Days go by and declarations continue to circulate in the country that suddenly leave us breathless, as were the talks held this week between President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and John Kerry – the latter, who invited the development of bilateral proposals on renewable energies. clean- and expressed clear concern about the direction of the country’s energy reform.
On the other hand, the strange announcement by the president to temporarily “pause” relations with Spain, “until they learn to respect us”, apparently due to the alleged abuses of some companies that have taken advantage of the circumstances to enrich themselves, according to his saying. Thus, the situation leaves much to be desired, more so if it has not been possible to clearly explain what it means to “pause” a relationship and take it slowly. Just as a reference, it should be noted that Spain is the second foreign investment in Mexico and according to data from the Ministry of Economy, since 1999 and at the end of 2021, Spanish companies would have invested approximately 76,040 million dollars in the country, a figure which is second only to the United States.
Thus, between surprises and misunderstandings, other worrying realities are added that do not receive the same attention and priority in morning speeches, such as the case of children orphaned by the pandemic and the inability and/or lack of strategies and containment measures to address this trouble. The harsh reality is that it is an issue that knocks at our door and that would imply that a strategy of social impact by the federation, states and municipalities was already being considered or even applied, but very little happens and engines would have to be revved up.
The number of orphaned children in the country due to the pandemic is a serious issue. To get an idea of the problem, since the beginning of the pandemic and until April 2021, approximately 244,500 children and adolescents in Mexico had lost their primary or secondary caregivers, according to the study “La orphanhood caused by the pandemic”, prepared by the Belisario Domínguez Institute of the Senate (bibliodigitalibd.senado.gob.mx/bitstream/handle/123456789/5398/ML_208.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y) In the same vein, the analysis estimated in September that for every 100 deaths from Covid-19, approximately 90 minors lost one or both of their primary or secondary caregivers, which poses a worrying scenario, estimating the doubling of this figure today, thinking about the situation of orphans that is presented and will face our country this year.
Thus, thousands of children and adolescents wake up vulnerable today, since they lost their primary or secondary caregivers, or were left without space to live and without shelter or a family nucleus that could lend them a hand. The situation is serious. Mexico suffers from a serious problem around child orphanhood, which ranks it in third place only below India and Brazil, according to a study by the Belisario Domínguez Institute last year.
To this, it would be necessary to add the deaths caused by criminal violence, which have also had an impact on the number of children who have been orphaned, without a place to eat, study, be cared for or welcomed. To have a reference, only for criminal events in the country, between 30,000 and 40,000 orphans have been counted, as a consequence of direct violence, according to data presented at the Forum “The impact of arms trafficking on boys, girls and adolescents ; Mexico facing the challenge of violence”, in which members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, academics and experts on violence issues participated in the month of December last year.
In the same sense, not only orphanhood, but the direct impact of violence on the child population has been a recurring problem that has not received due attention.
Around 2,037 homicides among children and adolescents between 0 and 17 years of age were committed in 2021 alone, and around 4,328 children have been reported missing according to information from the Network for Children’s Rights. . This is a palpable reality of which little is said. What will we do as a society in the face of this reality that reaches us and concerns us? Do institutions and governments have an idea of the magnitude of the problem? The reality is clear, the fate of the majority of orphaned children in this country will end up in the hands of organized crime, who will provide them with food, money, who will use and dispose of them, or immersed in criminal logic incapable of being able to resist and defend themselves if there is no clear and precise action against this problem.
Are we up to the circumstances or do we turn the other way to see if this magically disappears?
