-------------- Enclosure number 1 ----------------
La Jornada January 15, 1996
Letters to the Editor
They denounce the rape of a Tzeltal indigenous woman by
judicial police in Chiapas
Sir Director:
The persons signed below, members of social, civil and
political organizations, as well as individuals, once more
come to your prestigious newspaper to demand justice and an
end to the violence in which women of Chiapas are living.
On December 16th, Julieta Flores Hernandez, an 18-year old
Tojolabal woman, was detained in the collective farm of
Nueva Palestina, in the municipality of Ocosingo, Chiapas,
as she tried to avoid the detention by state police of her
father, who was accused of blocking roads and killing a PRI
member of the collective farm.
Julieta was tortured and raped by 8 judicial agents, and
taken before the Sixth Criminal Judge in Tuxtla Gutierrez
and accused of murder, theft and attacks against
communication media, but because of the lack of evidence she
was freed on January 9th.
The rape of this young indigenous woman adds to the number
of cases of women who have been raped in Chiapas (the 3
young Tzeltal women, the three nurses, companera Cecilia
Rodriguez, etc.), and in some of which have been involved
members of the security forces. Once more the state of low-
intensity warfare, in which the men and women of Chiapas
live, shows that women are the targets in this unequal
confrontation, because they said "Enough Is Enough!", to the
situation of injustice, exploitation and discrimination in
which they have lived for more than 500 years.
Last November 25th a document was delivered to the Secretary
of Governance in which diverse cases of violence were
denounced, and through the Director for Attention to
Citizens a meeting was sought with the Secretary of
Governance, Emilio Chuaffet, in order to seek a solution
and to demand the delivery of justice in these cases. To
date no response of any kind has been made, and now we have
a new case of rape against a woman of Chiapas by members of
a police body.
By this means we ask again for a meeting with the Secretary
of Governance. We make a call to the civil society, so that
it is aware of these deeds; of the representatives of the
Mexican government we demand justice for our sisters, and an
end to the use of rape as a political punishment.
Marcela Lagarde, Sara Lovera, Maria Guerra, Lucia Lagunes,
Georgina M. Rangel, Leticia Puente, Sonia del Valle, Elena
Baptista, Rosa Maria Gonzalez, Martha Guadarrama, Patria
Jimenez, Josefina Chavez, Silvia Gonzalez, Maria de Lourdes
Rodriguez, Elisa Benavides G., Maria Eugenia Romero, Adela
Bonilla, Barbara Cadena, Berzabeth Corona, Georgina Rivas,
Nellys Palomo, Edith Dehemsa, Martha Figueroa, Teresa
Olvera, Guadalupe Cardenas, Olivia Velzquez, Brenda
Velazquez, Claudia Meza, Graciela Freyermuth, Mariia de la
Luz Garcia, Deputy Rosario Robles, Deputy Leticia Burgos,
Deputy Adriana Luna Parra, Deputy Carlota Botey, Deputy
Maria Rosa Marques, and Patricia Ruiz Anchondo