In Yucatán, rape is one of the recurring crimes each year, with the numbers getting higher and higher, even after the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SNSP), between January and August 2023, 29 investigation files have been initiated, derived from formal complaints for the crime of rape.
The figure is the highest since 2019, the year prior to the arrival of the Coronavirus and whose figure of 40 cases investigated during the same period stands as the highest in the last five years.
The violation begins to regain ground, because after the record prior to the sanitary contingency, in 2020 the complaints for this crime between January and August fell to only 25. By 2021, the records of the federal agency indicate that the figure rose to 30, then remained at 28 and by 2022 it rose again to 29.
However, the numbers are considerably lower than those of the past decade, as during that period in 2015 there were 149 investigation files reported for the crime of rape, in 2016 there were 153, in 2017 there were 123 and in 2018 they counted 68.
Year-end
For the closing of the year the panorama is quite similar, as the numbers have been increasing again, starting in 2020.
Crime incidence records indicate that by the end of 2015, the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) of Yucatán reported a total of 224 investigation files initiated for the crime of rape.
The following year a slight decrease was achieved, reaching 220 by the end of December. While in 2017 there were 195, in 2018 only 83 were opened and by 2019 the number dropped to 60.
The lowest record was in 2020, when the confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to only 35 investigation files being opened, but the number again goes up, as during 2021 they reached 39 and in 2022 the Prosecutor’s Office has reported 44, a figure that will possibly be surpassed in the current year, according to the marked trend.
Decades in prison
According to the Criminal Code of the State of Yucatan, it is considered as rape any act that through physical or moral violence performs copulation with a person of either sex, this being understood as the introduction of the virile member or any object into the body of the victim by the vaginal, anal or oral way.
This crime is punishable with sentences of eight to twenty-five years of imprisonment, which increases to between 10 and 30 years of imprisonment when committed against a minor, which is considered equivalent to rape.
It is worth mentioning that most of the cases are equivalent to this type of aggravated rape against minors since out of 67 proceedings that have been carried out in oral trials during 2023, 64 correspond to cases of aggravated rape.
During this year, considerable sentences have been obtained, such as on January 11, when the Prosecutor’s Office obtained a sentence of 138 years in prison against G.A.Ch.T., who was accused of aggravated sexual abuse, aggravated rape (two counts), crimes he committed against the daughter of his romantic partner.
In February of this same year, the First Trial Court agreed to grant 65 years in prison to J.U.Y., for the same crime committed against two minors in the municipality of Acanceh.
In another case, R.E.M.U., accused of aggravated rape against his minor daughter was sentenced to 21 years in prison.
Likewise, C.M.C.P. and J.N.Ch.V., who in separate acts, committed this type of sexual aggression against different minors, on more than 10 occasions, were put behind bars.
Although the records of the Yucatan Prosecutor’s Office indicate that they have carried out various proceedings and have brought to trial dozens of rapists of minors, they have not reported any of these cases in the SNSP’s crime incidence report.
TYT Newsroom
