Yakiri Rubio's Assault Case Highlights Gender Bias in Mexican Courts Carolina Bedoya Monsalve - Desinformemonos
go to original March 26, 2014

Hundreds march in Mexico City to demand the release of the young woman accused of murdering her offender. (Cuartoscuro)

“I hope women know they have an absolute right to defend themselves against any aggression,” Yakiri Rubio told Desinformémonos in an exclusive interview.

Rubio was imprisoned for three months after being accused of murdering her rapist. The young woman still faces criminal proceedings while out on bail, now accused of “excessive self-defense.” Her father, José Luis Rubio, says their neighborhood, Tepito, taught Rubio to defend herself and to be respected. “And that was my crime. They wanted to let me be killed,” says the young woman.

Rubio’s lawyer, Ana Katiria Suarez, says the case “is focusing more attention on gender crimes, but there is still much to do.” She went on to denounce the patriarchal viewpoints that persist among judges and prosecutors.

On Dec. 7, 2013, Yakiri Rubio went to Station 50 of the Public Ministry (PM) to report that she had been sexually and physically assaulted by two men. A few minutes later, Luis Omar Ramirez, one of the assailants, arrived at the station to accuse the young woman of the murder of his brother, Miguel Angel Ramirez, who attacked Rubio.

The 20-year-old woman was abducted by the two men while walking in the downtown Mexico City neighborhood of Doctores. She was threatened with a knife and taken to a hotel. One of the men left and the other physically and sexually assaulted her. “With the same knife used to wound me, I defended myself,” Rubio recalls.

Read the rest at CIP Americas Program

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