May 19, 2023, 10:30 PM
May 19, 2023, 10:30 PM
The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, promised this Friday (05.19.2023) a pardon “if applicable” for Roxana Ruiz, a young woman sentenced to more than six years in prison for defending herself against a rapist.
“If it proceeds, I mean that the pardon can be applied, if there is a sentence, it will be facilitated and we will do it. Yes, we will do it,” said the president in his daily press conference.
López Obrador’s announcement comes after the sentence on May 15 against Ruiz, sentenced to more than six years in prison and a fine of 285,000 pesos (about 15,800 dollars or 14,895 euros) for “homicide in excess of legitimate defense” after killing his attacker in the state of Mexico, a neighbor of the capital, in May 2021.
According to the young woman, an acquaintance who stayed over at her house because it was already late got into her bed without her consent, beat her, raped her, and threatened to kill her, but she reached for a T-shirt and suffocated him.
“Even, the justification of the judge is tremendous, because (he said that) he could have lessened the force. It was an excess of legitimate defense, we are already seeing it,” López Obrador commented in this regard.
The case has aroused outrage in the country, which is experiencing a wave of sexist violence with an average of 10 women murdered a day between homicides and femicides. In addition, the event occurred in the state of Mexico, which leads the statistics of sexist violence with 8 out of 10 women who have experienced violence throughout their lives, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).
Feminist groups have called a march in Mexico City this Friday to demand that the sentence be revoked, but López Obrador promised support, even if the Judiciary does not back down. “We are going to find a way to help the young woman,” she assured.
