When I was in second grade of elementary school I was six years old and I witnessed my

earliest memory of child mistreatment. The teacher ripped off the ear of a girl in the class.
This happened in a small mining town in Zacatecas, Mexico. My father was the manager of
the Mill and the rest of the children were sons and daughters of the miners. The next day I
was taken from the second grade class, there was a single class per grade, to the third grade
with my teacher from the previous year and I did my second year with the kids from the
third grade.
To understand Mexico one must realize that Mexico is a European Settler State, and as
such, his society is strongly stratified and racist, and that his moral values are paternalistic
and authoritarian. There is a minority upper, upper middle class, that is white or aspirational
white and holds most of the wealth, an underclass of mestizos, and a social lumpen of
indigenous population. While social upward mobility is possible, or rather, not impossible
--- after all Benito Juarez was a pure blooded Zapoteca ---, discrimination and vicious
cycles of lack of educational and job opportunities tend to preserve the status quo.
Child labor is so prevalent that the girl is slang for a household maid, even when
referring to middle age women. The availability of low cost child labor is perceived by
middle class Mexicans as normal and even touted to foreigners as one of the best things that
Mexico has to offer.
It is only natural that such society had an authoritarian paternalistic government. A recent
UN investigation claims that human-rights violations by the Mexican government are
widespread and go virtually unpunished (VSQUEZ, 2015). Nonetheless, in the current
climate of globalization and widespread Internet access, the Mexican government has been
responsive to international agreements on human rights legislation. The modern antecedent
is the Case of Radilla-Pacheco v. Mexico that was brought to the Inter-American Court of
Human Rights, and received judgment on November 23, 2009 (Inter-American Court of
Human Rights, 2009). Radilla-Pacheco was the first instance where the Inter-American
Court of Human Rights condemns the Mexican state of serious human rights violations. As
a result, the Mexican government has implemented measures to comply with international
criteria of human rights enforcement. In particular, a new federal on rights of minors (LEY
GENERAL DE LOS DERECHOS DE NIAS, NIOS Y ADOLESCENTES) makes

explicit the legal standing of international treaties on human rights in article 49 (CMARA
DE DIPUTADOS DEL H. CONGRESO DE LA UNIN, 2014).
There are 32.5 million children in Mexico whose human-rights are not well established for
social and institutional reasons. UNICEF indicates that in Mexico six out of ten children,
under 14 years suffer acts of violence; and in almost half of cases (47 percent) was
responsible the mother, and in 29 percent of the reports, it was the father (UNICEF, 2014).
However, adults do not perceive the real level of violence suffer by the children.
Because the childrens exposure to violence and neglect is rooted in social values and
traditions the role of journalism as factor for changes is paramount. However it is not easy
for Mexican journalist to go against the grain. In the final version of a new bill designed to
protect children The Mexican National Congress agreed to remove a provision which
would have called for prison time for journalists who publish or disseminate information,
images, or voices of children without the consent of their parents. Even though the law had
not been debated in Congress, it could be used to condemn journalists, writers, editors, and
media directors to lengthy prison sentences (MARTY , 2014).
An illustrative example is the case of Lydia Cacho (Jones & Thomas de Benitez, 2014).
The media presented the Cacho case as a conflict involving a short, dark skinned man
(Marin), a network of businessmen of Lebanese origin, and Lydia Cacho herself, an
educated white woman. Child abuse was generally referred to only as context, the true
scandal was the constraint on individual and press freedoms, abuse of power, and the weak
rule of law. Cacho herself was frustrated by this lack of attention to childrens rights.
(Jones & Thomas de Benitez, 2014)
Good investigative reporting is necessary in Mexico as an element of change that brings a
deeper awareness and concern for childrens rights into Mexican Society.
Mexico can have a good future if it moves toward a more egalitarian society that treats
children as human beings with inherent rights. A militant activist journalism is a required
element to make the transition from a paternalistic authoritarian society that worships
violence into a democratic egalitarian society.