SinEmbargo: Sanjuana Martínez*
Translated by: Amanda CoeHuman rights institutions in Mexico were created to dissimulate. A clear example of this is the Executive Commission for the Attention to Victims (CEAV), which, according to the victims, has proved to be a total fiasco, ineffective and a simulation; an institution buried in bureaucracy and slowdowns for distributing economic resources to victims.
CEAV, directed by Jaime Rochín del Rincón, turned out to be nothing more than a white elephant, created by the Peña Nieto government, to simulate giving attention to victims. There are so many complaints against this institution, that something seems fishy.
When analyzing budget use supposedly allocated for the attention to victims, we realize that CEAV has retained most of the funds or spent it on other tasks. For example, in 2015 it spent just over 47 million pesos [US$2.7 million] for direct and indirect payments to victims as immediate help, assistance and attention and compensation payments for what they call "full reparations of harm". But it didn't use 954 million [US$54.4 million], when it had 1 billion 28 million pesos [US$58.6 million] available for immediate support, compensation, and reparations throughout the past year.
Why has CEAV not given money to relatives? Why are they not doing their job? Apparently, the financial system in place to attend to victims is not ideal. For example, the money not given to victims was allegedly put into bank investments that netted 24.5 million pesos [US$1.4 million].
We don't have the least doubt that it is terrible that CEAV profited from the victims' money, but their financial structure was created for financial performance at the expense of the people’s need. The money should go directly and quickly to victims; but unfortunately we are realizing that this is not the case.
Victim testimonies about their experiences with CEAV are devastating. The stories they tell are absolutely heartbreaking. In addition to their losses, people have had to endure the disdain of some of its commissioners and staff. These officials are completely indifferent to suffering. Nothing upsets them. Often, these people don’t have the money to eat or pay for transportation, much less to meet with a lawyer or psychologist.
The victims' stories are surreal. CEAV asks them for receipts from funeral, medical and other expenses to repay them that month or after a few months, as if they were suppliers. Why do they not understand that relatives sometimes don’t have enough pay for the funeral? Obviously if they need the help it is because they don’t have the money to pay those expenses and assume that this was the reason CEAV was created, rather than them seeking reimbursement for payments they have made.
But CEAV is a bureaucratic nightmare with 450 employees. It is a frightening labyrinth to obtain the desired financial aid. Victims lose hours, days, weeks, months in completing all the required formalities only to be told they cannot obtain compensation because the officials still haven’t made a decision.
And this isn't even victims of crimes of the State, because that’s worse. CEAV lengthens proceedings as if receiving a line from higher up in order not to compensate relatives of those who were disappeared, tortured, raped, or killed by the Army, the Navy or the various police. The institution's alleged independence remains in question. Ultimately, the government is its employer and, with their high salaries, they owe loyalty to the Armed Forces and its Supreme Commander.
But if the victims' testimonies about CEAV are terribly negative, the statistics are devastating: last year, it resolved only 36 cases for immediate relief measures and compensated 130 victims. According to its own data, of 5,084 complaints received, the institution only attended to 89 victims until October 2015.
This means that most orphans, widows and relatives of people killed, as well as all of those who have suffered violations of their human rights have not received a penny of the 1 billion 450 million pesos [US$82.7 million] allotted for them last year.
CEAV officials defend themselves by saying this is because the General Victims Act has "candados" ["locks", restrictions] that somehow limit victim reparations. And this is why only 120 people have received some financial aid. An insignificant number compared to the actual number of victims. If in 2014 the National Human Rights Commission received more than 45,000 complaints, it is clear that CEAV is not fulfilling the role for which it was created. Those 120 people who benefited is also a laughable number, given the more than 15,000 intentional murders recorded in 2015.
CEAV has proved to be a fiasco. Its officials, who enjoy generous salaries, benefits and travel allowances, know this and have requested an amendment to the law to remove these alleged candados, although they have waited a long time to do so, detrimental to the thousands of victims who are still waiting to access what is rightfully theirs.
CEAV is a white elephant at the edge of the abyss, a failure. What do the 450 employees do there? How long will they continue to pretend that they are helping? As Alejandro Martí said, "if they can’t do it, resign".
MV Note: Marti is a Mexican businessman whose adolescent son was kidnapped and murdered in 2008. He then founded Mexico SOS, "a civil society organization with the objective of contributing to putting a stop to the crisis of insecurity which our country is going through".For their own sake, they should save a little of their dignity and stop participating in the State's system of dissimulation. Spanish Original
*Sanjuana Martínez is an investigative journalist focusing on issues of social justice, human rights and gender equality @SanjuanaMtz