Linda Loaiza, a Venezuelan woman, was abducted, beaten, mutilated, torturued, starved, and rape several times over for four months by a man would later on be acquitted for the crime. This is her story….
In July of 2001, 18-year-old Linda Loaiza was rescued by the Caracas police in Luis Carrera Almoina’s apartment. She had been repeatedly raped and brutally tortured for four months; she was found in a state of severe malnutrition, with her earlobes destroyed, a nipple cut out, cigarette burns all over her body, multiple cranial fractures, and bruises and cuts on her face and genital area. After undergoing nine operations, Linda is still recovering. The lifelong physical effects of her ordeal include cataracts, impaired hearing, reduced movement, facial scarring and an inability to bear children.
The accused perpetrator, Luis Carrera Almoina, had been previously arrested for torturing his then partner in 1999. He is the son of a Gustavo Carrera Damas, who at the time was president of a major university in Caracas. After being detained and put under house arrest, Carrera Almoina attempted to flee with the help of his father. He was captured the next day, and his father was later charged with obstructing judicial action.
Awe, thanks daddy. It must be nice to be a rapist and have a parent that would help you flee the country.
[…]In an attempt to exploit an outrageous piece of the Venezuelan Penal Code which calls for a reduced sentence for crimes against sex workers, Carrera Almoina’s defense claimed that Loaiza was part of a prostitution ring. If sentenced to jail time, Carrera Almoina would have only have had to serve a fifth of the normal sentence. No evidence was presented in support of these claims, and Loaiza has consistently denied them. Nevertheless, on October 21, 2004, the judge acquitted Carrera Almoina and his father of all charges, citing a “lack of evidence”, and ordered an investigation of Loaiza, her father and sister for prostitution.[…]
Because if a woman was raped, she must have been a lying prostitute and had it comin’ to her, right?
Loaiza and her attorney immediately appealed the ruling. In a statement, Loaiza affirmed, “I’m determined not to give up and to keep fighting for justice. I think many women in Venezuela and in the whole world have been through similar experiences and keep their suffering in silence for fear of the torture they will have to once again undergo, this time in the hands of the judicial system.” The district attorney supported the appeal, and had already noted irregularities during the trial, including illegally submitted evidence by the defense.
The Venezuelan women’s movement, including PLAFAM, IPPF/WHR’s member association in Venezuela, mobilized to raise awareness of the case and to provide legal and emotional support to Linda Loaiza in her fight for a new trial. On April 12, 2005, the seventh court of appeals annulled the verdict and called for a new trial. PLAFAM continues to raise awareness in the media and in public forums so that the same delays and corrupt measures will not be employed again.[…]
Rape victims sometimes don’t even come forward to report the hideous crime committed against them. Rapists aren’t always convicted (like this piece of shit) and some rapists aren’t always captured. But all of these things could be made even worse by a Rape Culture, a justice system that tries you–the victim who has been lefted physically mutilated for the rest of your life by this crime–rather than the accused perpetrator, who was fortunate enough to have an influential parent, and a legal system that metes out lesser sentences, because the Defense attorney makes you out to be a sex worker in order to get an acquittal. And some final words from Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon….
Patching this together, I thought about the inevitable whining of anti-feminists who say that women in the U.S. should be grateful that our society is more benevolent when trying to hush rape victims. Of course, that accusation presupposes that we’re not, and of course we are. I do think it’s a step forward that Kobe Bryant’s accuser, for instance, was simply smeared in the press as a slut rather than encouraged to kill herself. But it occurs to me that the real meaning behind the exhortions to be grateful for our relative levels of justice is to encourage American women to “other” women in other countries instead of calling for solidarity against injustice worldwide on every level. The irony is not lost on me that Kristof, who used to whinily cover women’s issues in other countries in no small part to pick at feminists here in just this way, has become a major advocate for justice for victims of sexual assault.
Ohhh, Goddess.
I support the death penalty on this one. AND cruel and unusual punishment, for both the guy who did this and the dipshit “judge” who acquitted him. Lack of evidence?!?! LOOK AT HER, you asshole!
Does Venezuela have capital punishment? I would be oh so happy to have this person dead.
Blessings to Loaiza. And Justice.
Long ago, some friends of mine and I were discussing rape, and the possiblity of it occuring to one of us. We were talking about what we would do, if this were to happen to us. Everyone cheered and drank a toast to the woman who said in a deadly, calm and oh so casual voice; “Oh, there would be no need to call the cops. I’d find the little shit myself . I’d hunt him to the ends of the earth. When I found him, I’d cut his balls off. With a dull butter knife.” Of course with THAT sort of confidence, she would be the last person a rapist (who are predators) would pick to tangle with.
Thanks for the link! I think a couple commenters at my blog misunderstood my point and thought I was apologizing for the patriarchy, as it were. My point was more that while it’s nice not to be threatened by death, we are all in one ugly tangle. “We” being all the women of the world.
This just shows how scarily awful things get at the intersection of oppressive systems. This rich boy from a powerful family raped this woman. There’s physical evidence, and the nature of the crime does not admit of a consent defense. It ought to be a complete ground-ball for the prosecution. But a cultural narrative can overwhelm the most unassailable logic. Folks trained like Pavlov’s dogs to excuse the rapes of rich kids by blaming the victims will do so by grasping at anything no matter how tenuous or irrational. I would love to say that this was a product of the shitty, corrupt Venezuelan judicial system and the gross disparities in wealth and power there, just like I’d love to tell myself that the rape cover-ups in Pakistan were the product of backward areas ruled by tribal chieftains and religious zealots.
I would love to tell myself that, but I can’t, because it does happen here. When tabloids print the names of women who accuse powerful men and those women are threatened by other men, that’s the same damned thing.
(To any trolls reading this, I am referring to Kobe Bryant, and even if you convinced yourself at the time that he didn’t do it, his “apology” is an admission.)
Thanks for this, P-A. The whole case disgusts me.
And Amanda, FWIW–I wasn’t taking you to task. Just pointing out the fallacies in the anti-feminist “logic”–things can and do get that bad over here. A woman who accused some men of gang raping her on a pool table (while others watched and cheered) had to leave town. She and her family faced death threats, harassment, and intimidation. Bryant’s accuser had to deal with death threats, and a woman who had been mistaken for Bryant’s accuser found her picture plastered all over the web. As I said on your blog, simply being a woman is a henious crime to some of these wingnuts.
Fair enough. I was mostly afraid that my dripping sarcasm wasn’t coming across.
Amanda, your point came across loud and clear. I think the problem is that you sometimes miss other people’s equally dripping sarcasm. I’m not quite sure why.
when i started reading the report…i started feeling queasy…and it just got worse! i hate that this type of abuse can happen to any woman anywhere in the world. i think most teenagers don’t even know that these kinds of abuse even exist. what we all need (not just the women, but EVERYBODY, especially kids [who will grow up to inhabit this world someday]) is to be aware and get in touch with the real world. people should not deny the existence of evil especially if the evil is the system that we rely on to protect us. Next, a woman is a woman is a WOMAN. no matter what her work, profession, occupation is, she is still a daughter, sister, and most importantly…she can be a MOTHER. even if only for this reason alone should the whole world respect and appreciate a woman. why does it always have to be a case where women get the blame because they’re poor, prostitutes, or simply cannot speak out? everybody is entitled to JUSTICE.
Justice for Loaiza, and ultimately justice to all the women and children oppressed daily.