In Mexico, special prosecutor concludes Indian woman not raped by soldiers

A special prosecutor concluded there was no evidence that soldiers raped an elderly Indian woman in a village this Gulf coast state, closing a case that outraged Indian rights groups and prompted the army to dismantle encampments in the area.

"The death of Ernestina Ascensio Rosario cannot be attributed to factors other than natural causes," Special Prosecutor Juan Alatriste told a news conference late Monday night.

Alatriste was accompanied by officials from the state prosecutor's office, which initially claimed that four soldiers bound, beat and sodomized Ascensio, 73, on Feb. 25 in the mountain town of Soledad Atzompa, about 120 miles (190 kilometers) east of Mexico City. They based the accusation on the testimony of local residents and medical investigators.

The original investigators have been removed from their jobs pending an internal review. Alatriste said he was closing the case following a "scientific and legal investigation."

His decision came a full month after Mexico's National Human Rights Commission announced that an autopsy on Ascensio's body showed she was neither beaten nor raped, but died of acute anemia from internal bleeding in her digestive tract.

When the allegations of a military assault first surfaced, Indian groups were outraged and town Mayor Javier Perez demanded that soldiers be withdrawn from the predominantly Indian region. The army has since dismantled three nearby military encampments.

The human rights commission later said that state investigators had committed errors in the case and received permission to exhume the body so that a second autopsy could be performed.

State prosecutors initially said they had arrested the four soldiers, but the Defense Department never confirmed that. The status of the soldiers was unclear Tuesday.