A 2022 study by the Mexican government found that four out of five female prisoners had experienced torture or cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment at the point of arrest and more than 30% experienced some kind of ‘sexual torture’. With 14,665 female prisoners in Mexico, thousands of women have been tortured and raped and yet, without access to legal advice, they remain in prison, trying to deal with the trauma that they suffered, often held on tenuous charges with little to no evidence against them. Over half of female prisoners in Mexico have never been sentenced.

 

The story is about Victoria Carolina (”Vicki”), who was detained in her boyfriend's house. She was violently gang raped at the point of arrest, held in prison and subsequently diagnosed with HIV. She was convicted of kidnapping, although the evidence against her is weak, at best, according to her lawyers.  

 

Despite judges acknowledging that she was tortured at the point of arrest, she remains in prison having served 13 years of her 27 year sentence. Her case has now been taken on by a team of activists who believe they can help. Vicki is one voice but she represents a systemic problem in Mexico that is largely accepted as a normal part of a broken system.