Militarization: synonym for impunity
Cases of Valentina Rosendo Cantú and Inés Fernández Ortega

The subject of militarization and military jurisdiction has been a longstanding concern for human rights defenders and for victims of human rights violations perpetrated by members of the army.

One of the zones of greatest military presence has been the Montaña of Guerrero. The official justification for this presence has been the application of the federal firearms and explosives law or, alternately, the fight against narcotrafficking, although the extended intervention of the armed forces in Guerrero has continued partly because of the counterinsurgency struggle.

A common factor in diverse cases of human rights violations is the participation of the armed forces on two levels: first, as perpetrator of human rights violations, and second, as concealer of the military personnel who carry out such violations.

In the course of our work in defense of human rights, Tlachinollan has documented 68 cases of human rights violations perpetrated by members of the Mexican army, including torture, forced disappearance of persons, rape of indigenous women, arbitrary detentions, intimidation, dispossession of lands and illegal interrogations, among others.

We can also mention the case of Valentina Rosendo Cantú, 17 years old, a Me’phaa indigenous woman originally from the community of Caxitepec, municipality of Acatepec. She also was raped and tortured by soldiers on 16 February 2002. Once again the submission of civilian authorities before military ones was demonstrated when the Guerrero Department of Justice declared that it did not have jurisdiction and sent the case to military law. The same thing happened in the case of Inés Fernández Ortega, a Me’phaa indigenous woman who was raped by members of the army on 22 March 2002 in her community of Barranca Tecuani, municipality of Ayutla de los Libres.