After fighting for her life and going through multiple surgeries, the saxophonist has faced the judicial system getting his aggression is reclassified from injuries to attempted femicide and now seeks to promote the creation of a legal framework that facilitates access to justice and the reparation of the damage for other victims throughout the country.
“Although it is typified in some Congresses, it is in an inadequate way, why? because it is classified as injuries, injuries are a serious crime, but these types of attacks with acid and chemical agents (…) are hate crimes against women,” she points out.
For this reason, María Elena seeks to promote that at the national level there is a General Law that I classified asor femicide acid attacks in Mexico and has launched a petition in change.org to gather signatures and encourage discussion at the federal level.
“Unfortunately, I am not the only woman in Mexico who has gone through a similar situation. During 2022, more than fifty women in the country were attacked with some type of acid or chemical. In a country with so much impunity, those of us who experience this situation, we do not receive justice,” he says in his petition.
In interview with Political Expansion, María Elena clarifies that she did not plan to become an activist. “I never imagined becoming an activist or a defender, but conditions are forcing you. What are those conditions? want to live.”
“If I had denounced and not made myself so visible, my attacker with that asymmetry of power -because he is a businessman, he was a deputy, his economic condition allows him to have an impact on the government of the state of Oaxaca- for a long time I would I would have killed,” he says.
I make myself visible because I want to live.
María Elena Ríos, saxophonist and activist.
