CHURCH AND STATE VS VULNERABLE YOUNG WOMEN IN OAXACA

Oaxaca's Casa de la Proteccion a la Joven (Home for the Protection of Young Women), in the historic center of the city, has sheltered, protected, and educated vulnerable young women since 1974. It's a highly successful program, run on a shoestring, that provides a home, community, counseling and other assistance to up to 20 girls and young women who have come to Oaxaca from indigenous communities and outlying villages to try to create better lives for themselves.

At 4:00 a.m. on November 28, without warning, the home was assaulted by approximately 40 members of Oaxaca's State Police along with a representative of the State Secretariat of Administration. They attempted to evict the 20 young women asleep in the shelter, along with Luz Maria de la Rosa Hernandez, the program's director. Remarkably, the women were able to barricade the heavy wooden door to the home, and, so far, prevent the eviction.

Some of the staff and young women of La Casa para la Proteccion de la Joven

in the building's courtyard. Director Luz de la Rosa (front row, center)

According to the director, neither the police nor the government functionary presented any kind of legal documentation or justification for the raid.

The director explains that, for the last few years, the Archdiocese of Oaxaca has been trying to appropriate the building that has been the program's home for more than forty years. As is often the case in Oaxaca, the building's ownership history is unclear, and the Church's claim to the property was in the process of being negotiated and litigated.

However, it appears that rather than allowing the legal process to take place, the Archdiocese prevailed on the outgoing state government (the six-year term of the current governor, Gabino Cue Monteagudo, ends tomorrow, November 30) to order the State Police to evict the women and take possession of the property.

Ms. de la Rosa explains that the program has been housed in the same building since 1972, through a series of 15-year concords with the State. It appears that the original owner, General Francisco Leon, stipulated that on his death the building should be used for the public good, by an academy that no longer exists. At some point the State apparently appropriated the building, and, until recently, was content for it to house the program for the protection of young women.

Why the State changed its mind is not clear, but, as reported in the newspaper Las Noticias on 29 November, it may have decided to give the building to the Arcdiosese in compensation for a building "erroneously" appropriated from the Church in a neighboring city by the previous governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. The Archdiocese claims that the property was granted to two local priests for their private use.

From behind the barricaded doors of the Home for the Protection of Young Women, Ms. de la Rosa said that she had requested the intervention of the Defensoria de los Derechos Humanos del Pueblo de Oaxaca (Defenders of Human Rights of the People of Oaxaca) to prevent further violation of the rights of the young women in the program.

Explaining that this apparent misuse of the power of the Church and State could not succeed once it became public knowledge, Ms. de la Rosa asked for help in spreading word of the attempted eviction as widely as possible.

"This home is the only one many of us have," said one of the young women in the program.

"All we ask is that they don't throw us out of this space," said another. "It's the only way we have to move ahead."

A detailed account (in Spanish) of the attempted eviction appears along with this report.