On the eve of Mother’s Day, women came out to protest, once again, against the vicarious violence that prevails in Yucatan. Mothers who have not seen their sons and daughters, even for about 6 years, this May 10th will not be able to live with them either.
What is vicarious violence?Vicarious trauma is a process of change resulting from empathetic engagement with trauma survivors. Anyone who engages empathetically with survivors of traumatic incidents, torture, and material relating to their trauma, is potentially affected, including doctors and other health professionals.
“A mother should be with her sons and daughters; not only on May 10th. We live the pain of not being with them every day,” one of the mothers stated.
In the state of Yucatan, there are dozens of women who have not seen their sons and daughters for years, in addition to the fact that in some cases, the children suffer physical and emotional abuse from their parents, or from the people with whom they are currently interacting.
In addition to this, most of these mothers point out that minors have been manipulated and tricked into not wanting to see their mothers or suffer aggression, among other violations of their rights.
Shortly after 5:30 in the afternoon on Monday, May 9, members of the Union of Yucatecas against vicarious violence and the National Front Against Vicarious Violence, settled outside the Family Courts and placed banners demanding justice from the authorities, demanding to see their children.
They all coincide: irregularities on the part of the authorities, of the judges. They have been revictimized and judged by the same justice system. In addition to suffering physical violence, and being injured by their aggressors, the women also had their children taken away from them.
Yazmín has not seen her baby for two years, her ex-partner has taken her when the minor was just 7 months old, and her ex accused her of being a drug addict.
“It is child abuse: I have not seen my daughter for 6 years, and what I ask for is justice,” said Nati, who reported that her father, the person who was fighting for the custody of her daughter, has already passed away, but still, Nati is not allowed to see her daughter.
“It cannot be possible that this lady who does not have a blood relationship with my daughter be given custody,” Nati said.
In fact, Nati indicated that a judge authorized making video calls with her daughter, but the people she is with do not answer the calls.
Another mom named Mangerli stated that she still has an open file, back in 2016 she made an agreement with the father of her daughters for two months so that they would remain in his care, however, the judge held a hearing behind closed doors and no one warned her that she had to go with her lawyer. So in the end, the judge gave the father the final custody of the girls.
However, she said that the man works all day. He doesn’t have time to see his daughters. She also said that her daughters are victims of psychological, emotional, and physical abuse.
Mangerli told the judge that her daughters do not want to be with their father because they suffer abuse, but there is nothing she can do since the father has custody.
“The only thing I ask is that my daughters be heard, they do not want to be with their father, he is an aggressor,” Mangerli concluded.
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