By Raúl Torres and Albinson Linares
The woman wove patiently on a backstrap loom.
As she gathered the colorful threads, she began to unravel her painful memories of her family's past that she sold when she was only 15 years old.
"
I didn't have much choice, or what to say, because it was practically my father's decision
, he only told me once how much money they had given and he told me: 'You have to go with them,'" says Ofelia, who speaks in Mixtec.
Ofelia, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, is a Mixtec indigenous person and lives in Metlatónoc, a town in the mountains of Guerrero.
"It was my dad's decision": Ofelia was sold to her husband for $ 2,000 when she was just a child
May 26, 202102: 07
“When I arrived they did make me want to go back, what I said to my dad was: '
What am I going to do if they mistreat me?
How would you do to return that money and I can return? '”Ofelia said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo, in which she says she fears that her indigenous community will punish her because she is against the sale of women.
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In various communities in the mountains of states such as Guerrero and Oaxaca, girls and young women are treated as objects, as merchandise that is sold to obtain money.
Their families sell them to the highest bidder to get married, even if they don't know their partners.
Ofelia's husband's parents paid $ 2,000 for her.
"He didn't have much of a choice."
The drama of the sale of indigenous girls in Guerrero, Mexico
May 25, 202 102: 00
"
When you collect money, you can no longer return home, sometimes they are mistreated, beaten
and can no longer return because there was money involved," says Ofelia, who explains that she works weaving to support her two daughters and her husband who he is unemployed.
Also, he says that he hits her.
Of the almost 2,469 municipalities that exist in Mexico, about 620 are indigenous and 420 are governed by traditional uses and customs that are recognized by the country's Constitution.
Metlatónoc, the town where Ofelia lives, has about 19,000 inhabitants, but poverty prevails in that population where
94.3% of people lack basic services in their homes and 58.7% have difficulties to feed themselves
, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography of Mexico.
[Another alleged serial femicide in Mexico: he was arrested and is being investigated by the authorities]
The authorities in these towns say that the sale of women is a tradition, and that they cannot combat these crimes because no one denounces them.
Various non-governmental organizations estimate that
more than 300,000 women have been victims of this practice in recent years.
"We have already managed to get four localities to sign an agreement in the communities that they no longer sell their women, their girls," says Benito Mendoza, a member of "Yo quiero, yo Podemos", a civil society organization that gives workshops women's rights in the mountains of that area.
A goat or a case of beer in exchange for a wife: the harsh tale of women sold in Mexico
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Do not stigmatize indigenous populations
Due to the multiple denunciations of these practices in various indigenous communities in the country, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was consulted on the matter in his morning conference on May 21.
"I regret that this happens, it is certainly reprehensible, nothing more than the indigenous communities should not be stigmatized, because in the indigenous peoples of Mexico there is a great reserve of cultural, moral and spiritual values," said the president, adding that it was " quite racist and classist ”to say that this happens because of the uses and customs of the original peoples.
"
It is very unfortunate that this is happening and it cannot be allowed,
there must not be any type of mistreatment, outrage, rape, nothing, absolutely against women," said López Obrador, while ensuring that these complaints will be investigated .
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In recent years, complaints of this practice in indigenous communities have been recurrent and this time they arise while Mexico faces a crisis of sexist violence with
more than 10 women murdered every day
, according to figures from UN Women.
"Nothing can justify the sale of girls, that is slavery and a crime against human dignity," wrote Patricia Olamendi, a doctor in law and specialist in Human Rights, on her Twitter account.
“This is established in the general law against trafficking in persons, in addition article 2 of
the Constitution establishes with complete clarity that no use and custom can be accepted when human rights are violated, particularly those of women,
as stated by the president in itself it constitutes a real threat to human dignity, ”said Olamendi in an interview with La Silla Rota, a Mexican media outlet.
March broke the record as the most violent month against women, since there are records, with
267 Mexican women as alleged victims of intentional homicide, in
addition to another 95 alleged victims of femicide, as the prosecution offices classify murders for reasons of gender or violence male chauvinist.
Ofelia working on her loom in the town of Metlatónoc, Guerrero, in May 2021. Telemundo News
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Poverty and abuse
María Estela Cortés was only 13 years old when it was sold.
Although he claims that he did want to marry his partner, his parents asked for $ 1,000 to allow their union.
"That money was used to buy some animals ... goats and, according to them, the money is not going to end like that no more, it is for a help from the family", says Cortés who assures that she was "lucky" because she knew her husband, her three sisters were also sold without knowing who they would have to marry.
María Estela Cortés was only 13 years old when her parents sold her for $ 1,000.Noticias Telemundo
In various interviews, the people who live in these towns of Guerrero say that the custom in the mountains is not only to buy women with money, they also exchange them for animals such as cattle, goats and objects such as boxes of beer or mezcal.
["I'm dead while I'm still alive": relatives of victims of feminicide and activists demonstrate in Mexico City this March 8]
"
When I met my husband, I was very afraid, I am still afraid at this moment
... he beat me a lot ... and today they want to put me in jail," says Miriam, an indigenous Tlapaneca woman who was also sold and asked to remain anonymous. for security reasons.
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When she turned 13, her parents sold her to a man for $ 1,000 to get married, and they went to work in the fields in Sinaloa.
But she says that her husband, who beat and mistreated her, emigrated to the United States and a human rights organization helped her return with her two children to Santa María Tonaya, a town in Guerrero.
Now his in-laws are demanding that he pay them back.
"If my dad doesn't give the money they gave for me, they are going to take my children from me
,
" he
says desperately.
According to “I want, I can”, there are cases of women imprisoned in the mountains by the local indigenous authorities.
"Here people criticize me because I am living with my children, here people see what I am doing wrong, now that I decided to live alone," says Miriam.
Ofelia during an interview with Noticias Telemundo in Metlatónoc, Guerrero, in May 2021. Noticias Telemundo
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Julio Solano has witnessed the sale of many women in those mountains.
His outrage at this practice has led him to work with various human rights organizations to raise awareness and put an end to such actions.
"It is bad, it is a very bad custom that they sell to women, fortunately in the town it is decreasing,"
says Solano.
Meanwhile, Miriam and many other women in those mountains struggle to have a different future.
"What I would like is to go out to work to feed my children and, in addition to that, for my children to go to study," says Miriam.
With information from EFE and Inegi