The ABC's of Impunity

Yesterday, June 5th, was the first anniversary of a tragedy that shocked the whole of Mexican society. And in these sad days we live in, when violence has erupted with a potency not witnessed since the mythic days of the Revolution, it takes a particularly horrible act to catch the attention of the public; the reason for this: the victims were all little children.

On June 5th 2009, the children kept at the 'Guardería ABC''. a state-sponsored day care center in the northern state of Sonora, were caught on a fire that had started somewhere else nearby. The result: 49 children killed, and many survivors left with permanent scars or health problems caused by the smoke which will affect them for probably the rest of their lives.

After the tragedy, the media showed us that this so-called 'day care center', where poor Mexican workers had to take their little children while they were busy at their respective job centers, was actually a warehouse. One of several kept by the State government in one of their buildings; the fire had actually started in one of these warehouses filled with bureoucratic documents and papers (highly inflammable stuff), but the worse thing was that the actual day care center didn't have any kind of emergency exits, as required by Federal law —the fact that the tragedy was not greater, was due to the courageous intervention of one of the parents; who used his pick-up truck in order to break a hole in one of the walls, and allow the teachers and remaining children to escape.

Later it was revealed that the Mexican Social Security Institute had a policy of issuing licenses to third parties, in oder to provide services for which they didn't have enough resources themselves. While technically this wasn't agains the law, what caused general outcry was the fact that the authorities never bothered to check the actual conditions of these day care centers. As usual, blood must be spilled in order to the filth of corruption to be exposed to the public light.

So a year has passed, and the parents of the dead or injured children are still claiming for justice. Some of them have met with President Calderón —who managed to find a little space in his busy agenda, full of travels aimed at reassuring our international partners that everything is going great here— and the 5th of June has been declared a day of national mourning.

...But wait? what about the incarceration of the culprits? you know, the owners of the center. And what of the public officials who gave them the license in the first place?

So far, none of the direct responsibles have set a foot on jail. Chances are, they never will —they have strong ties with the sate governor, you see...

And the then-secretary of the Social Security Institute —who was after that moved to another public department by Calderón— well, he's doing just fine, thanks for asking! Has he even considered resigning to avoid any more public embarrassments to the federal government? How preposterous! For what would he have to give up his lucrative career, a few burned kids??

The hard lesson the parents of those kids learned a year ago, is that in the games of power and greed played by the mexican politicians, poor children will always be acceptable casualties.

Is it that difficult then to understand why the Mexican youth is so willing to change the ABCs from their alphabet —education, a career— for the allure of the Z?