The Superior Court of Justice of Oaxaca prevents the accused of attacking the saxophonist Elena Ríos with acid from leaving prison

The Superior Court of Justice of Oaxaca has ruled this Tuesday that Juan Vera Carrizal, the main accused of attacking the safoxonist Elena Ríos with acid, must continue with his judicial process from jail.

This decision reverses the measure that had been granted by Judge Teódulo Pacheco, who had granted the defendant house arrest in January.

The Superior Court of the State, in addition, has removed Pacheco from the case after Elena Ríos requested the recusal of the judge for ties to the suspect.

The young woman, who has announced the decision on her Twitter account, has celebrated both decisions: "They are battles won, of the many that remain."

On September 9, 2019, a man threw a bucket of acid at the face, chest, arms, and legs of María Elena Ríos.

She was 26 years old.

She spent five months bedridden in a hospital, she had to learn to walk again, to look in the mirror.

Three and a half years have passed and the music continues in the battle.

Now much of her energy is going to face a lengthy legal process.

“The Inter-American Court recommends that attempted femicide cases should not last more than 4 years in the process.

I almost fulfilled them.

Who is to blame?", he says to EL PAÍS, and points to Teódulo Pacheco and also to the district judge Ponciano Velasco, for admitting constant injunctions that are endlessly lengthening the process.

There are three detainees in the Ríos case, the two alleged material perpetrators —the one who threw the acid and his father, accused of receiving 30,000 pesos (about $1,500) for the attack— and the one that the saxophonist identifies as the mastermind and instigator of the crime: Juan Vera Carrizal.

This politician, a former PRI deputy and a powerful gas station businessman, was a partner of Elena Ríos, who was 17 years older than him.

When she decided to end the relationship, she was first threatened and later came the acid attack.

The young woman has no doubts about the real intention of this attack: "He wanted to kill me."

Vera Carrizal was arrested in April 2020 and brought to justice.

The pandemic and the appeals filed were postponing the start of the trial.

However, in January, the control judge Teódulo Pacheco began a virtual hearing to review whether Vera Carrizal was granted house arrest.

The hearing lasted for six days.

In this process, Ríos and his lawyer denounced multiple arbitrariness: denying him the floor during the session, threatening to remove the victim from his legal adviser or admitting evidence that had not been considered by them.

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

“I have never seen anything like this in this country in my years as a legal representative,” she points out.

Finally, on January 22, Pacheco granted Vera Carrizal permission to continue the process at her daughter's house.

The decision generated a wave of indignation, which even the governor of Oaxaca, Salomón Jara Cruz, positioned himself against it and assured that despite the judicial decision he was not going to be released from prison.

Elena Ríos explains that the house in which the defendant wanted to maintain his roots was very prone to fleeing.

After this measure, the saxophonist requested three times the recusal of the judge, whom she accuses of corruption.

Last Thursday, the Superior Court of Justice of Oaxaca agreed with the victim and withdrew Pacheco from the case.

It is the same court that this Tuesday has reversed the decision made by the judge.

"The magistrates considered that the judge actually fell into illegality, ruled against my fundamental rights," he says.

But the fight still continues.

“I have more than 15 protections, it seems like a never-ending circle,” she points out, referring to the occasions where attempts have been made to reclassify the crime of attempted femicide to the crime of injury.

“I believe that all the protections are also to confuse.

Now I trust that the Superior Court of Justice of Oaxaca did not send me to another judge who has the capacity to become corrupt and respects my rights", he points out, "one of the fundamental rights: prompt and expeditious justice, which I still do not have ”.

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