By Cristina Sánchez Reyes |
Mexico City (BLAZETRENDS).- The Mexican Roxana Ruiz, sentenced to six years in prison for defending herself against her rapist, could set a dangerous precedent for women in Mexico, a country in which “not being raped is synonymous with going to jail”, if he does not revoke the verdict, he expressed in an interview with BLAZETRENDS.
In the midst of the judicial struggle and the despair of the young woman, accused of homicide in excess of self-defense after killing her alleged rapist in the State of Mexico, a neighbor of the capital, she regrets that justice seems far from her.
“We do not believe that it is something consistent, something fair that they have sentenced me to six years, just because they think it was excessive (the use of force). I don’t know what the limits are so that you can defend yourself, ”she says between sobs.
Originally from the southern state of Oaxaca, Ruiz received a sentence of 6 years, two months and seven days in prison this week, as well as a fine of 285,000 pesos (about 15,800 dollars) as reparation for the damage, after in May 2021 defended himself from his attacker.
The judge’s argument, says her lawyer Ángel Carrera, is that she “exceeded in her defense”, which they consider totally unfair since a rape had already occurred before and her life was at risk.
“We do not know if there is a manual in which Roxana should have acted differently, if there are steps, until what moment must be stopped in a legitimate defense”, he considers.
The case
On May 7, 2021, Roxana went with some acquaintances to have a beer in Nezahualcóyotl, State of Mexico.
When she was about to leave the place, a man she knew appeared and offered to walk her home.
Once there, he insisted that she let him stay the night because he lived far away, to which she agreed.
Later, according to Roxana, the young man got into her bed, beat her, raped her, and threatened to kill her.
She reached for a T-shirt and choked him.
After that, she took the body out in a bag, but the authorities arrested her and imprisoned her in a prison where she spent nine months and from which she was released thanks to the support of feminist organizations and their lawyers.
On that occasion, Carrera says, they accused her of the crimes of homicide and of violating the laws of burial and exhumation.
Although they cleared her of the latter, they reclassified the former as simple homicide with excessive defense.
The fight that continues is so that Roxana does not go back to prison, for which they are in the process of appealing the sentence.
“This is a precedent for women. If this ruling subsisted, women would simply have no way to defend themselves or they would think: ‘even if she defends me, I’m going to go to jail’, which is the case with Roxana”, points out Carrera.
Roxana also believes that if she goes back to prison, her sentence will set a precedent for any other woman who is raped.
“It shouldn’t be like this because what is the message that the judicial system sends here now? That women have two things: either be in prison or be dead,” says the 23-year-old, still annoyed.
live in fear
The young woman, mother of a 6-year-old boy, affirms that it has taken her a lot of work to resume her life: “I am still alive, but dead at the same time” because, she says, her plans and life projects were destroyed.
And although she admits that she is invaded by the fear of stepping foot in prison again and being far from her son, she says that her greatest fear is that her attacker’s family will carry out the threats they have made to her.
“It tears my soul apart and even more so reading their comments (from the family of the aggressor) where they say they would hand over my son to me in little pieces (pieces), it’s something that hurts me to remember,” she says through tears.
Given this, Ruiz asks the authorities to look at cases like hers from a gender perspective and to recognize the right of women to defend their own lives.
“It seems that they do not want us alive manifesting this. What’s going on? There are so many femicides in Mexico and they don’t take it into account, it’s as if they don’t care about the lives of women in the State of Mexico,” she concludes.
The level of impunity in crimes of femicide in Mexico, where 10 women are killed a day, was 56.6% in 2022, according to the organization Impunidad Cero.
