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Violence is invisible in Mexico

Former member of the GIEI urges society to stop the impunity that fuels violence

Photo: Berenice Fregoso/EL UNIVERSAL
17/06/2017 |16:16Pedro Villa y Caña |
Redacción El Universal
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In Mexico , violence is invisible and sometimes justified , helping to create a climate of violence in society, said Carlos Martín Beristain , a former member of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) in the Ayotzinapa case.

He remarked that "in Mexico, the phenomenon of violence is invisible or appears as notes of tabloid journalism regarding victims, murders, calcined bodies, and images of terror," he said.

In a lecture at the National Forum on Mental Health and Psychosocial Interventions in Contexts of Violence , the specialist said that when talking about this phenomenon it is necessary to say things by their name and not look for euphemisms.

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"Impunity produces violence and in Mexico there is a structural problem in the relationship between corruption, violence, and violation of human rights . The only way to stop this situation is by breaking impunity , if that is not done, that cycle will continue because the structural conditions for violence are not changing," said the Spanish specialist in the auditorium of the National Institute of Psychiatry .

He said that there are basic actions to support victims of violence, among them, the construction of a favorable context for attention, as well as psychosocial work to help document what happens to the victims of this phenomenon, so that they are not just a number in statistics, but they actually have a face.

Eunice Rendón

, Coordinator of Migrant Agenda, said that violence in the country has several factors, involving persons at individual, family, community and cultural level . So she said that creating public policies that combat violence is not something that simple or easy.

For two days, national and foreign specialists, along with victims, gathered at the National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz to share experiences, demands, needs, and recommendations.

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