A deputy in the Guerrero state Congress has proposed an initiative that would punish repeat rapists and pedophiles with chemical castration.
Morena party Deputy Marco Antonio Cabada Arias directed the initiative to the federal Congress in order for a change to be made to the constitution.
“The goal of the current initiative is to impose a maximum penalty of chemical castration on repeat rapists and pedophiles, which consists of the provision of medicine that reduces the libido,” he said.
Cabada said that official data reveal that 51 women are sexually assaulted daily in Mexico, a number that he believes makes it necessary to consider chemical castration as a punishment and deterrent.
He added that the chemical process is different from surgical castration in that it does not involve the removal of the testicles, and the duration of chemical castration can vary depending on the dosage, as the effects are reversed once the medication is suspended.
According to data from the National Statistics Institute (Inegi), the nationwide rate for child rape is 1,764 of every 100,000 people, and 5,000 of every 100,000 are touched inappropriately.
Cabada said that Tlaxcala, Querétaro and Chihuahua are the states with the highest rates of the types of crimes his bill aims to address.
“Among the reported cases, we find sexual crimes in which the figures add up to 1,530 cases of abuse in a single month, giving an average of 51 women sexually assaulted each day, [and] leaving us with a dark figure of unknown victims who do not report the crimes out of fear of retaliation.”
This is not the first time that chemical castration has been considered as a legal recourse to punish and deter sexual assault in Mexico.
The legislator reminded the Congress that a similar initiative was proposed in the Mexico City Congress on September 13. And in December 2018, Senator Alejandro Armenta Mier also proposed a chemical castration initiative.
Source: Milenio (sp)
