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MEXICO: Parents’ Fight for Justice Continues a Year After Nursery Fire

Emilio Godoy

MEXICO CITY, Jun 3 2010 (IPS) - From the moment he wakes up each morning, Abraham Fraijo feels the absence of his daughter Emilia, one of the 49 children who died Jun. 5, 2009, in a fire at the ABC child-care centre in the northwestern Mexican city of Hermosillo. It is the battle for justice that keeps him going.

“When they ask me how long I’m going to fight for justice, I respond, ‘As long as it takes to stop loving a daughter’,” Fraijo, a professional photographer, told IPS, his voice cracking.

Fraijo is one of the lead activists of the Citizens Movement for June 5 Justice, founded by the victims’ parents to demand sanctions for those responsible and as a memorial of the young children.

A short circuit triggered the fire that consumed the nursery in Hermosillo, located 1,700 kilometres northwest of Mexico City. A private group owned the centre, licensed by the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) to provide legally required childcare services to workers’ children.

In addition to the deaths, the fire injured 74 children ranging in age from newborn to six years old.

One year later, the parents of the victims continue to demand justice, while the five ABC partners facing charges on voluntary manslaughter are free on bail totalling an estimated 1.5 million dollars.

“There are people who should be in prison. We are on war footing until we achieve justice,” said Patricia Duarte, another member of the Citizens Movement, whose son Andrés García died in the fire.

Humanitarian organisations and analysts agree that the tragedy reveals just how powerful influence peddling is in Mexico. One of the ABC owners, Marcia Gómez, is the cousin of Margarita Zavala, whose husband is President Felipe Calderón.

“It is evidence of children’s rights left unprotected. It is a big issue because we are talking about children who are directly protected by the state,” Mario Fuentes, director of the non-governmental Centre for Research in Development and Social Assistance.

The Mexican government’s obligation to care for workers’ children did not escape the shift to neoliberal policies that have predominated in Mexico since the 1990s.

During the Vicente Fox administration (2000-2006), the IMSS initiated a strategy to move the operation of the childcare centres to the private sector. Fox and his successor Calderón both belong to the conservative National Action Party (PAN).

The ABC nursery was located in an old warehouse with toxic and inflammable walls and blocked emergency exits — violating even the minimum safety standards. But it was licensed as an IMSS services provider in 2001, and confirmed in 2006, when the Institute’s director was Juan Molinar, who is now the transportation secretary and close to President Calderón.

In March, the preliminary report on the tragedy by an investigative commission of the Supreme Court of Justice said the IMSS outsourcing of childcare services was illegal. The document named 17 people for violating the individual rights of the children, which resulted in the tragic fire.

Among those cited are Molinar and Eduardo Bours, then governor of the northwestern state of Sonora, whose capital is Hermosillo.

The commission’s report will serve as the basis for the Supreme Court’s decision on the case, which will not be legally binding. The investigation also found that of the 1,480 outsourcing contracts signed by the IMSS, only 14 met all the legal requirements.

“Given that some people think children are burdens that can just be stored away, it doesn’t surprise me that there are other nurseries in the same circumstances as ABC,” Daniel Gershenson, director of the non-governmental consumers advocacy group A1Consumidor, which supports the victims’ families, told IPS.

Under the slogan, “mourn and fight, not another ABC,” on Wednesday the parents of the dead and injured launched activities in Hermosillo, Mexico City and 17 other locations across the country, to honour their children on the first anniversary of the tragedy and to demand justice.

Among the Wednesday events, Calderón met with a group of parents, as he had done Apr. 30. But Fraijo, who lost his daughter Emilia, minimised the meetings, to which he was not invited.

“As if that man didn’t want to clean up his image by saying he’s going to meet with the parents. I won’t allow it. My daughter deserves more respect,” said Fraijo.

The parents want the president to appear in a public meeting in Hermosillo and they want Jun. 5 to be declared a day of national mourning.

“We want the Court to recognise that there were serious violations of individual rights,” said fellow movement leader Duarte.

Fuentes, the social services researcher, said the central factor behind the continued impunity in the tragedy is “a judicial system that is one of the great structures that reproduce poverty, inequality and injustice; a legal system in which there is great impunity and great corruption.”

The drama of the ABC nursery tragedy has been set down in print in the book “Nosotros somos los culpables” (We Are to Blame), by Mexican journalist Diego Osorno. Royalties from the sales of the newly released book will go to the Citizens Movement for June 5 Justice.

Over the past year, the parents have filed two civil lawsuits against the officials implicated in the fire, and are preparing a third against the government, slated for Aug. 5.

On the eve of the tragedy’s anniversary, the IMSS announced it would provide life-long medical attention to the 80 children who were not apparently affected by the ABC fire, in case they develop related health problems later.