Photo: ULISES RUIZ / AFP / Getty Images
A girl of 14 years who refused to marry a boy, also a minor, was imprisoned for several hours by community policemen of an indigenous town in Guerrero, in southern Mexico.
As announced by local media, the youngest, identified as Anayeli “N”, had run away to avoid being sold and married to a young man from 14 years in exchange for a few 10 thousand dollars that would be paid to his family that lives in Joya Real, in the municipality of Cochoapa el Grande, Guerrero.
The case was revealed by the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center , which explained in a statement that the minor was imprisoned for 14 hours after being captured on Monday night by community police from Joya Real.
Another minor who agreed to receive Anayeli at his home after she escaped to avoid getting married was also imprisoned and later released.
The release occurred after a dialogue began between community authorities and lawyers from the Tlachinollan Center, supported by staff from the State Attorney’s Office, elements of the National Guard and the local defense counsel.
Although the case of Anayeli generated outrage, it is not an isolated event, because in Guerrero Mountain, women have a price in a kind of slavery in full century 21, as various organizations have claimed.
They pay for them from $ 2, 000 thousand up to $ 40, 000 dollars in an old practice attributed to “uses and customs” of the communities while the authorities remain impassive.
“There are figures that indicate that 300 1,000 girls have been sold for marriage, but we do not know in what timeframe, they do not have these data because they are not registered, also there are no figures from a Civil Registry that say how old they were, because it would also not be legal to marry a girl of 12 years ”, assumes Martha Givaudan, president of the non-governmental organization“ Yo Quiero Yo Podemos ”, which works in the municipality of Metlatónoc, the second poorest in the country located in the Guerrero Mountain region.
The association has prevented at least some 150 girls from eight localities where she has intervened have been sold and has managed to raise awareness among community authorities to stop the sale of women.
Metlatónoc has some 66 communities in which the sale of women is practiced and prices are defined according to their age, physical appearance and even virginity.
López Obrador promised to combat practice
After several cases that became known and after pressure from different organizations, last October, the Mexican president , Andrés Manuel López Obrador, explained that, “Child trafficking or prostitution is not the generality of what happens in communities, as it is sometimes presented in the media of information. So, ‘in the Mountain of Guerrero, girls are sold there’. No, it may be the exception, but not the rule, because there are many values in the towns ”, stated the President.
That is, the President highlighted that indigenous peoples have their own customs, traditions, as well as cultural, spiritual and moral values. “So, I have known the life of indigenous communities for years and there are many more values than in other strata or sectors of the population,” he said.
The National Executive highlighted the importance of combating cases of the sale of girls in the national territory, however, justified the respect that should be had for the ideologies of indigenous peoples.
“So, I have known the life of indigenous communities for years and there are many more values than in other strata or sectors of the population” , stated López Obrador and highlighted that the governor of Guerrero, Evelyn Salgado, would be in charge of combating the cases that arise.
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