Salta: A Wichí girl was beaten and shows signs of sexual violence.
The girl was found by her mother near the school. A local teenager is under investigation.
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SALTA, Argentina. A 12-year-old girl, a member of the Wichí people, was found seriously injured on November 3. She was near her community's school in the Bajo Grande area, in the far northeast of Salta province, on the tri-border area of Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay, more than 570 kilometers from the provincial capital.
According to the Ministry of Health of Salta, the girl presented a “bone exposure wound in the cranial area, wounds in lower limbs and bleeding in her genital area.”
After receiving initial treatment at the Alto La Sierra Health Center, 15 kilometers from the site of the attack, the girl was transferred by air ambulance to the Juan Domingo Perón Hospital in the city of Tartagal. She was first treated in the critical care unit and her condition improved. This allowed her to be moved to a regular ward, where she remains with her parents and is receiving psychological support, the hospital's director, Pedro Urueña, Presentes
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The judicial investigation has not yet officially confirmed that the girl suffered a sexual assault. However, Urueña indicated that "initially, we are treating it as abuse due to the injuries." She also clarified that they are "awaiting the results from the prosecutor's office." The court-appointed doctor examined the girl last Friday.
As soon as she entered the Tartagal Hospital, the girl was seen by a gynecologist and the protocol for cases of sexual abuse was applied, Urueña indicated, and this was also reported by the Ministry of Health of Salta.
The manager said the girl is receiving assistance from the Victim Assistance Service (SAVIC). He explained that although she was enrolled in school, they needed the intervention of a bilingual facilitator to work with her because she only speaks the Wichí language.
The girl's mother said she was found "lying like a dog" around 6 a.m. by a young man who alerted her. The girl was near School No. 4760 in Bajo Grande, a rural area within the municipality of Santa Victoria Este, which has a predominantly indigenous population.
The judicial investigation
The woman said her daughter had left “around 10 p.m.” She was going to watch television at relatives’ houses in the same Bajo Grande community, something she often did, and she went out with other teenage friends.
Both the mother and father of the little girl are in the hospital in the city of Tartagal and are taking turns caring for her. To avoid leaving their other four children alone, they brought them to Tartagal. They are under the care of members of an indigenous community that lives in the area near the city.
Another boy, also a member of the Wichí community and under 14 years old, was identified as the perpetrator of the attack, according to the Salta judicial authorities. This teenager has been identified. Due to his age, he was released into the custody of his parents, as he is not criminally responsible and cannot be detained. Sources from the Office of the Public Guardian for Minors reported that he will testify in a Gesell chamber.
Although the testimony of the assaulted girl, which will also be taken in a Gesell chamber, is still pending, her mother stated that her daughter told her she was attacked by "just one boy." Members of the community claimed it was a cousin of the girl, but this information has not been confirmed. Furthermore, the involvement of other people in the attack has not yet been ruled out.
The intervention of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Salta
Due to the alleged perpetrator's age, the investigation was assigned to Judge Anastasio Vázquez Sgardelis of the Second Chamber of the Tartagal Trial Court, which has jurisdiction over juvenile cases. According to the Salta Judiciary, the judge ordered a series of protective measures for the victim and further investigation. He also met with the father, who provided additional information to the police report.
The judge ordered the Fiscal Investigations Center (CIF) to intervene in the collection of data and evidence. The Public Prosecutor's Office of Salta reported on Monday that after "becoming aware of an incident that occurred last Thursday in the town of Alto La Sierra, where a minor was injured and in which the Juvenile Court intervened due to the possible involvement of another minor as a suspect, the Public Prosecutor's Office made available a technical investigative team" to "collaborate in clarifying what happened."
That special commission, made up of investigators and criminal technicians from the CIF and professionals from the Criminalistics Department, left yesterday for Alto La Sierra.
Since both the victim and the alleged perpetrator are minors, criminal prosecutors are not involved in this case; instead, guardians ad litem are involved. Guardian Juan José Andreu represents the girl, and guardian María Fernanda Chocobar represents the boy.
Community leaders in Alto La Sierra asserted that the violent attack is linked to the alcohol and drug addiction suffered by young people, teenagers, and children in communities in that area.
Revictimizing images
The Bajo Grande area is located within the town of Alto La Sierra. In that same area in 2015, another young girl was sexually assaulted by eight local men.
The victim in that case, known by the pseudonym Juana, had a history of violence. She was even pregnant as a result of abuse prior to the gang rape. This incident was brought to mind recently in light of the latest attack on an Indigenous girl.
In addition to the direct violence inflicted on the bodies of both girls, these cases share parallels in the revictimizing way some media outlets have chosen to report them. In the Bajo Grande case, a video of the mother next to her daughter's bloodied body was disseminated by several media outlets. This reportedly prompted a legal action by guardian ad litem Juan José Andreu, requesting that the court order the cessation of the dissemination of these images.
The PAR Network (Journalists for Non-Sexist Communication) Salta condemned “the media approach adopted by some media outlets in the province of Salta,” which
They illustrated the news story about this case “with photos of the victimized girl and her mother at the scene, in a state of total vulnerability and defenselessness, thus demonstrating a complete disregard for human dignity and for journalism with a human rights perspective.” She made a public appeal “to report these publications” and “not to share them” in order to “break the chain of revictimization and stigmatization they perpetuate.”
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