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A court orders the return to prison of Roxana Ruiz, the single mother who killed her rapist

2022-04-11T18:22:49.486Z


The woman spent nine months in prison for simple homicide with excess of self-defense, until a judge revoked the measure in February.


Roxana Ruiz Santiago upon leaving the Bordo de Xochiaca prison, in the State of Mexico, on February 16, 2022. Elizabeth Díaz

The threat of jail once again hovers over Roxana Ruiz, the 22-year-old indigenous single mother who killed the man who tried to rape her.

In an unexpected twist, a court has revoked this Sunday the measure that had allowed Ruiz to live her legal process in freedom.

In May 2021, a young man tried to abuse her in her own home.

Ruiz defended himself and caused the death of her attacker.

She was arrested and charged with one count of simple murder with excess of self-defense.

She spent nine months in the Bordo de Xochiaca prison, in the State of Mexico, until on February 17 a judge ruled that the preventive detention that was imposed on her was contrary to international treaties signed by Mexico.

She was released, in a decision celebrated by the entire Mexican feminist movement.

Until now.

According to a statement released by the Neighborhood Assembly Nos Quiero Vivas Nezas (from Nezahualcóyotl, State of Mexico), a group that has supported Ruiz in his defense since the beginning of the case, the magistrates of the Texcoco court Vicente Guadarrama García, Alhelí Segura Rocha and Norma Angélica Delgado Chávez have revoked the "resolution that modified the precautionary measure of informal preventive detention, imposing the preventive detention measure again, so that he could return to prison."

The group assures that the measure violates Roxana's rights and "the appeal filed by the Texcoco court has no legal justification or support before the treaties that Mexico has signed on human rights, on the contrary, it is ignoring them ”.

He has also harshly criticized the revocation of her parole and described the actions of the justice system in the State of Mexico as a "negligent, negligent and violent response."

We Want Us Alive Neza has called a protest to increase the pressure next Monday, April 18, in the court where the hearing of the case will be held.

The activist Elsa Arista, part of the organization, has assured EL PAÍS that an injunction has already been filed to stop the revocation.

"We have a problem.

They receive the amparo, but it is not sent to the court until after five days.

Those five days, since they are going to go on vacation [Easter], it will be Thursday or Friday, for the day of the hearing the amparo will not be ready.

We are going to make a protest in the courts so that they send the amparo now, if Roxana's return to prison is not imminent”,

reports María Julia Castañeda.

Ruiz's is an anomalous case.

In a country with 11 femicides and 46 rapes of women daily, where more than 90% of cases go unpunished, she has become a symbol of survival.

The woman, from a Mixtec community in Oaxaca, emigrated at the age of 15 in search of work to Nezahualcóyotl, one of the most dangerous municipalities in the country for women.

She had a son, who is now four years old, but she separated from her husband shortly after.

She got a job selling potato chips.

On May 8, 2021, a friend invited her to have a drink at the end of her shift.

She drank a beer and went to her house.

On the way, she met a young man she knew from the neighborhood who offered to accompany her.

Upon arriving at Ruiz's residence, the man convinced her to let him sleep over with the excuse that she lived far from her and the area was dangerous at night.

She insisted.

She accepted out of fear, according to what she has recounted, she prepared a mat on the floor for him and went to sleep.

The man climbed onto Ruiz's bed.

“He started to take my clothes off, he hit me, he raped me.

I was in

shock

.

I had horrible moments, I felt his breath, his hands, when he penetrated me, ”the woman wrote in a public letter.

She fought back, hit her assailant and suffocated him with a t-shirt.

“I didn't want him to hurt anyone else.

I felt alone, denigrated," the letter continued.

When she was arrested, her assailant's body was in a bag.

Her defense team assures that the process was riddled with omissions, that she was not even provided with an indigenous translator and that she was not able to make a call.

Her mother found out about her arrest three days later.

She was not tested to verify sexual assault, nor was the corresponding gender protocol applied.

The legal process is still going on, and next week it will be decided whether the young woman who did not want to be another murderer returns to preventive detention.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-04-11

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