor Aydeé Rodríguez Campos
The struggle for the recognition of digital violence has been constant on the part of women survivors, collectives, civil society organizations, activists and above all Olimpia Coral Melo Cruz, promoter of the " Olimpia Law". "Olimpia Law".. Since 2014 this law that recognizes and punishes digital violence was promoted in the 32 Congresses of the federal entities of our country, but it was on April 29 when it was approved in the federal Congress and in November 2020 the Senate also supported such reform. Since then we have been clear that the most complex work is with the authorities who continue to minimize this type of violence.
The stories of women who have been victims and have denounced, is increasing, because previously the denunciation was synonymous with exposure, finger-pointing and shame, even we do not forget those victims who as a result of this shame took their own lives. Undoubtedly, this fight is making fear and shame change sides. One of the best known cases of digital violence has been that of the Digital Marketing students of the National Polytechnic Institute who on October 6, 2023 found in flagrante delicto, i.e. at the time the crime was committed, a Diego N who was then a classmate of the same career and at that time the student was placed at the disposal of the authorities of the educational campus and his iPad was safeguarded.
In this device Diego N had intimate photographs of women, some real ones of his classmates, and others altered with artificial intelligence, which he used for digital sexual exploitation. There are approximately 160 thousand images and 2 thousand videos, according to lawyer Valeria Matínez. After this event, the students organized themselves and a total of eight women formally denounced Diego N to the Attorney General's Office of Mexico City, and a total of eight investigation files were generated.
The process has continued since then and has been not only revictimizing for the IPN students and the lawyer Valeria Matínez Mondragón but also exhausting since the sentencing hearing on two of the cases was held on December 4 after having been postponed previously and Diego N was acquitted of the crime of violation against sexual intimacy by Judge Francisco Salazar Silva arguing that. "There was no witness that the accused altered photographs of young people through artificial intelligence." Let us not forget that this same Control Judge in the Accusatory Criminal Procedure System of the Mexico City Judiciary has not issued in cases such as that of Abril Perez the maximum sentence in cases of family violence or attempted femicide.
This acquittal for Diego N. does not set him free, nor does it determine his innocence, since he has a hearing pending for alleged responsibility in the crime of child pornography, related to another of the investigation files.
Valeria, the lawyer of the brave students who have raised their voices, shares with me her feelings after this acquittal and mentions that "The hearing was scheduled for 2:00 pm and the sentence was pronounced until 9:00 pm:00 hrs, it was truly outrageous that after having worn us out in so many hours the judge thinks that reading us 15 minutes in the hearing international treaties, the laws that protect women, the laws that try to eradicate violence against women is judging with a gender perspective, evidently it is not so because if he had done so he would not have issued an acquittal but would have set an important precedent in Latin America on the criminalization to crimes of digital sexual violence."
As women, as activists and as human rights defenders we are outraged that the judicial system continues to stigmatize the victims and always seeks to side with the aggressors, this translates into complicity, that complicity that continues to subject women to a patriarchal system where everything is against us and where justice continues to be a privilege for the healthy children of patriarchy.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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