Triqui Women Attacked

by Patricia Castellanos, Oaxaca Red Capital

Two Triqui women from the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala were attacked and raped on Tuesday in the afternoon.

42-year-old Natalia Cruz Bautista was tied up and raped by members of the Union for the Social Well- being of the Triqui Region (UBISORT), while 45-year-old Francisca de Jesús García was shot as she attempted to escape her attackers.

In a press conference, Mariana Flores, spokesperson for the Independent Movement for Triqui Unification and Struggle (MULT-I), stated that the victims accused Julio César Martínez Morales, Antonio Cruz García aka "El Pájaro," Ramiro Domínguez García, and Mauro Vásquez of having raped them.

The incident, she said, occurred when the women passed by the community of La Sabana, Santiago Juxtlahuaca, on their way to look for food.  There, they were intercepted by UBISORT members.  When they resisted, one was shot and the other was raped and beaten.

The Triqui representative said that the women had already filed a complaint with the Oaxaca State Attorney General's Office (PGJE).

Mariana Flores said that since the humanitarian caravan in which human rights activist Jyri Jaakkola and Oaxacan Bety Cariño were attacked and murdered, representatives of MULT-I have been threatened constantly.  Therefore, they decided to organize actions.  They have the Federal Attorney General's Office in Huajuapan blockaded, and they set up protest encampments in the Oaxacan capital and in Mexico City.

Translated by Kristin Bricker.  In the original article, the author identified Mariana Flores and the victims as being from the Movement for Triqui Unification and Struggle (MULT), which is incorrect and was changed in the translation.