101 babies died in daycare centers in the past 15 years

Sanjuana Martinez

The newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, September 1, 2024, p. 10

Luis Ángel was 10 months old when his mother, Aurora Olivera, dropped him off at the Centro Educativo Triunfo private daycare center in the municipality of Guadalupe, Nuevo León. Three hours later, when she went to pick him up, she was told that her baby was not responding and had no vital signs.

Like him, more than 100 babies have died in the last 15 years in private daycare centers or institutions such as Cendi, IMSS or ISSSTE, according to a report prepared by parents of the ABC Daycare Center, who continue to demand justice for the death of 49 children.

The state of Mexico ranks first with 13 deaths; followed by Nuevo Leon with 12; Baja California with 10; Mexico City with eight; Queretaro with seven; and Sonora and Jalisco with five. They are followed by San Luis Potosi, Sonora and Quintana Roo with four each; and three deaths in Tamaulipas, Guanajuato, Puebla, Chihuahua and Coahuila; two in Veracruz, Zacatecas and Chiapas; and one each in Michoacan, Tabasco, Guerrero, Campeche, Coahuila, Aguascalientes, Tlaxcala and Oaxaca.

In 67 percent of the deaths the cause was bronchoaspiration, with 64 confirmed cases. Other causes are asphyxia, cot death, visceral congestion, head trauma, cerebral anoxia, reflux, gastroenteritis, asphyxia by hanging, pneumonia, being run over, eating meat infected with E. colihead contusion, cerebral edema due to impact, intestinal invalidation, septic shock or neurogenic shock.

Of the total number of deaths, 65 children died during the administration of PRI member Enrique Peña Nieto. In some cases the cause is unknown, and in others, the judicial investigation is still ongoing. Of the deceased, 52 babies were up to one year old.

Lack of government oversight, negligence and the absence of official regulation to ensure the safety of early childhood in these child care centers has led to the increase in deaths, he says in an interview with The DayPatricia Duarte, teacher, activist and mother of Andrés Alonso, who died in the ABC Daycare Center fire.

It hurts me, it breaks my heart and it causes me a lot of frustration and helplessness to see that girls and boys continue to die in daycare centers. I thought that after the death of my son and his classmates at the ABC Daycare Center, the Mexican State would pay more attention to daycare centers, but unfortunately that is not the case.he accuses.

Abandoned early childhood

Of the 101 deaths, 73 occurred in private daycare centers with poor infrastructure conditions and poorly qualified personnel: In the ABC Nursery tragedy, the problem was poor facilities and non-compliance with civil protection regulations. And I see that this continues to happen. In addition, the staff that cares for the children is not trained for a contingency or emergency first aid, nor do they have the material to deal with a fire..

Duck: The staff at the daycare centers are not subjected to a psychometric or psychological study. They hire personnel who do not have the profile. And there is a lack of professionalism among the people who are in charge of the care and comprehensive development of daycare centers..

According to the study, female employees generally do not have a professional degree: They also have no training, and they do it to save and pay low wages, to save and earn more money. Obviously, a well-prepared person is not going to work in a farm with a monthly pay of 8 thousand pesos. That is the salary in many farms and private schools that serve early childhood..

Unfortunately, she says that in the public sector, early childhood care still leaves much to be desired and asks that the IMSS subcontracted daycare centers be eliminated, where crimes such as the one at the ABC Daycare Center or the Techo Comunitario in Ciudad Juárez have occurred, where a teacher sexually abused 26 babies and took videos and photos of them, presumably for the purposes of child pornography.

There is corruption in the management of IMSS daycare centers. We now know that many of the nearly 1,500 subrogated daycare centers that Social Security had, when the ABC Daycare crime occurred, were given to private politicians by direct award, not by tender. Obviously, there are favors that are done between politicians and private individuals; with the same power groups..

Fifteen years after the tragedy that marked their lives, he points out that nothing has changed in the insecurity that prevails in the more than 1,200 IMSS subrogated child care centers: The Mexican government sees the sons and daughters of Mexican workers as a prize for profit, without caring about safety. They save everything they can to fill their pockets.

Considers that it is clear that the country’s early childhood children are in constant danger: The Mexican State sees early childhood as a business. It does not meet its obligations, but when a tragedy or crime occurs, it tries to avoid its responsibilities under the scheme of surrogate daycare centers..

She adds that the lack of training of staff in public and private daycare centers is very serious because it causes deaths. She recalls that when the ABC Daycare Center fire occurred, the then national coordinator of IMSS daycare centers was Karla Rochín Nieto, an interior designer: And so it goes on. What can we expect?

Law 5 June, not applied

Concerned by the results of this national study of deaths in daycare centers, Fabián Goyzueta Sandoval, father of Daniel Alberto, victim of the ABC Daycare Center, says: It is very unfortunate that children continue to die. If the teachers they hire were properly trained, surely a very high percentage of the children would not have died, but would be with their parents. The nurseries fake the documentation, they fake their internal plan cards. I know this..

Upon reviewing the report, it was found that daycare centers and the government do not apply the June 5th Law that emerged after the ABC Daycare crime, which regulates the provision of services for the care, attention and comprehensive development of children.

Parents put their children in private daycare centers thinking that they will be better cared for or because they pay more they will get better care, but then they realize that this is not the case. The most children have died in these daycare centers and in IMSS-subsidized daycare centers. We have a pretty big problem. And the number may increase.

The problem, he points out, is that anyone can open a nursery in their home, so nurseries abound. duckling or illegal stays: There is no real regulation for the opening of daycare centers. And now the current government provides support to open daycare centers and the problems have increased because there is no regulation or supervision..

He comments that there is no unification in government support for early childhood: We have children in first, second, third and fourth class. They should all receive the same education, the same attention..

Duck: The most worrying thing is that children continue to die in nurseries. We work with civil protection at a national level and we have noticed that in some states nurseries break the law, they have no idea how to apply it or they are simply unaware of it. And the authorities pass the buck and no one takes action to prevent more children from dying..

Patricia Duarte points out that in Sonora the governor, Alfonso Durazo, has complied by applying the June 5 Law, but that is not happening in the rest of the country: This report shows us that the López Obrador government is doing nothing to protect children. 15 years after my son and his classmates died, everything remains the same..

A national system is urgently needed

To avoid the discrimination suffered by children of Mexican workers who do not work for the government, Duarte proposes a comprehensive model of daycare centers under the national education system.

We want all daycare centers in Mexico to belong to the Ministry of Public Education and for the SEP to be the governing body of daycare centers, with a budget allocated for early childhood, the construction of better spaces and the hiring of professional staff. That would be the solution. This is how it is designed in other countries..

Currently, only state employees have access to Child Development Centers (Cendi), when it should be a right for all Mexican workers:

The State must view children as full subjects of rights and its obligation is to provide them with safe childcare facilities, regardless of the employment status of the parents, because some who do not work should also have that financial benefit.

Add: Cendi is the ideal system and should not be only for state workers. Sending the rest to private nurseries without supervision is discrimination, it is inequality..

Faced with judicial impunity, 15 years later, Patricia and Fabián continue to seek justice for their children in international bodies such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is already investigating the ABC Daycare Center crime.

We are still waiting for justice. There is no reparation for the damage because it must be comprehensive. They have to legislate everything necessary, we urgently need them to invest in early childhood. The Mexican State has not learned anything, serious crimes continue to be committed against girls and boys in daycare centers: negligent and wilful homicides, child pornography, sexual abuse. What else are we waiting for to get all indignant?