Ottawa said it expected a “thorough and transparent investigation” by Mexican authorities into allegations that a Canadian social worker was gang-raped in jail by Mexican police.
“We have asked the Mexican ambassador not only to look at (this case) but we’ve asked him to set an inquiry in place,” Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Tuesday. “We take these allegations very seriously.”
Ottawa’s urgings came the same day a Penticton, B.C., man was recovering in a Mexican hospital after being shot in the knee by a stray bullet. Mike Dilorenzo, 68, was on vacation with his wife, Serafina, in Mazatlan when the pair got caught in the crossfire of a gangland execution.
Rebecca Rutland, 41, told the CBC that she was out drinking with fiancé, Richard Coleman on New Year’s Eve in the seaside town of Playa Del Carmen (about 60 kms from Cancun) when the 51-year-old found himself in a heated exchange with police.
According to Rutland, the couple was arrested, taken to a sprawling jail, and separated. Rutland said she was forced to perform oral sex on an officer. Then, she says, two officers took turns raping her.
Rutland, who is currently working on her thesis in Thunder Bay, said the pair was also robbed of hundreds of dollars and jewellery.
Reached at his Ottawa home Tuesday night, Barry Rutland, Rebecca’s father, told the Star he last spoke with his daughter Monday night. Her Toronto-bound flight touched down just before 6 p.m. Tuesday.
“She said the full trauma will probably hit her in a couple weeks. She’s a stiff-upper-lip type, so her initial response was to do something about it,” he said.
The Mexican Embassy in Canada released some details of their investigation into a complaint filed by Rutland on Jan. 1.
The release said that, “according to preliminary information,” Rutland and Coleman were intoxicated and “started a fight and attacked each other.”
“During the brawl, they hit a car whose driver requested the assistance of the police,” said the release.
“An investigation by the authorities of Quintana Roo state is ongoing in order to determine whether a crime was committed and, if it is the case, prosecute and punish whoever is responsible.”
Mike Dilorenzo’s son, Adriano, said Tuesday night from his Penticton home that his parents – who had been travelling to Mazatlan for years and recently talked about buying a house there – were “pretty traumatized” by their ordeal. His father had just gotten out of his second surgery.
“It looks like they’re going to save the leg,” said Adriano, adding that the family is working with foreign affairs to get them out of the country as soon as possible.
Adriano said his parents were coming out of a pharmacy Monday when a white van drove by and opened fire. His father knocked his mother out of the way, taking a bullet in the process. One man, riding a motorcycle, was killed. “They blew his head off,” said Adriano.
“Mexico has enough public relations problems as it is. This isn’t going to help them for sure,” he said.
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs said Tuesday night that consular officials in Mazatlan “are working closely with local authorities and are providing consular assistance as required.”
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