A group of parents of children with cancer filed a complaint on Wednesday against the president of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), asserting that she hasn’t done anything to help solve long-running medication shortages.
Accompanied by their lawyer, the parents filed the complaint against Rosario Piedra at the federal Attorney General’s Office in Mexico City.
They accuse her of abuse of authority, saying that she hasn’t responded to their more than 500 complaints about cancer drug shortages that began last year and have been blamed for the deaths of several children.
“Rosario Piedra hasn’t done her job, … she hasn’t issued a proclamation that could help children with cancer. One of the responsibilities of the CNDH is to look out for the human rights of all citizens, [including] boys and girls,” said lawyer Andrea Rocha Ramírez. “Up to now it seems to be a body that does practically nothing.”
Rocha charged that Piedra’s failure to speak out about the problem after 552 complaints were filed with the CNDH is proof of her lack of commitment to the job. The lawyer also took aim at the rights chief for dismissing a CNDH medical representative who had committed to filing a complaint with the federal Health Ministry over its alleged delay in acting to respond to the drug shortages.
Rocha also said that the parents will seek the intervention of the Senate to have Piedra removed as rights chief, a position she assumed just over a year ago amid claims that she would be a government puppet.
“We’re going to begin … a formal process before the Senate for her dismissal,” she said.
However, it appears unlikely the parents will get their wish as the leader of the ruling Morena party in the upper house, Ricardo Monreal, said recently that Piedra has the full confidence of the majority of the Senate.
Israel Rivas, spokesman for a national group of parents of child cancer patients, said parents are also pushing for the early application of Covid-19 vaccines at hospitals where young cancer sufferers are treated.
If that doesn’t occur in late December or early January, Rivas said that parents will stage protests at airports and on highways as they have done countless times to denounce the medication shortages.
He claimed that the national vaccination plan presented last week is “unfair”and “genocidal” because it doesn’t take vulnerable groups of people, such as children with cancer, into consideration.
Source: Infobae (sp)
