Mexico: Demand the release of a woman sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing her aggressor in order to save her children

Feminist and family groups Marisela Lopez Bautistaoriginally from the community of Florida, in the southern Mexican state Chiapasasked this Monday to release a young woman who is in prison on charges of murdering her husband, who tried to kill her along with her children.

“The reality is that what Marisela did that day was protect your lifethe life of the child she was carrying in her womb, and if she had not defended herself, she would have been dead, her two minor children and the unborn child, who at the time was 6 months pregnant,” said Marcela Fernandez. Camacho , counsel for the defendant.

On November 22, 2019, 28-year-old López Bautista was attacked by her husband, who beat her and locked her with two minor children with the intention of killing them with a machete, but Marisela defended herself and killed Juan “N” with an accurate blow.

On April 19, Dora Luz Lopez Mendez, Judge of First Instance, handed down the verdict Marisela spend 25 years in prison.

According to Fernandez, there was a history of gender-based violence against Marisela, which she denounced in her community and was ignored.

“The neighbor, who is the main witness, was a systematic witness to this violence, the state never paid attention to him and, finally, Marisela he defended himself with a log,” said a lawyer who attended an appeal hearing against a 25-year prison sentence for an indigenous woman.

demand justice

While the hearing was going on, which only Fernandez Camacho was able to attend, a group of civilian women and feminist groups were outside the hall. Palace of Justice Los AltosAll of them demanded freedom and justice.

Others carried placards reading: “For a gender, intercultural and human rights solution”; “Freedom and Justification of Marisela”; “Marcel, I would also defend myself”; “Until dignity becomes a habit,” among other things.

Together with them, their relatives and the Cereza team gathered on the street. Palace of Justice Los Altosdemand maricela’s freedom.

women They demonstrated and placed banners on the building in support of the young woman and as a rejection of the unjustified sentence, as the woman was not given a fair trial, the protesters claimed.

Rosa Aguilar, a Nahuatl native from the Las Chidas collective, told Efe that the Marisela case is one of many that exist in Mexicobecause there are many women and men who have not had the opportunity to have a gender and intercultural interpreter during their trials.

“In this case, this is a manifestation of the patriarchal state, a macho society that persecutes women for protecting their lives, I think it is important to have a dialogue outside and inside our communities,” he said.

Mexico facing a crisis sexist violence across the country, where more than 10 women are killed daily, according to statistics Executive Secretariat of the National Public Safety System (SNSP).

EFE