Institutions are often accomplices of men who attack their wives and children, María Fernanda Santana, spokesperson for the Madres VIVA (Brave, Insistent, Truthful and Loving Mothers) collective, denounced this Friday in a parliamentary commission.
María Fernanda Santana has appeared to talk about the fight against vicarious violence, which is the one that an abuser exerts on his children to harm the mother, has asked the deputies not to abandon them and make them think about what they have done wrong by trusting them.
The spokesperson for Madres VIVA gave the deputies a letter to show part of the reality they live, and commented that this collective is made up of 50 women in the Canary Islands but there are dozens who live in situations of violence, so that in the latest report from the Ombudsman, from November 2024, it says that there is practically no statistical data on a reality that is lived behind closed doors.
She has insisted that vicarious and institutional violence "usually" go together, so that the legal, educational, health and family systems have become "accomplices" of abusers and sexual aggressors of their children, of the "executioners", something that she has considered immoral and absolutely unacceptable.
The system, continued the spokesperson for Madres VIVA, is called judge, lawyer, social worker, and has criticized that many times more importance is given to the father of the family, who has been asked to be questioned when he is an abuser, than to the best interests of the child.
María Fernanda Santana has denounced that there are pediatricians who do not activate the alarms when mothers tell them what their children say, as well as family doctors who, due to lack of specialization, prescribe anxiolytics and antidepressants before referring them to mental health services.
A service to which she requested attention for eight years, and has recalled that in the law on the protection of children and adolescents, approved in 2021, it says, among other things, that institutions, in addition to having the obligation to take preventive measures, have the obligation to review the functioning of the child protection system.
A review that is not done, said the spokesperson for Madres VIVA, who stressed that the institutions "do not comply with the law and nothing happens", so that the right of minors to have a childhood free of violence "is violated, without consequences for the abusers and their accomplices".
Therefore, the victims feel helpless and their health suffers, which has a negative impact on their jobs and produces emotional wounds that take many years to repair and, she recalled, they do not have money to pay for the psychotherapeutic care they need.
She added that institutional violence also occurs when custody is maintained for abusers even if there is a complaint for sexual assault and violence, and has also denounced the comments of contempt and threats they receive in the meeting centers.
María Fernanda Santana has also referred to the fact that children are forced to love their parents, ignoring that they are abusers, and that there is a lack of both specialized training to make psychosocial reports and in matters of equality, in addition to "reprisals" for expressing their opinions, since there is no anonymous evaluation system in family meeting points.
The spokesperson for Madres VIVA has also said that it is necessary to work against the sexist ideas in which we socialize, and has referred to the fact that nothing justifies raising a hand to a child, but has recalled that there is also psychological abuse, which is more subtle.
María Fernanda Santana has pointed out that there is hardly any data on vicarious violence in the Canary Islands, so that, she added, the number of living victims is not known because many times they are not aware that they are victims of psychological violence.
