Girl, 15, jailed after attempting to escape arranged marriage in Guerrero

A young Mixtec girl was arrested in the Montaña area of ​​Guerrero this week after escaping from her home to avoid an arranged marriage.

Anayeli’s family, who are 14 or 15 years old according to various media reports, arranged for her to marry a slightly older boy on Monday. The girl’s mother agreed to a payment of 200,000 pesos ($ 9,275) from the boy’s family, who held a party on Sunday to celebrate the upcoming wedding.

A cow was slaughtered and boiled to feed the guests, beer and soft drinks flowed, and a group of banda musicians provided entertainment. The boy’s parents also provided food and drinks for a meeting at Anayeli’s house last Friday.

Everything was set up for a wedding on Monday, but on the morning of the big day, Anayeli slipped out of her home in Joya Real, a parish in the Cochoapa el Grande parish, and hid with a friend identified as a 15-year-old. the one year old Alfredo “N.”

Anayeli’s disappearance prompted her family and those of her would-be husband to go to the community police for help in finding her. The officers found the girl at Alfredo’s home and took them into custody and locked them in police cells.

Royal jewel in the southeast of Guerrero.

According to the Montaña Tlachinollan Human Rights Center, police told Anayeli that she would only be released if she consented to the marriage or if her family compensated the boy’s family for the 56,000 pesos ($ 2,600) they took for the two pre-marriage events had spent. They said their disappearance on the wedding day “offended” the boy’s family.

Anayeli and Alfredo spent Monday night behind bars, but on Tuesday morning staff from the Guerrero Human Rights Center and Prosecutor General and State Police arrived at the Joya Real Police Station and arranged for their release. The couple was subsequently placed in the care of Family Service DIF, El Universal newspaper reported.

The state is investigating and community police, the local police chief and the parents of Anayeli and her would-be husband could face charges in connection with the girl’s arrest and proposed marriage. The wedding did not take place, and the boy’s family failed to pay the peso 200,000 payment.

Neil Arias Vitinio, a lawyer for the human rights center, said that arranged – or forced – marriages with young girls in the Montaña area are a normalized practice and because of this, many people are angry about the disappearance of Anayeli.

“They said, ‘Why did the girl do this when she already knows how it’s going?’ [or] “She made fun of that” [boy’s] Family’ [or] ‘The girl accepted.’ But how can a girl make the decision to get married? ”She asked.

Anayeli’s 14-hour detention came less than two months after a 15-year-old girl was held in a Cochoapa el Grande police prison for 10 days after escaping the home of her father-in-law, who allegedly tried to rape her on repeated occasions . Angélica was sold into marriage at the age of 11 but moved with her in-laws after her husband emigrated to the United States.

At the beginning of the month, the federal government’s women’s rights authority launched a strategy to prevent violence against women and girls in the Montaña and Costa Chica regions of Guerrero and to put an end to forced marriages. But according to Arias Vitinio, there is neither a concrete plan nor sufficient financial resources to stop the violence and forced marriage problems.

“Signing an agreement is not enough. It is necessary to go to the churches and talk to the people, we have to explain to them that there are consequences for the marriage of girls and boys, ”said the lawyer.

People under the age of 18 were banned from getting married across Mexico in 2019, but some indigenous communities, particularly southern states such as Guerrero and Oaxaca, continue to sell young girls for marriage.

During a trip to the Montaña area last month, President López Obrador denied claims that the practice was widespread, claiming a media campaign made selling girls for marriage or prostitution purposes seem a bigger problem than it actually is.

“I’m not here to watch this because it’s not the rule,” he said. “There are many moral, cultural and spiritual values ​​in the churches. It may be the exception, but it is not the rule. “

The Mexico Children’s Rights Network immediately condemned the federal government for downplaying the seriousness of the Mexican child trafficking problem, including the sale of young girls, and said it was a crime that the Mexican state must investigate and eradicate.

With reports from El Universal and Reforma

Girl, 15, jailed after attempting to escape arranged marriage in Guerrero