25 amount of marginalization and poverty.54 In general, the indigenous population is in a situation of extreme vulnerability, and this is revealed in different forums, such as in the administration of justice and health care services. In many cases, the members of this population are defenseless because they do not speak Spanish and do not have interpreters, owing to the absence of financial resources to hire a lawyer, to travel to health care centers or to the courts, and also because they are often victims of abusive practices or practices that violate due process.55 Owing to this situation, members of the indigenous communities do not use the organs of justice or the public agencies engaged in the protection of human rights, because they distrust them or because they fear reprisals.56 In the case of indigenous women, the situation is even worse, because filing complaints concerning certain events has become a challenge that requires them to overcome many obstacles, including rejection from their own community as well as other “harmful traditional practices.”57 79. Among the forms of violence that most affect women in the state of Guerrero, there exists “institutional military violence.”58 The presence of the army performing police work in Guerrero has been a polemic issue regarding individual and communitarian rights and freedoms, and this situation has placed the population, particularly the women, in a situation of extreme vulnerability.59 According to the Secretariat for Women’s Affairs in the state of Guerrero, “[i]ndigenous women continue to suffer the consequences of a patriarchal structure that is blind to gender equity, particularly within institutions such as the armed forces or police, whose members are trained to defend the nation, and to combat or attack criminals, but who are not sensitized to the human rights of the community and of women.”60 In this context, between 1997 and 2004, complaints were filed in 54 Cf. Report, Secretariat for Women’s Affairs of the state of Guerrero and others, supra note 52, folio 13615; Program for the institutional and social strengthening for the exercise of the rights of indigenous women: Illiteracy, Violence against women, Maternal Mortality [Programa para el fortalecimiento institucional and social para el ejercicio de los derechos humanos de las mujeres indígenas: Analfabetismo, Violencia contra las mujeres, Mortalidad Materna], Secretariat of Women, Secretariat of Indigenous Matters, Secretariat of Education, Secretariat of Health, and Attorney General of Justice Office of the State, Guerrero Government of the State, July 2008 (file of annexes presented by the State during the public hearing, tome IX, annex 4, folio 12993 and 12994); Model of Reference of Cases of Gender Violence for the state of Guerrero [Modelo de Referencia de casos de Violencia de Género para el Estado de Guerrero], Secretariat of Women’s Affairs for the state of Guerrero, December 2008 (file of annexes presented at the public hearing, tome X, annex 6(5), folios 13412 and 13413); Report on the Human Rights of women in Guerrero, Sociodemographic information of the Municipality of Ayutla de los Libres [Diagnóstico de los Derechos Humanos de las mujeres en Guerrero, Información sociodemográfica del Municipio de Ayutla de los Libres], Secretariat of Indigenous Matters of the state of Guerrero, 2010. (file of annexes presented at the public hearing, tome IX, annex 3, folio 12871), and statement made before public notary by the expert witness Stavenhagen, supra note 52, folio 1444. 55 Cf. Reference Model 2008. Secretariat of the Women’s Affairs by the state of Guerrero, supra note 54, folio 13412, and Development of Networks for the detection, support, and reference of cases of violence against indigenous women of Guerrero [Desarrollo de Redes de detección, apoyo y referencia de casos de violencia contra las mujeres indígenas de Guerrero], Secretariat for Women’s Affairs of the state of Guerrero and National Network of Shelters, December 2008 (file of annexes submitted at the public hearing, tome X, annex 6(4), folios 13242 to 13251). 56 Cf. Report 2003, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico, supra note 28, folios 325 and 326, and declaration rendered before a public notary by expert witness Stavenhagen, supra note 52, folio 1445. 57 Cf. Network Development 2008, Secretariat for Women’s Affairs of the state of Guerrero and National Network of Shelters, supra note 55, folio 13248, and declaration rendered before a public notary by expert witness Stavenhagen, supra note 52, folio 1445 to 1447. 58 Cf. Report, Secretariat for Women’s Affairs of the state of Guerrero and others, supra note 52, folios 13628, 13634, and 13625, and Report 2003, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner in Mexico, supra note 28, folio 325. 59 Cf. Report, Secretariat for Women’s Affairs of the state of Guerrero and others, supra note 52, folio 13635. 60 Network Development 2008, Secretariat for Women’s Affairs of the state of Guerrero and National Network of Shelters, supra note 55, folio 13247.