Order to repair damage to victim of grenade in Michoacán, after 14 years

14 years after the events occurred, a federal court ordered the Executive Commission for Attention to Victims (CEAV) to conclude the bureaucratic process to compensate a woman who was seriously injured in both her legs, and who also lost two of her relatives, during the attack with grenades that occurred in the Zócalo de Morelia, Michoacán, in September 2008.
By unanimous votes, the three magistrates of the Ninth Collegiate Court in Administrative Matters based in Mexico City decided to protect Aurora “N”, after considering that the CEAV has postponed and delayed, in an absolutely unjustified manner, the reparation of the damage to the victim despite the fact that she complied with all the necessary requirements. A situation that has ended up revictimizing her.
Aurora was with her family on the esplanade of downtown Morelia to witness the celebrations for the Cry of Independence on the night of September 15, 2008, when unknown subjects detonated various explosive devices in the middle of the public square.

The woman was left with considerable injuries to her legs after being hit by shrapnel from the grenades. The metal fragments were never removed from his limbs so, to date, they continue to cause pain and permanent discomfort when walking. In addition, her husband was also left with considerable injuries, while her mother-in-law and nephew were killed in the attack.
Over the next decade she and most of the victims received incomplete payments and partial assistance but no reparation for the damage. Largely because those who were supposed to repair the damage, that is, those responsible for the attack, could not be fully identified by the authorities. The people who at the time were arrested and presented as the alleged perpetrators, were tortured to accept their alleged responsibility and ended up being released by order of the judges who reviewed their cases.
It was until 2018 when Aurora, with the support of lawyers, managed to initiate before the CEAV the formal procedure so that her status as a victim of a federal crime considered as serious was recognized and, therefore, she could receive the benefits and support that the General Law of Victims contemplates for people in this situation and that goes, from a subsidiary compensation to the integral reparation of the damages suffered.

In 2020 and after several bureaucratic obstacles Aurora, like 19 other people, managed to get the CEAV to officially recognize their character as victims. The next step was the issuance of the agreement establishing the amount of the subsidiary compensation (because there is no guilty convict) for the damage caused, and the rest of the provisions of the reparation plan. A process that should not have taken more than a month, but that is already going for two years and has not been closed.
Delays and revictimization
In the judgment in which the magistrates grant Aurora the definitive amparo, it is noted that the omissions incurred by the commission of victims have violated her fundamental right to access to prompt and expeditious justice. This is due to delays in issuing the resolution on the compensation to which he is entitled, which was formally presented since July 2020.
Although the commission maintained that the delays in the procedure were allegedly the responsibility of the victim’s lack of cooperation, and the health pandemic that affected the development of the administrative procedures, the magistrates concluded that these arguments do not justify the lack of response to a process that should not have exceeded 20 working days.
The court recalls that according to the Constitution it is a fundamental right of every person in our country to access a “prompt, complete, free and impartial” justice, a situation that should be adopted as a priority by the authorities and from this to meet the different demands. Not doing so not only affects this right, but also generates a double affectation.
“The violation of the right of access to justice can manifest, among other cases, through a negative act or an omission in the strict sense, which has two aspects: the first, is that the authority does not carry out the trial within the terms and deadlines provided by law (that is, that it does not follow it diligently, but with delay or delay); and, the second, implies that the authority does not provide or fail to do what is conducive to the processing and completion of the respective procedure,” the magistrates warned.
Reyna Velasco, Aurora’s lawyer, considered that the ruling of the collegiate court shows that the CEAV, instead of speeding up theThe procedures to repair the damage, has operated in the opposite direction, that is, to hinder it. Another proof of this, says the litigant, is that instead of complying with the amparo that the victim had already won since last year, the agency preferred to promote an appeal which has further delayed the process.
“The issue has had multiple obstacles first, because the victims knew almost nothing about the process, nor the status of the investigations, nor their rights. No one ever informed them of anything. Then there were amparos and an infinity of situations that have made the process very long and to top it off we found that the CEAV has done the whole procedure very slowly. A procedure that by law should not last more than a month,” warns the defender.
In this context, the judgment now issued by the Ninth Collegiate Court in Administrative Matters is a final resolution, for which there are no longer resources that the CEAV can promote so, at least on paper, it must formulate the corresponding resolution as soon as possible.
This means that once the court’s ruling is officially notified to the commission, it must immediately implement the necessary actions to issue the resolution establishing that
Abandonment and impunity
In September 2019, Political Animal documented that more than a decade after the grenade attack in Morelia, Michoacán (which at some point was even described by the government as an act of terrorism) impunity prevailed: without those responsible being prosecuted and sentenced, and without the victims having access to the truth of what happened and to reparation for the damage.
According to Velasco, the situation has changed little so far. From the outset, there is no one detained or facing any process or trial for these facts. The four men who were originally captured in Michoacan after what happened, and who were linked to the Zetas group, were acquitted by a federal court after it was confirmed that they suffered mistreatment and torture to plead guilty.
On the other hand, all victims have faced problems in receiving the compensation that is due to them. Since 2019, twelve of them have sent a letter to the Ministry of the Interior requesting a meeting with the Undersecretary of Human Rights to address the revictimization they had suffered for more than a decade and seek the support of the then new government. However, his request was also not answered.
The litigant said that they had to resort to a new request for amparo due to the lack of response from the agency, which they also won. Finally, on March 16, the Governor’s Office responded by pointing out that the issue was not within its competence and that the matter was referred to the CEAV.
“So far this meeting has not been able to take place either. We looked for the new commissioner, but we were told that due to agenda issues the meeting could not be held. I think it is clear that they are not interested in the subject and it is regrettable because there are victims of other cases with whom they have met but, in this case, although it was even a matter of terrorism, those affected are in abandonment. Only through amparos and amparos like Aurora is how it has been possible to get the CEAV to move, but the road has been tortuous, “said Velasco.
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Original source in Spanish

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