This Thursday, 15th of April, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights carried out the public audience of the case of the indigenous Me`phaa Inés Fernández Ortega, victim of torture and rape by Mexican soldiers in 2002. The case is the first of two brought forward by members of the Organisation of the Indigenous Me`phaa People (OPIM) and both Inés Fernández Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantú have been searching for justice and compensation for eight years.

Before the court, lawyers representing the indigenous women argued that their cases show the recurrence in Mexico of problems such as the lack of access to justice for female victims of violence, abuses brought about by the increasing lack of civil control over the Mexican army, and the sistematic persecution of those who organise themselves to defend indigenous rights. Representatives of the Mexican state reiterated their denial that it was indeed members of the mexican army who raped Inés Fernandez, in spite of the fact that in the audience itself they accepted that the Mexican authorities had carried out a deficient investigation of the facts of the rape.

Download the entire interview (pdf - 1.5 Mb)