María Elena Ríos: "I'm afraid that my attacker will finish what he started and kill me"

María Elena Ríos has been living in a nightmare for three years and five months.

The same that have happened since two men burst into her life and burned 90% of her body with acid.

Those people, however, were only the messengers.

In her complaint, the Oaxacan saxophonist directly pointed to former PRI deputy Juan Vera Carrizal, a powerful gas station businessman, as the mastermind of the attack and the person she paid to see his threats carried out.

She and Vera Carrizal had been a couple years ago and it was the woman's breakdown of the relationship that triggered the politician's anger.

On the one hand, the case of Ríos perfectly illustrates the abandonment of the State suffered by the victims of attempted femicide in Mexico;

for the other,

her fight inspires thousands of women not to give up and to continue fighting for their rights in their thirst for justice.

“There are days that I would like to fall asleep and not wake up.

That it was all an ugly dream, but no, ”she says in an interview with EL PAIS.

Vera Carrizal was arrested in April 2020 as the alleged mastermind of the attempted femicide against Ríos and a judge ordered preventive detention against him.

The pandemic and defense strategies have lengthened the process to the point that no trial has yet taken place.

However, last week, Oaxaca woke up with the news that the control judge Teodulo Pacheco Pacheco decided to grant house arrest to the defendant for health reasons.

Said sentence allows Vera Carrizal to move to her daughter's house and continue the process against her from there.

The judge also reached an agreement that it is the businessman's family and not the Prosecutor's Office or the Public Security Secretariat that pays for the installation of an electronic bracelet from a private company to control the prisoner's movements.

The politician's defense had been hatching a plan since December to present a series of evidence in the trial that was never known to Ríos, his lawyer or the Prosecutor's Office itself until the day of the hearing, which violates the Code of Criminal Procedures, and thus disarmed his defense of the case.

The judge accepted the evidence as valid and granted only an hour and a half for Ríos and his lawyer to review the documents.

Both denounce all kinds of corruption and arbitrariness in the process, including the violation of their most basic rights such as speaking in the session, threatening to withdraw their legal advisor or not allowing them to go to the bathroom.

The virtual hearing lasted for more than 60 hours over six days.

Six days in which María Elena has been forced to look her attacker in the eye, connected to the other side of the screen.

"From the beginning the judge did not stop telling me to shut up, he threatened to take me out, he silenced me and prevented me from speaking," denounces the victim.

"The Oaxaca court dared to provide confidential data of my client, her family and my own to the defendant's defense, violating the law," adds lawyer Cristal González.

González points out that another of the arguments used against him was that Ríos is currently within the Protection Mechanism for human rights defenders.

Pacheco considered that being within this figure of protection, the victim is not in danger if his attacker is released from prison.

“He resolved by saying that since I have means of protection, nothing will happen to me.

I feel very helpless, because this situation puts me at a disadvantage”, says Ríos.

In Mexico, the crime of femicide is part of the catalog of serious crimes for which justified preventive detention is required, due to the risk that the aggressors are on the street for the victims and their families.

"I'm afraid that my attacker will finish what he started and kill me," says the saxophonist.

His lawyer denounces that not only was the great power of the defendant and his family not taken into account ―also investigated for other crimes― but that the history of threats and violence that the family of the aggressor has exercised against the victim was completely ignored trying to discredit her.

“They are a family of businessmen, former politicians.

They have a very important network of influences”, says González.

María Elena Ríos still shudders when she remembers the words that Vera Carrizal used when the judge gave her the use of voice: “She gave her word to the judge that she was not going to come near me, that she was going to clear her name and that He wasn't going to get his hands dirty."

- And how do you interpret those words?

- Of course he didn't get his hands dirty directly, because he paid to have the acid poured on me.

But he gave the order.

- Did you feel those words as a threat?

- Like a sentence.

The controversial decision has caused outrage among the feminist groups of Oaxaca that demonstrated yesterday in front of the Superior Court of Justice.

"It is a mockery for all the victims of this country", could be read on social networks.

The governor of Oaxaca, Salomón Jara, has assured that for the moment the defendant will not be released from prison and declared that although he respects the decisions of the judiciary, he does not agree with the sentence.

The president has asked the Ministry of Public Security to carry out an analysis of the case that can be used to refute the house arrest.

According to information from this unit, the house of Vera Carrizal's daughter does not meet the necessary security conditions to prevent the prisoner from escaping, likewise, it has indicated that the State does not have enough police elements to guard the house.

"[The judge's decision] sends a dangerous message in a State that historically has high rates of femicide violence," Jara said in a message posted on her social networks.

In Mexico more than 10 women are murdered every day.

“Rhetoric is useless, we survivors want actions that get us out of this damned impunity,” Ríos responds emphatically.

Despite the importance that the governor's words may have, the decision will ultimately depend on the Judiciary.

Both the saxophonist and her lawyer have received these statements with skepticism and denounce that the Oaxaca authorities have not taken their calls during the six days that the hearing has lasted.

"Now they want to wash their hands," says the victim.

María Elena Ríos says that she will challenge Judge Pacheco's decision and ask for his recusal, that is, that he be removed from the case.

From the hearing, the victim requested the recusal of the judge, however, Pacheco continued the hearing, even over a Federal order in which he was notified that the hearing could not continue due to lack of conditions.

The ball is now in the court of the Superior Court of Justice of Oaxaca, which will determine whether to listen to the governor and invalidate Pacheco's decision, or even if he removes him from his post.

For now, the presiding magistrate, Eduardo Pinacho, has limited himself to defending Judge Pacheco's decision and stressing that the sentence in favor of Juan Vera Carrizal "is not acquittal."

While it seems that the hope of achieving justice is fading, María Elena Ríos does not stop demanding justice.

Her body tired of her, full of her scars, carries more than five painful operations and countless treatments that remind her every day of the damage she carries inside and outside of her.

As if that were not enough, she has a whole system in front of her that insists on mistreating her and disregarding her as her victim.

“The victims that the State wants are the ones that surrender.

They want to tire me out but I'm not going to get tired ”, she assures.

"Dark times are coming for Oaxaca, especially for women."

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