‘Nine-year-old’ mother ‘could be 15,’ Jalisco officials say
Jalisco authorities are investigating the case of a girl, supposedly just nine years old, who gave birth at a Guadalajara hospital last month.
The young mother, identified only as Dafne, gave birth by cesarean section to a healthy girl weighing 2.7 kilos and measuring 50 centimeters at the Hospital General de Occidente in Zapopan on January 27.
Dafne was just over eight years old when she became pregnant, according to her mother, but officials began to doubt the family’s version of events after they disappeared from their home in Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos on Wednesday.
“Yesterday the minor was not at home, the medical and psychological team is there again today and she is still not at home,” Health Secretary Antonio Muñoz said on Thursday.
“The medical characteristics of this minor do not correspond to a nine-year-old girl,” Muñoz added. “She could be much older, she looks about 15 years old.”
The Jalisco Attorney General’s Office (PGJEJ) is now following two lines of investigation regarding the father of the child.
The first concerns Dafne’s 17-year-old boyfriend. According to her testimony, he fled once she told him that she was three months pregnant and then refused his offer to move in with him.
“We want to find the young man to hear his version of events,” said Jorge Villaseñor of the PGJEJ on Wednesday. “This is a case of rape or child sex abuse.”
The law in Mexico states that, even if consensual, any sexual relationship with someone under the age of 15 is considered child abuse.
Attorney General Tomas Coronado Olmos revealed the second line of investigation on Thursday, confirming that his office is looking into allegations by the family’s neighbors that Dafne’s stepfather is in fact the father of the child.
‘Nine-year-old’ gives birth in Guadalajara
The healthy baby girl was born by cesarean section on January 27 at the Hospital General de Occidente, located on Avenida Zoquipan in the city’s Zapopan district. She measured 50 centimeters and weighed just 2.7 kilos.
The mother, identified only as Dafne, was discharged at the weekend, having been implanted with a subdermal contraceptive to prevent further pregnancies. She and her daughter are in good health but the hospital will continue to closely monitor their progress, providing the mother with any necessary psychological assistance.
“Given her age, her body was not fit or in the best condition to deliver a baby,” said Enrique Rabago Osorio, the hospital’s director, at a press conference.
“The girl was just over eight years old when she became pregnant. The father is 17, but we haven’t found him because he ran away,” said Dafne’s mother, who claims she was unaware her daughter was carrying a child for the first seven months of the pregnancy.
The father, who was apparently Dafne’s boyfriend, is said to have fled once she told him she was three months pregnant and then refused his offer to move in with him.
“We want to find the young man to hear his version of events,” said Jorge Villaseñor of the State Attorney General’s Office (PGJEJ). “This is a case of rape or child sex abuse.”
The law in Mexico states that, even if consensual, any sexual relationship with someone under the age of 15 is considered child abuse.
Dafne is not the youngest mother to ever give birth in Mexico. In 1992, eight-year-old Zulma Guadalupe Morales gave birth to a boy by cesarean section in a Guadalajara hospital.
The youngest confirmed mother in medical history is Lina Medina from Peru, who was just five years and seven months old when she gave birth to a son in 1939.
Formerly great bullfighter offers pitiful spectacle in Guadalajara
Thick plumes of cigar smoke filled the air as wealthier guests took their seats in the shade, while those of a more modest background sweated it out in the sun. All came prepared for the occasion, wearing sombreros and swigging tequila from leather bags known as botas.
After seeing a 500-kilo bull bled by his assistants and impaled with bandilleras (wooden spikes decorated with colored paper), Rodriguez baited the beast with the customary red flag and sought to deliver the estocada, a single, fatal thrust in which the sword is driven up to its hilt between the bull’s shoulder blades.
This aging professional seemed to have lost his touch, twice attempting in vain to deliver the killer blow. Upon his third attempt, Rodriguez buried the sword, but missed the desired spot. Instead of dying instantly, the bull staggered, blood gushing from its mouth, before finally collapsing to the ground.
The crowd hissed and jeered while aids dashed into the arena to administer a fatal blow to the head and mop up the crimson mess. This was not how the bulls are supposed to die.
Younger Spanish matadors Morante de la Puebla and Alejandro Talavante gave better performances, but the crowd remained underwhelmed by the spectacle once three of the six fights were over.
Rodriguez returned for round two, but drew further derision from the audience after failing again to kill the bull in an even remotely dignified manner.
The same afternoon, hundreds of demonstrators stained themselves in red paint and marched across Mexico City, calling for a nationwide ban to this controversial blood sport. Around 9,000 bulls are slaughtered every year in Mexican bull rings, the abolitionists say.
Advocates argue that this is part of Mexico’s cultural heritage, but then so too was gladiatorial combat part of Italy’s past, but no one in their right mind would defend such a practice today.
In what was due to be Sunday’s final corrida, Talavante finally provided some entertainment, artfully luring his bull from one side of him to another without moving an inch from where he was stood. The crowd responded with cheers, waving white handkerchiefs and tossing their sombreros into the ring as a mark of appreciation for the matador’s skill and bravery.
But the event, which had drawn on for nearly three hours, was not over yet.
His ego wounded at being outdone at his Guadalajara swansong, Rodriguez paid out of his own pocket for a third bull to be brought in to face him. Yet the audience had already lost interest and once again Rodriguez proved incapable of performing the estocada.
What followed was a truly pathetic spectacle: an old man, once respected as a great matador, impotently stabbing a collapsed bull until it finally gave up the ghost.
This time no one threw their hats into the arena once the deed was done. Most of the spectators had already left.
The Tequila Files 