In April there will be a new protocol for the delivery of bonds to orphaned children due to femicide

Since 2014, there have been 1,526 cases of orphaned children due to femicide, while last year there were 245 cases, but the government has handed out 192 bonds, according to women’s organizations.

They questioned what they consider to be difficulties in accessing the delivery of that bond, which began in the government of Lenín Moreno and had a change in the current administration of Guillermo Lasso.

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On March 8, 2019, then-President Moreno created the bonus for children orphaned due to femicide, through Decree 696.

The payment had to be made once the condemnatory sentence was executed against the perpetrator. The bonus consists of an economic compensation that is delivered monthly, the amount of which is determined based on the unified basic remuneration.

President Guillermo Lasso amended the decree in March 2022 so that it is delivered once the investigation of the facts has begun.

Lasso established the bonus for children and adolescents in a situation of orphanhood due to the violent death of their mother or parent. Those between 0 and 18 years of age who are orphans due to the commission of the following crimes will be benefited: murder, femicide, homicide and rape resulting in death; they will be granted the bonus from the start of the preliminary investigation.

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They are delivered by the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion (MIES).

According to Mayra Tirira, from the Surkuna Foundation, there are barriers that MIES has to access, since she described the bonds as inaccessible and unknown.

Do you know what the requirements are? Do you know what the steps are? Do you know where to go to directly access a bonus? Now, imagine this question for a relative, a victim of a femicide case, for a grandmother, for an aunt, for a sister: it is absolutely occult science, ”she said.

He added that, once the requirements are known, an order is needed that grants custody to the grandmothers or aunts of the children.

He explained that access to cantonal boards for the protection of rights is required, if not directly known, or to a judge.

“Imagine what it’s like again in this pain trying to get this custody,” he added.

Then, he said, a BanEcuador bank account is needed, for which they even need financial resources and an ID, which many do not even have.

The process —he added— is done in the district offices.

“What happens in practice? We have cases that were presented more than two months ago (…). There are many cases where more than six months go by (…) and we don’t have a single answer, when the public Administration has to have fifteen days to give an answer,” Tirira said.

He added that, from what they know, bonds will not be granted retroactively, that is, for events that occurred before 2019, when the bond was issued.

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The Minister of Economic and Social Inclusion, Esteban Bernal, announced that in April there will be a new protocol to identify cases. There will be interaction and interoperability between different institutions for the rapid and immediate delivery of information to that State portfolio.

The institutions that will form part will be the Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of the Interior and the Council of the Judiciary.

“MIES had not had an efficient structure with respect to the identification of those boys, girls, victims,” ​​said the official.

That —he added— will also allow us to work on aspects to receive the bonus. From April, the delivery of the bonus will be allowed with any account in the financial system.

There are also —he said— conditions of vulnerability that prevent many people from having an ID, so, with this protocol, state institutions will go with mobile brigades to obtain those documents.

As of December 2022, there were 196 children in orphan conditions belonging to 108 family groups, according to MIES figures.

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The bonus fluctuates between 29.4%, when there is a child, and 54.2%, when there are more than three children, of a unified basic salary, which for 2023 was established at $450.

Bernal pointed out that the delivery is not retroactive, but a query has been made to the Attorney General’s Office to see if all those cases that are awaiting an enforceable sentence can be incorporated.

For 2023, there is an estimated budget of more than $222,000. In 2022, $166,503.27 was disbursed, 68% of what was allocated, which the official attributed to the lack of “contactability” with relatives of those affected. (YO)