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By Chris Covert
Fulfilling a requirement set forth by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in October 2010, the head of the Secretaria de Gobierno, Alexandro Poire formally apologized to an Indian woman who claimed she had been raped by Mexican Army soldiers almost ten years ago, according to Mexican news accounts.
Then 17 year old Valentina Rosendo Cantu filed an accusation in March 2002 claiming a group of Mexican soldiers had raped her as she was washing clothes near a stream in southern Guerrero state.
The case was never investigated by civil authorities because it had been turned over to local military investigators, who subsequently claimed no military personnel were in the area at the time of the assault.
Despite the Military Prosecution Service interviewing 108 officers and enlisted from a nearby military base, no attackers were ever identified. A cursory physical examination, albeit not a gynaecological examination of Rosendo Cantu had been conducted by a physician appointed by the local civilian prosecutor's service. That examination failed to find recent evidence of assault.
To read the Rantburg report on the rape of Rosendo Cantu, click here
No biological evidence was ever collected by either the state authorities or by military authorities.
The case eventually made its way to Washington DC at the Organization of American State's Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which issued its ruling last year.
Recent Mexican news reports say that Rosendo Cantu had been paid unspecified monetary damages in the case.
The case was most recently transferred late last August from a Procuradoria General Republica (PGR) or Mexican national attorney general liason for military affairs to a federal court, along with another high profile rape case, Fernandez Ortega, for investigation.
To read the Rantbrug report on the rape of Fernandez Ortega, click here
To read the Rantburg report on the transfer of the two rape cases to civilian courts, click here
With no biological evidence collected or preserved from the attack, short of a massive lineup of military personnel in the area, it is unclear how either case can be resolved.