MEXICO
International Business Times
By William Watkinson
October 8, 2016
A pastor accused of raping an eight-year-old girl was ordered to buy her father two crates of beer as compensation in a remote village in Mexico. The perpetrator, a 55-year-old former clergyman, was arrested in the village of Santiago Quetzalapa, which has no road access or phone signal, and is situated around 300 miles south-east of Mexico City.
The girl’s parents complained to the municipal government and the attacker was later arrested, on Friday 7 October, after local media coverage and outrage from human rights groups. In a statement released to the Guardian, the Oaxaca State attorney general’s office said that police arrested on charges of aggravated rape.
Oaxaca State, where many indigenous communities live in mountainous regions, is ruled by an idiosyncratic system popularly known as usos y costumbres (traditions and customs). Abuse is often handled locally in this unique form of government which is designed to allow local leaders to settle disputes according to their own beliefs rather than the Mexican law.
Helder Palacios, editorial director of the Ruta 135 website which initially reported the case, told the newspaper: “There are cases in which there was impunity, there’s no investigation and local prosecutors never receive a criminal complaint.
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