Breathe
By Areli Paz
Civil servant: She who is indebted to a country, not to a confraternity.
Gender perspective: a nice and empty phrase when it is not practiced, especially if you are a woman.
Women's Secretariat: Governmental office for related women only.
One of the things I celebrated upon Claudia Sheinbaum's arrival was the creation of the Women's Secretariat, it seemed to me not only a good idea, but also the best opportunity to demonstrate that it was true that we were all here, that her feminism was true and that her intention to change the history of women in Mexico through a public policy strategy was true.
I celebrated the creation of a rights booklet, to make it in 68 languages so that all women in every corner of the country could know that they are capable of transforming their environment, that they have rights and opportunities in life "even if they are women".
The appointment of Citlalli Hernández seemed like a good idea. Although very much a Morenista, in her network she used to defend women, shared files of missing women and did not question the color of the party. A fierce fighter to defend her cause and that of AMLO, I saw her walking and knocking door to door during the campaign, she defended herself hard against the attacks of businessman Ricardo Salinas, who focused on her weight and physique to disqualify her.
She did not play small and although she would later give inappropriate, scathing or unpolitical answers against members of the opposition, she was a piece that could stand out in the newly created women's secretariat.
Breaking the stereotype of a civil servant was also a challenge and Claudia took it on... They only missed one detail: to maintain the feminist cause for all women, all of them, all of them, without distinction of party.
Her position was no longer just as a Morena official, her position was upgraded to a federal status where we would all have to be on her list. All of them.
But it didn't happen.
She was a fierce defender of her own, of her cause, of her legislators, of her supporters and when she can disqualify the one next to her for an abuse to women, she is direct and even hurtful... Of course, if the accused is from the opposition.
48 days after the complaint by Nidia Blanco, Cuauhtémoc Blanco's half-sister, and after the Chamber of Deputies dismissed the request for her removal from office, the new official appeared.
It took him 48 days to make a pronouncement on a media case, but above all for a case in which, according to him, he is innocent, and in order to face justice and prove his innocence he had to leave his immunity.
The request tried to take it away, but, the investigating section in its majority related to Morena decided that it did not proceed, it reached the plenary and the rest is history, Morena bet on protecting Blanco. And it took 48 days for the women's secretary to understand that her opinion in this case was important.
48 days in which a tweet, a statement, a story, a Tik Tok something that gave us the idea that he was with the victim and would accompany her.
He did not have to blame Blanco, he had to open the door of the conversation for an official to answer about the accusation on equal terms with the victim.
Without immunity and with the law on the table.
But no, Citlalli played at being with a frankly disappointing message: Point by point dear Citlalli.
She wrote:
"The malfunctioning of some local prosecutors' offices promotes impunity and does not guarantee prompt and expeditious justice for women."
Some local prosecutors? I fix your message: the malfunctioning of the prosecutors' offices against politicians with immunity promotes impunity, the one who has immunity, gets lost in injustice and delays the progress of it.
You were pending but did not say anything, that is not being pending, that is conveniently waiting for a resolution where you did not compromise, because your party comes before women.
Yes every complaint should be investigated, I agree that it should not be ignored, it should not be overlapped and from your position you could have done more.
The public discussion becomes political because Blanco is a politician with immunity, having immunity and initiating a process to remove it is part of politics. Nobody gave him the political approach, it is a matter of politics and public communication.
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