09/08/10 – Yesterday afternoon, six Guanajuato women charged with manslaughter in the degree of kinship (grado de parentesco) were released from prison; six of the seven women were released from Puentecillas, the capital of Guanajuato, with one more released in Valle de Santiago. The PAN government (el gobierno panista) obliged the rapid release of the women as a response to the vast publicity this case received on both a national and international level.
When el Centro Las Libres, an organization to promote and defend the rights of women in the state of Guanajuato, publicized the incarceration of six women this past July, a penal code reform took shape and gained momentum. On August 31st, with thirty four votes in favor and only one opposed, the State Congress (el Congreso del Estado) passed Reform 156 under the Penal Code reducing the sentence for crimes performed by mothers within the first 24 hours of birth or when performed under motives of psychological nature. As a result of the reform, a mother who performed a crime under these pretenses would receive three to eight years in prison as opposed to twenty five to thirty years. The amendment took effect Tuesday, four days after its publication in the Official Journal of the Sate (Periódico Oficial del Estado) last Friday.
The House additionally approved a transitional second article that obliges the Secretary of Public Security (la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública – SSPE) to review the benefits of retroactive laws from existing cases. Case in point, abortion laws and how they fold into classification of homicide in the degree of kinship. Discussion surrounding this topic is additionally being conducted by the Attorney General of Human Rights of Guanajuato (la ProcuradurÍa de los Derechos Humanos de Guanajuato – PHHG) and the United Nations (la Organización de las Naciones Unidas – ONU).
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