SANTA CECILIA, COLOMBIA
Outrage has been sparked in Colombia after a 13-year-old girl was gang-raped by seven soldiers from the country’s army last weekend.
On Thursday, seven soldiers confessed to raping the child from the indigenous Emberá tribe, who went missing from her rural reserve in northern Colombia on Sunday. News of the horrific crime shocked much of the South American nation, which has long reckoned with violence against indigenous women and girls. This is yet another sad example, quite clear, of the inhumanity and brutality of the patriarchal mentality.
Dozens of people took to the streets of southern Bogota on Saturday to condemn femicide, following the confession of seven army soldiers over the rape of a 13-year-old indigenous girl. The outraged demonstrators could be seen waving banners and chanting slogans denouncing violent crimes against women in the country. A large sum of police officers in riot gear, as well as soldiers, could also be seen present at the protest, where a small number of police detentions were reported. At least 110 femicides have been reported in Colombia this year.
“We know that this is not an isolated issue, it is structural,” said Aida Quilcue, a human rights adviser at the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC), at a press conference on Wednesday, when news that authorities were investigating the rape broke. “I want to repudiate this atrocious fact that goes against the rights of women and of the indigenous peoples of Colombia.” As the fallout continued on Thursday, some were reminded of a similarly brutal act of sexual violence. In 2016, Yuliana Samboní, a seven-year-old indigenous girl, was raped and murderd in Bogotá by Rafael Uribe Noguera, a wealthy architect.
“There is a line that can be drawn through every act of violence against women, whether committed by a soldier, a police officer, a rich man or otherwise: and that line is the abuse of power to deny a woman the right to her own body,” said Olga Amparo Sánchez, director of Casa de la Mujer, a Bogotá-based women’s rights organisation. “The fundamental issue is that a woman’s life has no value in this country.”
The seven soldiers accepted the charge of “unlawful sexual abuse of a minor under 14 years old”, the age of consent in Colombia. The country’s attorney general, Francisco Barbosa, said that the men could receive a sentence of between 16 and 30 years in prison.
The Emberá community, to which the girl it’s part of it, had previously requested that the perpetrators be subject to their own laws, which Colombia’s constitution grants to autonomous indigenous reserves. Colombia is home to about 2 million indigenous people from 115 different groups.
