30
On February 16, 2002, at a stream five minutes walking distance away from my home […] I was
[…] washing, and was almost done […] when I heard a footsteps and turned to see, and it was
eight soldiers, and one of them, angrily, asked me where “the hooded men” [“los
encapuchados”] were, and I answered with fear that I didn’t know, that I knew no one. […] The
two soldiers came towards me and the other six surrounded me, and I remained in the middle
with the two soldiers. One of [them] pointed his weapon at my chest, and he threatened to shoot
me if I did not tell him anything; one of the soldiers took out a photograph of a person, and he
asked me again if I did not […] know the person in the picture, and I answered no; that same
soldier took out a list of names of eleven people, and he asked me if I knew those names. I
answered no, […] he said how is it possible that you don’t know them, aren’t you from Barranca
Bejuco, I answered no that I was from Caxitepec, and that I had barely just been married to a
man from Barranca Bejuco, and that same soldier that was pointing at me, hit me in the stomach
with his weapon, I fell on the rock where I was washing and I fainted and when I regained
consciousness, I sat up […] and another soldier who was showing me the list of people, angrily
[pulled] my hair […] how are you not from Barranca, […] and I answered that I wasn’t […], if you
don’t say anything we are going to kill everyone in Bejuco, and well, I didn’t want to say
anything because […] I was very afraid that they would kill me and that soldier grabbed me with
force, scratched my face, and pressured me to say where the hooded men [los encapuchados]
where, and that is when one of the soldiers abused me, he got on top of me […] against my will
[…] he abused me and the six soldiers that were there teased and laughed at me like their peers
did, and there is where the two soldiers abused me against my will, and I could not escape
because the six soldiers had me surrounded, […] and I asked for help, and well, no one could
hear me because it is a place where there is no people, […] very solitary and when they finished
abusing me, I escaped semi-undressed, arrived at my house, and I told my sister-in-law […]
what had happened to me […] and I was crying, punched in the stomach, and my face was
bleeding from the scratch they gave me […] and then my husband arrived, […] [whom] during
that time had been at work […] and I told him I was sexually abused by the soldiers.
91.
Of the various statements made by Mrs. Rosendo Cantu, despite some
imprecisions97, it is noted that there is consistency among the narrations regarding the
rape. The Court considers that it is not unusual that the retelling of acts of this nature
contain some aspects that could be considered, a priori, lack of precision in the
narration. In this regard, the Court takes into consideration that the facts narrated by
Mrs. Rosendo Cantú refer to a traumatic moment which she suffered, and the impact,
when recalling it, can lead to determined imprecision; said statements were rendered at
different moments between 2002 and 2010. The Court also highlights that, in addition,
in the present case at the time of the facts Mrs. Rosendo Cantú was a child.98
92.
It is not the first time that an international human rights court should note
possible differences in the statements of individuals relating the sexual abuse of which
they have been victims.99 Nevertheless, from a reading of the mentioned statements, the
Court considers that the differences in the narration are not substantive and from them,
consistently, one can derive the following facts: i) on February 16, 2002, she was alone
at a stream near her home where she went to wash clothes, in an isolated area; ii) at
approximately three in the afternoon, eight armed members of the Army approached her
and encircled her; iii) two of them, while threatening her with weapons, asked her for
information regarding people whose names were included in a list and regarding another
Domestic Violence on August 14, 2009 (case file of annexes to the answer to the application, tome V, folios
9735 to 9737).
96
Statement by Mrs. Rosendo Cantú rendered during the public hearing, supra note 64.
97
In the various accounts made by Mrs. Rosendo Cantú thereare some differences with respect to the
exact duration of the sexual penetration, specific details regarding the interrogation made by two of the
soldiers, or the duration of her period of unconciousness.
98
In accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in its Article 1, “a child means every
human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained
earlier.” The Civil Code of the Free and Sovereign state of Guerrero establishes in its Article 35 that “the
person who has not turned eighteen years of age is a minor.”
99
Cf. ECHR, Case of Aydin
57/1996/676/866, paras. 72 and 73.
v.
Turkey
(GC),
Judgment
of
25
September
1997,
App.
No.