2015.03.18
Venezuelan woman's 14-year wait for justice after rape and torture
Linda Loaiza is to challenge the Venezuelan state over ‘deeply flawed’ investigation and trials
The Guardian
By Sibylla Brodzinsky in Caracas
Monday 16 March 2015
By Sibylla Brodzinsky in Caracas
Monday 16 March 2015
It was Linda Loaiza’s dream to study veterinary medicine when she arrived in Caracas at 18. Those plans were shattered when she was abducted, repeatedly raped and tortured for four months.
By the time she managed to escape, her ears had been destroyed, her jaw dislocated, and one of her nipples had been cut off. Her malnourished body was covered in scars from cigarette burns. She had a ruptured spleen and could no longer bear children.
In the 14 years since, Loaiza has undergone more than a dozen surgeries to try to repair the physical damage she suffered at the hands of her abductor and she continues to receive psychological support for the emotional trauma.
Now she is trying to address the injustice she feels she suffered at the hands of the Venezuelan court system.
“My abductor caused me a lot of damage. But the Venezuelan justice system did as well,” says Loaiza, now 32, whose soft-spoken manner belies her strong character.
In 2004, after years of investigations and court dates, her abductor, Luis Carrera Almoina – the son of a powerful political figure – was acquitted of all charges for lack of evidence. The statute of limitations was almost reached because of multiple pre-trial delays.
The ruling was overturned and Carrera Almoina was eventually convicted for “grievous bodily injuries and the illegal deprivation of liberty”, but not on the rape and attempted murder charges. After serving six years in jail, he is now free.
But Loaiza is not free of her torment. “There were a series of abuses and irregularities, omissions and delays that affected the investigation and trial process,” she says, with a lawyerly detachment. After her abduction, she decided to study law and now specialises in international human rights law.
Her studies gave her the courage and strength to challenge the Venezuelan state before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which will hear arguments on the case on 17 March.
“I was revictimised throughout the process,” says Loaiza.
Loaiza’s lawyers argue that the criminal investigation and subsequent trials were deeply flawed. Lawyer Juan Bernardo Delgado, who will argue the case before the commission, notes that 59 judges declined to hear the case.
“The accused was the son of a person with a lot of power in Venezuela and nobody wanted to hear the case,” he says.
He says the state failed Loaiza repeatedly. For example, Loaiza’s sister had reported that she was missing during the abduction but there was no investigation. The lack of due diligence in investigating and punishing Carrera Almoina constituted a form of discrimination, argues Delgado.
In 2013, Venezuela withdrew from the Inter-American Human Rights system, which includes the commission and the Inter-American Human Rights Court. But the country is still subject to the jurisdiction of these bodies because the complaint was filed before that date. A ruling in Loaiza’s favour would represent a great moral victory, but would also mean that the case would pass to the Inter-American Human Rights Court. This court could then impose a financial award, and might require Venezuela to change its policies on gender-based violence, or to ensure adequate funding for its existing programmes.
Venezuelan officials did not respond to requests for interviews about the case but, in documents filed before the commission, the government argues that it was not responsible for the abuses Loaiza suffered at the hands of her attacker. The documents claim that delays in the case were also caused by the victim, who could not attend hearings because she was hospitalised.
The government paperwork also points out that, in 2007, legislators passed the Act on Women’s Right to a Life Free from Violence, which created specialised police units, prosecutors and courts dedicated to cases of gender violence and women’s shelters in each of Venezuela’s 23 states.
“Venezuela is at the forefront of normative instruments in defence of the women,” Andreína Tarazón, the minister for women, said at an event last year, noting that the law lists 19 types of violence against women as crimes and recent reform added the crimes of femicide and incitement to suicide.
But women’s rights activist Ofelia Alvarez says the law has not been implemented fully. At the end of 2014, for example, only six shelters were up and running in the country.
“It does little good to write up a magnificent law and then not appropriate the money to fund all the institutions it creates,” Alvarez says.
She adds that many judicial officials have not been trained properly and often still send women away when they try to report abuse. “A woman has to be very strong to insist on filing a report or to return another day,” says Alvarez. “This leads to a double victimisation of women.”
As for the specialised courts for gender violence, Alvarez says it’s an important step but cautions that women face so many hurdles that trials are the exception. “The cases that make it that far are very few,” she says. According to the latest figures published by the prosecutor’s office, in 2013 71,812 reports of gender violence were reported. Formal charges were filed in less than 15% of the cases.
Amnesty International said in its latest report on Venezuela that while more courts and prosecutors’ offices specialising in gender-based violence were established, they remained “insufficient to deal with the high volume of cases”.
In a review of Venezuela’s compliance with international conventions in 2014, the UN Commission on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women noted the adoption of legislation against gender violence but said it was “deeply concerned … that violence against women and girls is widespread and on the rise”.
“A victim of gender violence in Venezuela has to be very strong and very persistent to find any sort of justice,” says Loaiza.
Her lawyers say her case is paradigmatic of a context in which sexual violence goes unpunished and that, by presenting it before the Inter-American Commission, they hope to affect a change in the status quo.
“I have already suffered plenty,” says Loaiza. “I don’t want anyone else to suffer what I went through.
"I cannot rest until the Venezuelan state recognises its responsibility for failing me.”
Resource: the guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/mar/16/linda-loaiza-venezuela-rape-torture-justice-human-rights
Resource: the guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/mar/16/linda-loaiza-venezuela-rape-torture-justice-human-rights
