Breathe
By Victoria Figueiras
It was April 7, 2022 at 6 p.m. I never thought that the date, a date, could be relevant, I have learned that, because at that moment, it was not the date, but what my daughter confessed to me that would change our life forever. What can a four year old girl express? A plea for help that has been hard, heartbreaking and wearing, hell.
I had just finished bathing my daughters when I noticed that the little one had her legs hurt with something that looked like scratches and scabs, I asked her if she was hurting herself and her sister asked her to tell her who had done it to her. The little one, then three years old, was silent, and so, the four year old said that it was her paternal uncle, Alejandro N. I then asked the older one if he also squeezed her legs and she answered no, that he had touched her.
My stomach sank, I didn't know what to do, and at the same time I needed more information, I turned on the camera on my phone to record what my daughter told me and she was able to tell me the place where it happened and who else had been there. The events happened in her uncle's kitchen, where her father had taken her, when she was looking for a candy.
We hear all the time that children are believed. We know that we are facing a system that will put them to the test, but I don't know how to explain to my daughter that the one who has used that system to doubt her is the one who should have protected her the most, her father. We both went to file the complaint, but he stayed outside, so I was the only one who filed it. My daughter has been subjected to three expert reports and two interviews, in which her testimony has been corroborated. It has been two years where the Public Prosecutor's Office of the State of Mexico disappeared evidence from the investigation file, allowed the father to act against the interests of the minor, revictimizing her and being the one who has asked that my daughter be submitted to more criminology expert reports, and now, the judge Juan Manuel Alejandro Martínez Vitela, acquitted Alejandro N, because my daughter, then four years old, could not say exactly the address of her uncle's house, nor the exact date and time when she was sexually abused.
It has been two years of fighting against the monster with a thousand heads, two years where my child has had to be braver than being a child. My girl has had to be in the prosecutor's office, with psychological experts taking tests at the request of her own father who did not believe her, even though she confessed to us what she experienced. My daughter is affected by the fact that her father defended her brother and not her. But fortunately she has me and I promised her that I would defend her from EVERYTHING and EVERYONE if necessary.
Today I am going to close the peripheral road, because enough of impunity, because enough of unpunished child abusers, because I am going to achieve justice. And as far as I have to go, I will do it. My daughter will not be just another number of the impunity that exists in this country. My daughter spoke out because she trusted me, and I will not fail her.
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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