IMSS demands 40 million pesos per family of babies abused in daycare

Sanjuana Martinez

The newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, July 28, 2024, p. 12

There is no money that can compensate for what they did to my son.says Elena with a lump in her throat as she holds back her tears. No amount of money will remedy the damage suffered. But our lives have taken a 180-degree turn and we are going to fight for a fair and dignified reparation..

Her son, barely two years old, is one of the 26 babies sexually abused by the teacher currently in Cereso 2, Naomy Yamileth Rodríguez Pérez, at the Techo Comunitario daycare center in Ciudad Juárez, subrogated by IMSS, number U-0499.

The events occurred a year ago and the psychological after-effects are still present and could last a lifetime: I began to notice that my son, when naked, would penetrate his anus with his finger.says Elena, who at first thought it was part of her development, but something else caught her attention: I noticed that he was irritated by his anus, redness and feces in his underwear. He said that his butt hurt. I thought it was because they didn’t clean it properly..

The alarm increased when he began to notice that the child was crying upon arriving at the daycare center located at 9704 Herradero Street, Toribio Ortega neighborhood: They reported me that he was very rude and disobeyed the teachers, which was strange, because he is very calm. Also, they told me that they had not changed his underwear because he did not have a spare, when I always let him have one..

Obviously, he adds, something didn’t fitbut I never related it to a topic of this magnitude.

The horror

It was in July of last year when the director of the nursery, Nidia Lara Lara, called the parents to a meeting. The teacher had already been arrested, almost two months after the first complaint of sexual abuse had been filed.

The nursery continued to operate. And at that meeting he told us that there was an investigation by the prosecutor’s office, but he never said that the teacher had been arrested or what type of crime she was accused of.

Everything is fine, don’t worry. Nothing is wrong.the director told them as calming the watersremember.

But the next day they learned, through the WhatsApp group, that the teacher had been arrested and admitted to Cereso 2 for sexual abuse: That’s when we all became alarmed and requested a meeting with the director, but she again said that nothing was happening. And the nursery continued to work as normal..

Faced with the events, she decided not to take her son to the nursery and went to the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Chihuahua, where all the children were summoned for examination. During the expert testimony, her son penetrated himself with his little finger and she said to him: “Who does that to you, my love?” And the child answered: Teacher Naomy. Then she mentions her friend Ari from kindergarten: She also said that Ari and Naomi put things in her anus and Naomi would kiss her there (anal area). The teacher made the children touch each other..

The world came crashing down on him. That’s where the parade of boys and girls began: positive, positive, positive… For the parents, first there was uncertainty and then the terror of confirming what the teacher did to them. I said it can not be, it can not be.

Advised by the Lex Iust law firm of Ciudad Juárez, the result was overwhelming: the child APR within the investigation file 21585/2023, Yes, it presents indicators of child sexual abuse at the time of the evaluation with a degree of emotional affectationaccording to expert Laura Ailyn Castorena Aguilar. And the same was determined by Dr. Aidé Yazmín Riacho Gamboa in her clinical examination.

Did your child say anything about the photos and videos that teacher Naomy took with her cell phones?They Asked. No, he’s a boy, it was more like that with the girls. The teacher asked the girls to model and move sexy and things like that to record them and take pictures of them.answered.

Social Security and the trial

It is a monstrous case. We have been very worried and busy since the first day we detected this case.he says in an interview with The Day Mauricio Hernández, Director of Economic and Social Benefits of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS).

Add: I feel terrible. I am a father, I am a grandfather, I see my grandchildren. Of course it affects me. We are outraged by this case. It hits us like a stone. And we are working to improve the service we provide, so that it does not happen again and so that the guilty party is punished..

He claims that they became aware of the events 54 days after the first case and that the provider (Luz María Villalba Valdez), should have sent a manifestation of impact to the IMSS and did not do so. Then, on May 31, the prosecutor’s office made requests to the director and she should have informed the institute and did not do so, nor of four other judicial requests:

On May 31, the provider communicated this via WhatsApp to the director of daycare centers in Chihuahua, who did not inform us, and so the contracts of four people from the daycare department were terminated.

On August 8, 2023, Social Security filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) against Promotora de Servicios Comunitarios, SC and its owners, Mariana Soledad Loya Parra and Antonio Villalobos Sosa, and Luz María Villalba Valdez, who was the one who registered the property.

The IMSS legal director, Karen Berlanga, explained that the investigation file 37-2024-5406 of the institute’s criminal complaint was for non-compliance with the providers.

As in other cases of IMSS subcontracted daycare centers, the owner of the daycare center, Villalba Valdez, has political ties and has registered Techo Comunitario, AC and Promotora de Servicios Comunitarios, SC since 1998. In 2017, the then governor of Chihuahua, Javier Corral, announced the opening of 150 child care centers with an investment of 30 million pesos. At that time, she was president of Casas de Cuidado Diario Infantil, with which the government opened 50 centers in low-income neighborhoods in Ciudad Juárez to care for 1,175 children.

The promoter and the Techo Comunitario daycare center, where the abuses were committed, received donations in 2022 for more than 7 million pesos, while the IMSS gave it around 21 million pesos annually through the subrogation contract, that is, for each child it received 4,128 pesos per month.

Despite the opacity, irregularities and corruption reported in this and other cases of IMSS subcontracted daycare centers, Mauricio Hernández defends the 1,271 that exist in the country: It would be a tragedy if they disappeared, because these nurseries have very good quality, they provide service and a benefit that working parents need..

–But according to the report from the parents of the ABC Nursery, there are dozens of subrogated nurseries where corruption, misfortunes and crimes exist.

–This system cannot be perfectly protected. The institute is progressing and improving. Our future project is to move towards artificial intelligence to know in real time what is happening in a nursery.

–Why did they seize the cameras from the Techo Comunitario daycare center?

–The prosecution has the backing of all the videos. The prosecution took the hard drive on July 10, 2023. We did not review those videos.

–Did they have access to the attacker teacher’s four cell phones and two laptops?

–No. It is forbidden to bring cell phones into daycare centers.

–But you see what happens, she took photos and videos of the children, which exposes a possible international child pornography network…

–It’s forbidden, I don’t know where he’s hidden it.

–How do you feel about the fact that the images and videos taken by the teacher in an IMSS daycare center are part of an international child pornography network?

Karen Berlanga answers: We are very surprised and hurt by this situation. For me, pedophilia is a horrible thing. And the position of the IMSS is to continue strengthening the investigation of the prosecutor’s office, as our general director, Zoé Robledo, has decided..

Repairing the damage

The IMSS says it has offered psychological, medical and financial support to the parents of the minors. Marcela Velázquez, head of the Human Rights Unit, said that they have already delivered material amounts of money to 19 affected families, without asking them to withdraw their complaint.

Elena says that these supports have not materialized and that she rejected the compensation that the IMSS has given to some parents for 2 million 450 thousand pesos. She affirms that they discovered that the majority of those working in the nursery were students without a degree: There are many irregularities. Some slept on the floor during working hours. There are photos.

She and other affected parents have sued the IMSS for State patrimonial responsibility for 30 million pesos, another compensation for destruction of the life project of 10 million pesos and a third determined by the court for punitive damages.

His lawyer, Raúl Esparza Silva, from the Lex Iust law firm, explained that the claim for property was first made to the IMSS and the institution replied that the entire process would be carried out in Mexico City and they attended to him there: The entire probationary period has already been completed and we are ready to send a final resolution, but the IMSS does not want to pay. We had to file a petition for protection by right of petition to force them to respond..

Although the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, in its resolution 1/2009, determined the unconstitutionality of daycare centers subrogated to private individuals, this scheme remains in force, The IMSS is opaque on this issue. It does not want to collaborate. We are asking for information about the officials who had influence in the approval of the contract with Techo Comunitario because there is also criminal liability against these officials..