Les Misérables

Mexican President Enrique Peña and activist Javier Sicilia (whose son was one of the victims of criminal organizations) during the promulgation of the new Federal Vicitms Law (Source: Animal Político).

One of the most publicized characteristics of Mexico’s war on drugs was the very large number of mortal victims it left. Newspaper figures suggest around 60,000 deaths during the six years of Felipe Calderón’s administration. During the first moments of this combat, the government asserted that all victims were members of many of the quarreling cartels. However, in time it became clear that a large number of victims did not fit into that category, being teenagers in a party, Central American migrants trying to get to the US, or mere passers-by who were shot or wounded by narcos. This increasing number of the so-called collateral deaths of the drug war overwhelmed a still weak judiciary system, a number which is many times surpassed by the large amount of other cases it has to process, leaving a lot of room for corruption, or impunity, further increasing the damage to victims and their families.

Under this scenario, organizations formed by relatives of victims pressed the government to take more care of or reduce its negligence with those who had directly or indirectly suffered from drug violence. In April of 2012, the Congress approved the Federal Law for Victims. However, it met President Calderón’s veto. Days after taking office last December, President Enrique Peña said he would desist of such a blockade. Finally, the law was on January 10.

The process of publishing the law took almost a year given the still existing diverging opinions on which is the best way to help drug victims and their families. What is more, the debates, including the President’s veto, arose constitutional controversies that halted the legislative process. The core of the conflict was the level of autonomy that would be granted for the agency in charge of providing psychological, legal, and other kinds of assistance to victims, as well as implementing policies to try to reduce the scope of violence and offer monetary compensation to families. While the President wanted this agency to become part of the National Public Safety System, the Congress wanted it to be fully autonomous and chaired by citizens.

The passage of the law has not ended the debate. Already some victims’ organizations have asserted that they do not agree with the mid-point position in which the new assistance agency was placed, and said they will push a reform to try to give it more autonomy. Other groups insist that what is needed is not more bureaucracy, but the reform of the existing institutions to make them more efficient. Finally, the President has praised the law, stating it is the first of its kind in the world and that it creates a new branch of law, victims’ law. Regardless of the agencies or policies implemented to assist victims, they will only succeed if their users or beneficiaries find them reliable and consider they will not fall into the same inefficiency or corruption of other agencies dedicated to law enforcement and the protection of human rights.