Encinas urges states to comply with obligations in the care of victims

Roberto Garduno

Newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday March 15, 2023, p. 10

Attention to crime victims in the country faces an uneven development, and sometimes a lack of understanding (in some states) about the importance of fulfilling the responsibility of the State to guarantee victims who have suffered a violation of their rightsstressed the Undersecretary for Human Rights of the Ministry of the Interior, Alejandro Encinas.

When rendering the first annual report of the Executive Commission for Attention to Victims (CEAV) –constituted ten years ago–, its head, Yuriria Rodríguez, explained that until December 31, 2022, the list of the National Registry of Victims added 54 thousand .

CEAV report

When breaking down the work of the 300 CEAV employees, he explained that they provided care and support to 107,988 people and families, of which 79,435 were deployed in social and medical work services, employment, and links with housing institutions. and with the Judiciary, in addition to the fact that 24,576 psychological services were provided.

The official put on the table that nowadays they carry out search procedures to locate their relatives, and this leads us to something very important: counting the victims for better care. We also need financial resources to be allocated to them that can guarantee care and accompaniment to those affected. This will help generate public policies, he insisted, because the majority of those registered in the register are women (55 percent) and almost all the victims are between 20 and 49 years of age..

At the end of the report, Encinas spoke about the omissions of local governments in the process of serving citizens in this situation. There is an effort to decentralize the work of the CEAV and strengthen local bodies, but we must understand that here there are responsibilities of the state and municipal governments that cannot be addressed at the federal level. And the fundamental obligation is not only to strengthen local institutions, but to strengthen their response capacities.

When asked about the disappeared in Guanajuato, he stated that Investigations are being carried out into the unfortunate disappearances that have been registered, and it is a matter that does not correspond to the CEAV.

– In the Ayotzinapa case? –replied a reporter.

–It is one of the issues that is being addressed; These are issues to which family members have rights, such as care from the State.

Regarding the conviction of the femicide of Mariana Lima, perpetrated 13 years ago in the state of Mexico, he stressed that The sentence is a good message, because impunity cannot continue 13 years later, which is found in most of the crimes committed against women. It is necessary to strengthen the work in the more than 220 sentences through the legal advice of the CEAV.