A court in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas has sentenced two armed forces officers to serve heavy prison sentences for female genital mutilation, the state attorney general announced on Friday.
The victim was a soldier.
In addition to the prison sentences, the court ordered the two land army captains to pay a fine of almost 520,000 pesos (over 22,200 euros) for the murder of the 28-year-old in April 2019, according to the attorney general.
The definition of female homicide in Mexican law is homicide with a female victim due to gender-based violence.
Murders have risen at an alarming rate in recent years under the previous government, and their numbers continue to rise, albeit at a much slower pace, in the days of President Andrés Manuel Lπpez Obrador.
The two convicted officers were named by the prosecutor as Jose Antonio N. and Agustίνn N., according to the customary practice of the Mexican authorities to publish only the initials of the accused.
Military convictions are extremely rare in Mexico, where the armed forces are seen as a pillar of the system.
“It is very unusual to see convictions of members of the military for human rights issues,” said Raul Benitez, a security expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). “It’s even more unusual if we’re talking about female genital mutilation,” he said.
The armed forces have been given even more responsibilities since incumbent center-left President Lopez Obrador took office in December 2018, promising to face the wave of violence that has grown in recent years in Mexico. However, it is difficult to record any tangible progress in this field.
Critics of the government’s policy argue that the military remains systematically unpunished by justice for the massive human rights abuses committed against its members, especially those committed after former President Felipe Calderon deployed his armed forces to oust the country’s armed forces. drug, fifteen years ago.
The current government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador denies this, reminding that it has promised that all those who commit crimes will be held accountable.
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