Report: 15,000 Rape Cases Yearly in Mexico

The recent rape of six Spanish tourists in Acapulco has served to highlight the problem of sexual assault against women in Mexico.  A report mentioned in one of Mexico’s main dailies described just how bad this problem is.

The “unpublished” study, which was mentioned in Wednesday’s edition of La Jornada, found that approximately 15,000 instances of rape were denounced yearly. Hence, the report concluded that levels of sexual violence in Mexico are “unacceptably high and, worse still, increasing.”  

The report’s authors, who include the U.N.’s agency on women and Mexico’s National Women’s Institute, also noted that despite such a high number of reported cases of abuse the number of defendants who go on trial decreased between 2002 and 2010.

Furthermore, the study described that 76% of those accused of rape between 1997 and 2006 were convicted of their crimes.  Yet this percentage has supposedly decreased and over the past four years less than 30% of cases have lead to a conviction. 

This study appears to support the results of another report that was presented last year to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.  As written in an October 2012 article in VOXXI:

According to the organizations signing the report, the Mexican government has not guaranteed easy access to justice for women who must overcome complex legal and procedural obstacles after they have been victims of discrimination and domestic violence… 

Especially in cases of rape, the report sustains, women’s testimony is not taken into consideration, and there are procedural flaws in the way the police investigation is conducted or in the way the victim is protected.

Earlier today, Amnesty International said that “impunity continues to be one of the characteristics of sexual violence against women” in Mexico.  The human rights group further claims that only one in five cases of rape are reported to the authorities.

Video Source– YouTube via user telesurenglish
 
Online Sources – La Jornada, NBC News, El Nacional, VOXXI