Breathe
By Kimberly Armengol Jensen, Journalist at Imagen TV and Canal 22. Columnist at Excelsior, Cosmopolitan and Opinión 51.
Once again, the administration of justice in Oaxaca leaves the victim defenseless and revictimized. The saxophonist María Elena Ríos, after years of struggle to obtain justice, saw the intellectual author of her attempted femicide, Juan N., released (house arrest, as the judge calls it).
It is not enough the physical and emotional pain Male has gone through since 2019, now (again) it is the State itself who turns its back on her, despite the claim of millions of women and dozens of organizations. One more sign that the influentialism is more powerful than the truth.
FOR MALE AND FOR ALL
The crime against María Elena Ríos, "Male", is repeated dozens of times in our feminicidal Mexico. It is ironic how from different trenches the macho violence against women in Islamic governments is described and little or nothing is mentioned about what happens in our country.
CONAPRED's definition of these attacks seems to me to be very accurate: "they are aggressions with a very high symbolic charge. They are intended to mark for life. To leave on the disfigured face and body of the victim the stamp of his crime, of his jealousy, of his hatred. An indelible and dramatic imprint."
In multiple spaces (written and audiovisual) I have tried to make visible the victims of these failed attempts of femicide and to give context I will cite information that I have published previously.
International organizations, such as Acid Survivors Trust International, estimate that there are at least 1,500 acid attacks a year worldwide, more than 80 percent against women...Half of the victims are between 20 and 30 years old at the time of the attack...They are usually attacked by partners or ex-partners or people paid by them out of jealousy or revenge.
In Mexico, women who suffer attacks with acid or corrosive substances not only face the extreme expression of gender violence, they are also invisibilized and access to justice is null and void. Ninety-six percent of the complaints filed are unpunished, the investigations remain open (dead file in Mexican language) and there is still no sentence. Most of these crimes are classified by the authorities only as "simple injuries". In the extraordinary case of obtaining a sentence, the maximum penalty would be four years in prison.
In 2022 alone, at least 47 attacks with corrosive chemicals were registered in Mexico, 87 percent of the victims were women. In 57 percent of the cases, the mastermind is the victim's partner or ex-partner.
In our country this crime is only prosecuted as a gender aggravating factor in seven states. Acid attacks are not yet typified as attempted femicide, however, we must continue the fight to achieve this.
COLOPHON
Today, Wednesday, at 9 p.m., on Channel 22, María Elena Ríos will join us to hear from her own voice her ordeal of the last few weeks and that cry where we all demand prompt and expeditious justice. Not just lip service, nor communiqués (or videos) in solidarity: justice.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of Opinion 51.
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