BY OMAR OCAMPO OCHOA
The News
The Morelos Family Development Agency put 34 children and adolescents from the “Amor para Compartir” shelter, located in the Huitzilac municipality, under their care on Tuesday.
The First District Court denied the shelter’s plea for an amparo (A Mexican constitutional legal process that protects the citizen and his basic rights) against DIF for taking 19 children away Feb. 15, because the state agency detected irregularities in the children’s care. The shelter provided rotting food, did not have proper documents for all children at the site and did not have medical staff.
The court ordered that DIF put the minors under their care.
Staff from DIF and the Special Prosecutors Office Minors retained 34 youths between the ages of seven and 22 years old. Of the children taken away, 17 were female and 17 were male.
In total DIF has 53 children in their care.
The president of DIF, Elena Cepeda, said that on Tuesday that three young people had escaped from the shelter, due to lack of security.
She said that the whereabouts of 19 children from the shelter are unknown. In total, authorities say that around 75 young people were living at “Amor para Compartir.”