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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | March 2007 
Autopsy: Mexican Soldiers Didn't Rape, Beat Indian Woman
 Miguel Hernandez - Associated Press
Veracruz, Mexico — A new autopsy on a 73-year-old Indian woman allegedly attacked by four Mexican soldiers last month concluded that she was neither beaten nor raped, but died of acute anemia from internal bleeding in her digestive tract, the director of Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said Thursday.
Based on the testimony of local residents and medical investigators, prosecutors claimed Ernestina Ascensio Rosario was bound, beaten and sodomized by four soldiers on Feb. 25 in the mountain town of Soledad Atzompa, about 120 miles east of Mexico City.
State prosecutors initially said they had arrested the four soldiers, but the Defense Department never confirmed that. The status of the soldiers was unclear today.
The case outraged Indian groups in the state, and prompted Soledad Atzompa Mayor Javier Perez to demand that soldiers be withdrawn from the predominantly Indian region. The army has since dismantled three nearby military encampments.
The human rights commission later said that state investigators had committed errors in the case and received permission to exhume the body so that a second autopsy could be performed.
"After conducting all of the tests, we have arrived at the conclusion that there was no rape," commission President Jose Luis Soberanes told the Televisa television network. "We have corroborated everything with scientific evidence, which we can produce at any time."
He also said the examination showed no signs that Ascensio died of head injuries consistent with being beaten. In addition to severe bleeding in the digestive tract, the woman also had the beginnings of cancer in her liver, Soberanes said.
The human rights official said the commission would ask for an investigation into why state authorities insisted the woman had been attacked when they did not have the physical proof.
"We are moving forward with our recommendations to determine responsibility and even penalties for those who made such assertions without any basis," he said.
Defense Department officials earlier had said their own investigations concluded the soldiers had not been involved in any rape. The department did not immediately release a statement today.
But Mayor Perez called Soberanes' announcement "regrettable," given the testimony of local doctors who first attended to the woman and local residents.
"The people told us the woman had been raped," Perez told W Radio.
During an appearance in the Veracruz city of Jalapa later today, Perez said he planned to request meetings with both Soberanes and President Felipe Calderon to discuss the matter.
Police said the victim's nephew told them that moments before she died, she said soldiers had attacked her, prompting authorities to focus their investigation on small army encampment located near Soledad Atzompa.
In addition, two women from the village claimed to have witnessed the attack and said they themselves were pursued by the soldiers but escaped, police said. |
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