A herd rape unworthy of Peru

A protest in Lima within the #NiUnaMenos campaign, in a file image CRIS BOURONCLE / AFP / Getty Images

The gang rape of a 21-year-old woman perpetrated Sunday in a district of Lima has shocked Peru.

A court issued a nine-month preventive detention for five men who raped a 21-year-old woman on Sunday in a wealthy district of Lima.

Police Colonel Johnny Rolando informed the press that according to the legal medical examination there were no signs of physical assault, "but there are positive results for sexual assault."

The version coincides with the police statement of the victim, who maintains that after a meeting with friends she felt "like doped" and this prevented her from defending herself from the attack early Sunday morning.

During the interrogation, the aggressors acknowledged the rape but claimed that there was consent.

After the prosecutor's request for preventive detention was known, the lawyer of one of the detainees, Paul Muñoz, commented on Wednesday about the victim that "the young lady is a person who liked social life", which unleashed a massive rejection on social media.

The lawyer also added: "I am saying it in a euphemistic way so as not to refer to it in a bad way."

As a result of that statement, on Wednesday the phrases "I like social life" and "Peru, country of rapists" remained a trend on Twitter and Facebook.

Those detained in this case are Diego Humberto Arroyo Elías, José Martín Arequipeño Vizcarra, Sebastián Zeballos Sanguinetti, Manuel Antonio Vela Farje and Andrés Fasardi San Sebastián.

The deputy for women's rights of the Ombudsman's Office, Eliana Revollar, pointed out that the penalty that corresponds to them ranges from 20 to 26 years in prison.

The investigation of the Prosecutor's Office is in charge of Judge Roxana Ruiz, of the Second Provincial Prosecutor's Office for Violence against Women of Lima, who supported the request for preventive detention in an eight-hour virtual hearing before a criminal court on duty.

The session was reserved and the subjects participated in it from the Chacarilla del Estanque police station, in the district of Surco, where they had been detained since Monday.

The macho position of the lawyer, who discredits the victim of a crime, although it has been rejected by feminist groups, opinion leaders and ordinary people, is not isolated.

Many causes of gender violence are shelved, they are not properly investigated or, finally, the sentences acquit the aggressors.

This year, a court in the department of Madre de Dios, in the southwest, acquitted of the crime of trafficking two women who forced a teenager to drink beer with customers in a bar.

The Superior Court of that Amazon region indicated that this work could not be considered exploitation because it did not physically exhaust the minor.

In September, the prosecutor Marco Guzmán Baca proposed to file an investigation against the theater director Guillermo Castrillón, accused of sexual violence by 16 women.

The magistrate argued that there was no psychological impact on the complainants.

The victims have now asked that another prosecutor take over the investigation.

Guzmán Baca was the first of the prosecutors to file the case of forced sterilizations perpetrated as part of the “family planning” policy during the Alberto Fujimori government in the 1990s.

Between January and August of this year, the Ombudsman's Office has registered 78 femicides and 3,568 disappearances of women, while the Women's Emergency Centers - which depend on the Ministry of Women - report 61,705 complaints of rape in the first nine months of this year.

The president, Martín Vizcarra, condemned the gang rape and commented on this case that the Ministry of Women has offered emotional restraint and legal support to the victim's family.

"As a father, as a man and as a citizen, I express my deep rejection," the head of state said Wednesday.

He also highlighted that the young woman's mother is a lawyer and will assume legal defense.

In the last week, in addition, other public entities have shown a position against the rights of the LGTBI collective.

The Constitutional Court - which in all cases of public interest transmits the hearings live over the internet - decided to hold the session in which it will decide a request for registration in the civil registries of a union of people of the same sex made in Mexico.

On the other hand, the Minister of Women, Rosario Sasieta, before a question from the local press, refused to give her opinion on the adoption of abandoned minors by a homoparental family.

"In the bedroom, I would prefer not to touch it," he replied.

More than 300 groups and civil society organizations signed a statement demanding a correction from the official.