A class at the DIF Monterrey facilities, in Nuevo León, in December 2021.DIF
The sudden death and immediate cremation of the body of Ángel Manuel Moreno, a 14-year-old teenager who died in a DIF shelter in Monterrey, in the state of Nuevo León, has sparked a wave of suspicions of child violence that the Government rejects.
Among other irregularities, the authorities took nine days to report the event, after it was exposed by local media.
The secrecy in handling the case has provoked questions from civil organizations, and contrasts with the overexposure of minors on social networks for which the current administration has previously been singled out.
Ángel Manuel Moreno died of "natural causes" after suffering a septic shock, according to the Nuevo León DIF.
An external doctor went at dawn on February 9 to the Fabriles shelter, in the downtown area of Monterrey, to certify the death, according to the agency in a statement.
“Both the emergency medical service and the external doctor attest that the minor died a natural death, without showing any signs of violence,” he remarks.
Later, Ángel Manuel's body was cremated.
"The cremation was carried out within the term established by the General Health Law, which states that it must be carried out within 48 hours after death," justifies the report published more than a week later.
The death of the minor who had been in the DIF for 10 years was revealed on February 16 by the digital medium
Sin Pelos
.
According to anonymous testimonies from shelter workers, the abuse was frequent and the teenager allegedly died after being beaten.
According to the DIF, the accusations lack truth.
"It is false that he was beaten, sedated, assaulted and that they left him on a soccer field," he says.
The unit assures that Ángel Manuel was under the supervision of a doctor on duty at all times, but on the night of February 8 his symptoms intensified, for which he was treated by emergency personnel.
“The paramedics, when checking him, detected multiple episodes of vomiting, accompanied by gastrointestinal symptoms and fever,” he indicates.
His condition deteriorated until he went into shock and had respiratory cardiac arrest, which led to his death, he concludes.
For a patient to reach such an extreme, various stages of the disease had to have been overlooked, according to physician Rosario Staines, who practices in Monterrey.
Among the possible negligence that she observes, the lack of a timely transfer to the hospital stands out.
"Although it was not a cause of violent death, there was an omission of care for the child to reach that state," she values.
In the first place, she points out that a poorly controlled diet could cause the disease.
Plus late attention probably made it worse.
The specialist adds that when a minor is admitted to a hospital in a state of collapse, the authorities investigate the relatives for neglect of care.
"Even more so if the boy is interned in a state institution that is supposed to ensure his well-being," she points out.
The Nuevo León Prosecutor's Office has only reported the opening of an investigation folder since February 11.
"This authority began the collection of data, proceedings and interviews within its reach," as explained in a bulletin issued last Sunday.
A week later, the agency has made no further progress.
From vandalism to protest against mistreatment
At the age of four, Ángel Manuel entered the DIF system and since then has lived under the tutelage of the State.
The Fabriles center, overcrowded for serving migrant children, was his last home.
Three months ago, he was transferred there for participating in an alleged fight at the Capullos shelter on November 28.
He and three other children took over a section of the facilities and caused damage, the head of the Office to Love Nuevo León, Mariana Rodríguez, reported the next day.
"They are going to have consequences because that was an act of vandalism," he warned in a video posted on his Instagram account.
In addition, she denied that it was a protest against violence against children, as was revealed in the press at the time.
"It is not an issue of mistreatment of personnel within Capullos, it is an issue that minors already bring mistreatment from their situations and from their families," she reiterated.
"These children are not to blame for having psychiatric disorders," she commented before detailing the ailments of the four minors who suffer from intellectual disabilities.
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A post shared by Mariana Rodríguez Cantú (@marianardzcantu)
After reviewing the case, the State Human Rights Commission (CEDH) issued a list of precautionary measures.
Among them, he requested "personnel for the permanent surveillance and monitoring of minors, as well as making security inspections in the bedrooms."
However, the mistreatment had not been pronounced until last week when the president Susana Méndez announced the dismissal of an employee for this reason.
"On that occasion of the fight, it was pointed out that one of those in charge of surveillance mistreated them and that person was fired and a procedure is being followed," she explained in an interview with
Milenio
.
The CEDH of Nuevo León also opened an investigation folder for the death of the minor and sent a request for information to the DIF, which expired on Friday, February 25.
“We request information from the paramedical personnel, from the ambulance that went to the scene, the public servant who authorized the cremation and the fundamental reasons for the reasons for that determination,” he points out.
The Fabriles shelter had already been pointed out last September by the Commission due to overcrowding, which exceeded 350% of its capacity.
In addition to the fact that a month ago, a dozen minors escaped from that place due to alleged abuse.
The death of Ángel Manuel has uncovered another face of the current government that is out of tune with the image that Governor Samuel García and his wife Mariana Rodríguez hold in their networks.
Unlike other issues related to the DIF that the owner of Amar a Nuevo León has exploited in her publications, this fact has hardly been mentioned.
For his part, García has denied that the minor has suffered any kind of violence and has assured that the unit "has nothing to hide."
“I say it with great respect and with great depth, it is not fair with false information to say that a child has been murdered in the DIF”, he has maintained.
"We can't turn the page"
The Government has the obligation to clarify the alleged irregularities surrounding the case, according to the Network for Children's Rights (Redim).
“The institutional silence in the face of the death of a child in the DIF facilities linked to the precautionary measures of the ECHR and in the face of the complaints published since February 16 is striking,” he warns.
"If 'at all times he was under the supervision of the doctor on duty', it is inadmissible that the death occurred due to stomach upsets that suddenly culminated in sepsis," he questions.
The founder of the organization Citizens in Support of Human Rights (Cadhac), Consuelo Morales, considers that this case shares similarities with the forced disappearances that have afflicted the State for years.
"It seems to me that with Ángel Manuel they acted as organized crime acts when trying to dispel the evidence," says the companion of relatives of disappeared persons.
"That the authorities are not afraid to accept the truth of what happened so that we seek justice and that reparation be made and not overlap those who have committed this terrible act," she demands.
"We cannot accept natural death and turn the page because we do not know how many minors are in danger," she warns.
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