The president of the state federal district of Veracruz (Mexico) has announced that the city government will activate the Amber alert protocol with the objective of immediately locating missing children or adolescents.
The Amber Alert system was established in 1996 after the kidnapping and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman in Arlington, Texas (United States). It is a program to recover missing, missing or abducted minors. Amber's family and the community where they lived, set out prevent similar tragedies by developing a comprehensive alert system that allowed to quickly locate and rescue kidnapped children.
The objective of the AMBER Alert is to recover kidnapped children before they suffer any physical damage. Statistics show that the passage of time is by itself the enemy of a kidnapped child, since most of the children abducted and then appear killed die within three hours after the kidnapping. This system is intended to change. Statistics positively. Studies that have been conducted on this issue show that when citizens become the eyes and ears of police agencies, it is possible to save precious lives.
Now this program arrives in Veracruz, and will take place through inter-institutional coordination, with the participation of public organizations and civil society, as well as local, national and international media.
Last Monday a small kidnapped from his home in San Andrés Tuxtla, was returned to his family, and this has been the trigger to implement the Amber alert.
Karime Macías has stated that 'The activation of this program is a preventive action and a response to the state government's concern for the welfare of families Veracruz '.
In the United States, each state has the challenge of finding, developing and maintaining its own distribution system for alerts, partners and channels. But the most important in my view is get the active participation of citizens, and the dissemination of cases through media and information. A few months ago Marcos announced the initiative of the Spanish Ministry of Interior, which initiated a similar alert system in collaboration with professionals from the journalism and the Anar Foundation.
Without a doubt, the Veracruz initiative is a very important step in the protection of children.
