Mama Rosa, Mother Teresa Of Mexico, Accused Of Child Abuse, But ‘Too Old’ To Prosecute

Mama Rosa has gained a reputation for being the “Mother Teresa of Mexico,” but recent developments leave her facing accusations of child abuse, and some have said that, if guilty, she is “too old” to prosecute.

According to a report from the UK’s Independent, Mama Rosa has come to be seen as something of a “secular saint.”

For more than 60 years, she has headed a home that offered care to children of people who were too poor to provide for their children — “thousands,” the news site claimed. However, lately “parents began complaining to authorities that they were not able to visit their children at The Great Family home in Zamora and an investigation uncovered allegations of rapes, beatings and children held against their will for years in litter-strewn rooms.”

More from the report:

In a raid on Tuesday, heavily armed federal police and soldiers arrested nine caretakers, including the 79-year-old founder of the institution, Rosa del Carmen Verduzco.

Amid widespread horror at the revelations, however, supporters of Mama Rosa — including some of Mexico’s most respected intellectuals and children who say they were mistreated — have leapt to her defense.

“She did a great job in Zamora and now, clearly, she is being persecuted,” Elena Poniatowska, one of Mexico’s most prominent writers, told Milenio Television. “What should be done, really, is that the government should take better care of people.”

Some of the skeptics are pointing to President Enrique Peña Nieto’s government as being ineffectual and claim that this is just a strong-arm attempt from him as an example of efforts to protect children.

Still, the facts of the case — shown from the police raid on Tuesday — found six babies, 154 girls, 278 boys, 50 women and 109 men, with prosecutors claiming that “10 people were so severely malnourished they could not determine their ages.”

Where the “too old to prosecute” claims come in are from Tomas Zeron, federal chief of criminal investigations. He told the Televisa network that he doubted that Ms Verduzco [Mama Rosa] would be charged with a crime, saying she lost control of a once worthy charity because of her age.

This is a narrative repeated by many of her supporters.

Karen Rodriguez Medina, an 18-year-old with a 6-month-old baby girl with a young man who also lives at the facility stated, “Yes, I am thankful to Mama Rosita for what she has done, but in other aspects no, because she allowed violence among us…. She didn’t give us diapers or things the baby needed, but she did give us a roof to live under.”

Dr. Alberto Sahagun, director of the hospital where Mama Rosa is being treated under police guard for diabetes and blood pressure issues, said: “She had to be tough, to handle several hundred children,” and suggested that, as she got older, she had lost control of the institution while her character kept her from delegating. “Her sin was not asking for help as she grew old,” he said.

If the allegations of child abuse are true against Mama Rosa, do you think age should be a factor in sentencing? Share your thoughts in our comments section.

[Image via The Independent, linked above]