Emir Olivares Alonso
Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, April 4, 2022, p. 8
Despite its promises, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) continues to fail to fully comply with the transfer of the household goods of dozens of Mexican diplomats assigned to headquarters abroad.
For months, those affected and their families have had to survive in precarious conditions, without equipment such as refrigerators, beds, stoves, washing machines, tables, crockery, chairs and cutlery.
Given the insistent complaints, on February 22, the Foreign Ministry promised to speed up the administrative processes to resolve the problem and justified that the delays occurred because the contracted company, Sancalsa Servicios Internacionales, SA de CV, reported administrative imbalances
by covid-19.
Personnel from the Mexican Foreign Service (SEM) explained to La Jornada that according to a recent survey applied to 52 affected, 36 of them (70 percent) have not been given a delivery date, 48 (92 percent) have not yet receives its kitchenware and only four already have it.
Because of this, foreign service professionals begin to suffer from other problems. The survey – organized by those affected themselves and which they submit to the SRE every week – reveals that some already have family or marital crises, including the risk of separation, poor school performance of their children, emotional and health effects, and unforeseen expenses.
In February of this year, La Jornada reported that diplomats removed from assignment as part of the 2021 Rotation Program had between four and six months surviving without their belongings. On the 22nd of that month, the Foreign Ministry promised that in the 13 most urgent cases the goods would be delivered between five and 18 days, and recognized that 64 removals presented some type of delay.
Given the new complaints, this newspaper requested a position from the SRE, to which it was replied that several weeks ago a service desk was set up for those affected in the Administration and Finance Unit of the SRE, headed by Moisés Poblano, with a high-level team to resolve administrative issues related to household items
.
It was also said that this week there will be a good number of solved cases derived from this punctual follow-up
.
