Sexual abuse is threatening the lives of women every single day. Mexico has abused their power by using a institutional system (jail/prison) to sanction rape, sexual and physical harassment, sexual and physical abuse, and even torture. A investigation called the “Amnesty International Investigation” found that 3-quarters of women who have been imprisoned in Mexico experience sexual violence during arrest or interrogations. The problem with this other than the blatantly clear and obvious ones, is that when in police custody, most people understand what rights they do or do not have, although either way the system itself is one that reflects people who have lost the chance to adhere to their rights. With that being said it is sad and disgusting that as a whole the justice system in Mexico does not represent their citizens but instead abuses power and uses it to prey on women. Ninety-seven percent of women reported physical abuse such as asphyxiation or beatings, but what is even more sad is that about seventy-two percent reported rape, shocking of genitals, rape with objects, and threatening families with the same things. Maria Magdalena Saavedra, unfortunately has became one of the faces of this thing, because she herself was accused and arrested for being apart of a cartel. She was knocked unconscious prior to her arrest, kidnapped, interrogated for close to a day, while being tortured in the form of sexual violence. Then was forced to sign a confession following all of her trauma. The Navy doctor she was assigned attempted to cover up everything that happened, and did not report anything he should have. Maria is just one example of the cruel and inhumane treatment of women in Mexican prisons, but i wish this was so much less normalized than it is. Things like this are covered and dazzled with makeup every day in this world and it must stop. This story was truly a sad one for me but everyone needs to know about these things so they can be stopped.
Link: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/sexual-abuse-torture-used-against-women-mexico-prisons-arrests-report-n600576
Thank you for posting this. This will be relevant to our discussion of femicide in Latin America. It is a reminder of the other post here about abuse of immigrant women in US prisons. And the dangers to whistleblowers.
Good point about the issue of exposure of these abuses: how could the news media keep these issues on the radar to push the powers that be to do a thorough investigation?