Roemer Victims Seek to Eliminate Sex Crimes Statute of Limitations

In February 2021, professional dancer Itzel Schnaas opened the door to a series of complaints against writer and diplomat Andrés Roemer for various sexual crimes. After releasing a video with their testimony, more than 60 women raised their voices to accuse that they had also been victims of Roemer, and they waged a collective legal battle together. However, not all have been able to prosecute their case because some reported aggressions have already “expired,” according to authorities.
Itzel, in fact, is one of the victims who could not manage to open an investigation folder. After suffering sexual harassment and touching without his consent, the Attorney General’s Office of Mexico City (FJGCDMX) told him that part of his complaint did not come because he had spent more time than established by law to initiate a formal procedure.
“But the first part of my complaint didn’t happen the day I made the video public, but the day I decided I was going to speak. I couldn’t go out and denounce Andrés and say ‘I’m going to go to the Public Prosecutor’s Office’. I had to involve others who gave credibility to my word, so I put my complaint in the Gender Unit of Grupo Salinas a little more than a year before, not because I trusted the company (where Roemer worked), but because I needed senior executives to get involved, which took me more than a year, “he explains.

Itzel won the complaint he filed with Grupo Salinas, which ruled that Roemer used the same modus operandi on several occasions and described him as “a pathological sexual abuser who attacks women.” However, the company failed to tell the young woman that, if she did not proceed legally, at that time she would be left without an opportunity to investigate everything that happened.
Accompanied by the Mexican Institute of Human Rights and Democracy (IMDHD), the more than 60 women who denounced Roemer after Itzel’s testimony are currently not only seeking justice in the five folders and extradition orders against the writer – who is in Israel – but also demanding that the CDMX authorities eliminate the statute of limitations for sexual crimes. The objective: that those who have not been able to prosecute their case do so, and that this legal figure does not become an obstacle to access to justice in matters of gender violence.
“Why are they reporting so far?”
Among Roemer’s complainants are some women whose crimes have already expired, but who accompany the collective strategy in the hope of accessing justice. They agree that they were slow to decide to denounce for fear of the figure of power that the aggressor represented for them, and that they did not know that after a certain time they could not proceed against him criminally.

Now they face the fact that they cannot formally denounce Roemer – although emotionally they hardly felt compelled to do so – as well as frustration with revictimizing processes, possible reprisals that remain latent and a constant question: “Why do they denounce so far?”, which holds them responsible for what happened to them.
“In my case, I didn’t know that the prescription existed, and what happened to me was a long time ago, but for years I hid it and buried it in a trunk that I didn’t want to access, because it was very painful. Until now… I make my complaint anonymously because my family does not know,” says a young woman whose identity is kept confidential.
“It wasn’t until I saw Itzel’s video that it completely revolutionized my world, because I said ‘finally someone had the courage to unmask a person with so much power who has done so much harm…’ because I knew I wasn’t the only one. After that, knowing that I am not alone, I had the opportunity to be heard, understood and believed.”
“Writing my complaint helped me to realize that I was not forgotten or cured what I felt, but that I was buried. But at that moment, when I finally decided that it was time to denounce, because I felt strong and accompanied, I found that I am legally unable to agree that he has a legal consequence for what he did, “she says through tears.
“The harm they cause a person with sexual violence is a mark and a very deep pain that is not forgotten or healed; if anything, you learn to live with it. But despite everything I do not give up: although I know that I do not have access to justice, I have the opportunity to fight so that there is not one more person in the world who lives what I lived, so we must ensure that the statute of limitations of crimes is removed, “he sentences.
In other cases, such as that of Monserrat Ortiz, the investigation folders were opened for all the crimes of which you accuseor Roemer, although for fear of reprisals it took him four years to report that he harassed and sexually abused her. Although he intimidated her by telling her that he was friends with the director of the medium for which he worked, the young woman decided to proceed legally after Itzel Schnaas told her story.
“It took me two years to make an anonymous complaint, even when it didn’t have my name, and it took me another two years to make a court complaint. This shows the importance of respecting the times of each victim, because it is not easy to know that our face and our voice will appear in the media,” he says.
As a journalist on gender violence issues, Monserrat speaks not only from her experience, but from the testimonies of the women she has interviewed during her career: “It’s sad, it’s scary, there are threats and possible repercussions. In my case, for example, they told me that if I reported I would lose my job and I did.”
“That is why it should not happen that they deny the victims the right to denounce, that after a series of revictimizations, of reliving what happened, they are told that they cannot open an investigation folder because years have passed. Sexual assaults should not have an expiration date,” he says.
Sexual torture
The testimony of the three complainants was shared in the forum #YoHabloCuandoQuiero, organized by the IMDHD, with which specialists seek to sensitize authorities on why victims report when they are ready and not when the law requires it.
According to Verónica Garzón, a lawyer at the IMDHD, the national and state criminal codes establish a statute of limitations for most crimes, including harassment, harassment, abuse and rape, despite the fact that various international organizations have determined that these constitute acts of sexual torture.

📣 Do you know what is the statute of limitations of a crime that is prosecuted ex officio?
Michel Hernández, member of the #IMDHD explains it #YoHabloCuandoQuiero
More information: https://t.co/UqeArXVaYV pic.twitter.com/1QXUULPr6i
— IMDHD (@IMDHyD) March 14, 2022

In crimes such as torture, extrajudicial executions, disappearances, genocide and discrimination, complaints can be filed regardless of the time that has elapsed since the events occurred, as they are considered serious for the international community.
In addition, Mexico included kidnapping in these crimes, due to the increase that occurred with the beginning of the so-called “war on drugs,” garzón explains.
Based on this catalog of crimes in which there is no statute of limitations, the IMDHD seeks that, in the case of the CDMX, the authorities recognize sexual crimes as acts of torture and discrimination based on gender, so that it is legislated that these can be denounced regardless of the time that has elapsed. This, in order to prosecute more folders of the collective complaint against Roemer, and benefit other victims of the capital who are currently unable to denounce.
“We want to promote and question, depending on the needs of protection, the need for urgency in the protection of human rights, so that the figure of prescription does not apply in cases such as sexual violence, why? Because we are also in a pandemic situation of violence against women,” says the lawyer.
According to official figures, the crime of rape increased 31% in five years in Mexico, that of sexual abuse increased 86% and that of harassment by 400%.
Nationally, sexual harassment increased by 123% and other sexual offences increased by 63%.
In the case of the CDMX, the most recent data show that violations increased by more than 28% between January and October 2021.
For the IMDHD, this panorama allows us to see that sexual violence is generalized and structured and is normalized, “in addition to showing that one of the obligations of the State, which is to eradicate violence against women, is breached.”
“The consequences of this violence are very important. We have to understand the context of those who have been sexually violated, and that is that it is not so easy to speak later, and the times set by the law are arbitrary. They cannot stick to their times, nor can they easily face the obstacles that have to do with revictimization.”
“Who is going to want to submit to those processes in which there is impunity, they are accused of lying and with it also materializes an act of discrimination by the authorities?” the lawyer questions.
Ximena Antillón, a specialist in the psychosocial impact of gender violence, explains that despite the revictimization and obstacles presented to victims of sexual assault, for many it is important to follow legal processes, even when it is possible to follow legal processes.A long time has passed since they were committed, because only in this way can they be recognized and conclude with their personal processes.
“It is important to understand that legal processes have a very important potential in the recovery from violence, and in particular when crimes are gender-based. It has to do with the social recognition of the facts, that gives meaning to the recovery process and results in a reparation, “he says.
“If the argument is that you can not prove violence or sexual torture by the passage of time, this is not true, because there are very strong consequences, what happens is that the victims are not believed,” he says.
“Through the statute of limitations, the State and society leave the victims helpless and without the possibility of rehabilitation of the sequelae. We have to recognize the obstacles that the justice system itself places on women and feminized bodies when it comes to denouncing gender violence,” she reflects.
At the forum, the victims reiterated their willingness to be investigated, “to go through such complex processes of revictimization.”
“We hope that the Mexican State will give us the opportunity to continue with this formal process that we do not intend to give up. We will continue to build the voice and the possibility of it, and resonate as far as it is needed… waiting for the State to find a way to prove our crimes.”
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Original source in Spanish

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