25 I found out my that family and the Red Cross were looking for me; they denied I was there, they went to Human Rights. Kevin (sic) gave an order for me to be shown to my family; when my mother 104 saw me she fainted; what must she have felt? 121. At the hearing held during the IACHR’s 133rd regular session, the psychologist Carmen Wurst de Landázuri gave her expert psychological assessment of the health conditions of Gladys Carol Espinoza and on the acts of violence she claimed to have suffered at the police facility. That assessment was prepared following four interview sessions during 2006, conducted at the Chorrillos Women’s Maximum Security Prison where the victim was being held. The following paragraphs contain extracts from Dr. Wurst’s assessment, which is based on the victim’s narrative: When she arrived she was wearing a hood, and that was the last time she saw Rafael. They took her to a basement and pushed her to the floor […] They insulted her and began to grope her; then she was carried away on the shoulders of a large, strong man, whose collarbone she could feel. Then she began to hear noises and smell cigarettes and alcohol. They pushed her to the ground; she didn’t know if Rafael was there. She could hear shouts, and an order: “We’re going to start with you.” They took her to the stairs, then they pushed her to ground and began to strip her; she was still blindfolded. “I was afraid to look at them; they insulted me, pulled on my breasts, put their hands in my vagina, in my anus. Dozens of hands. Then they tied me up in a bundle, all the way down to my feet; they beat me, I could feel their blows to my stomach, they told me that my husband’s spirits were up.” They threatened to infect her with AIDS. They pushed her into a bucket of water: “I felt as if the water was going into my brain; then I felt as if there were a black tunnel and I lost consciousness, I didn’t know if it was hours or minutes; I couldn’t feel my body, all I could feel was someone trying to push.” A man began to beat her feet; when she saw that, she became aware of what was happening but she not longer felt any pain; she felt as if her body wasn’t her own, and recalls asking them to kill her. […] “One was holding me by the waist (her voice breaks); I felt a piece of wood, it was in my anus. I heard a terrible scream; it was me shouting out.” After that, she lost all notion of time; she did not know how many days she went without food, or drink, or sleep. She remembers her screams, and the black tunnel; she doesn’t remember how many times they strung her up. She believes there was a survival mechanism inside her that let her put herself above it all and disconnect […]. “I had four medical certificates, for beatings, torture, and rape. They took me to the police hospital and told them I was acting, because I’d go from consciousness to unconsciousness. They dressed me to take me to the hospital; I was on a gurney and a man took off my stretch-pants and began to put his hand in my vagina; I thought, not in the hospital. I felt him masturbating, he was the doctor; I didn’t react. He was another one of them. They just gave me aspirin.” After the visit to the hospital, they returned her to the DIVISE, where she was received by a lieutenant who was taken back by her appearance. “I saw myself in the mirror; they had destroyed my brain. The Red Cross went looking for me, they hid me from my family. When APRODEH managed to meet with Ketin Vidal, they let my family see me, but that was much later. Two agents from the Public Prosecution Service also came; I was showing signs of torture, my entire head was covered with lumps. I remember there were other women being held; they looked after me very 105 carefully, but I don’t know who they were.” 122. The Inter-American Court has ruled that certain particular kinds of aggression, such as rape, take place in the absence of any persons other than the victim and the assailants, and that in such 106 cases, the victim’s statement and narrative of the events provide essential evidence of the facts. The 104 Annex 18: Medical Examiner’s Certificate No. 003821-V, issued by the Legal Medicine Institute after examining Gladys Carol Espinoza on January 27 and February 9, 2004, pp. 2 to 5. The original is written in block capitals. 105 Annex 17: Psychological report by Dr. Carmen Wurst Calle de Landázuri of October 8, 2008, based on interviews with Gladys Carol Espinoza at Chorrillos Women’s Maximum Security Prison, pp. 4 and 5. 106 I/A Court H. R., Case of Rosendo Cantú et al. v. Mexico, Preliminary Objection, Merits, Reparations, and Costs, Judgment of August 31, 2010, Series C No. 216, para. 89.