Maia Yael Beloso’s research and the media show …

“The media spectacle sometimes ignores the public interest and lapses occur which end up naming the victims as perpetrators.” Mercedes Calzado, researcher at the Conicet-Faculty of Social Sciences (UBA) – wondered about the proliferation of images and messages referring to the disappearance of Maia Yael Beloso. In this sense, consulted by Page 12, criticized the statements of the head of government of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, who took responsibility for the alleged delay of the mother in reporting the disappearance and stressed that sometimes “it seems that we are talking about an event that s ‘happened elsewhere and not in The city of Buenos Aires “.

For his part, the vice-defender of the rights of girls, boys and adolescents, Facundo Hernández, in statements to this newspaper, criticized the few alternatives that the government of Buenos Aires offers to people living in the streets. He considered it “intolerable” that a girl and her mother did not have a home.

Mercedes Calzado underlined two important aspects. One is “how the question settles in the media and begins to circulate through social networks, as if it were an underline of the Sofía alert”, the program on the disappearance of children and adolescents. Everything would indicate that the State “acts with more force in the search and that everything works, like the white flag” which is waved on the beaches to find a lost child.

If this display can be positive, “the risk goes through the spectacle which is assembled in multiple directions, political and media, associated with the political”. A succession of images is constructed “with mobiles in the streets and those provided by security cameras”. It works “for the public interest”, but at the same time “this way of constructing information necessitates the necessity of speaking and of speaking about a fact and this makes the care which must be taken in the treatment of a fact. information is left out, “about the disappearance of a girl.

Due to the proliferation of messages, “there are oversights, big or small, like the head of government” of CABA, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, who said it took the mother ten hours to file a complaint against the disappearance of Maia.

To signal this alleged delay, the living conditions of the family were not taken into account. “Sometimes you give your opinion without knowing where Villa Cildañez is or whether it is written with ‘c’ or with ‘z'”. Mercedes Calzado underlined that “sometimes it is referred to an event which occurs elsewhere and not in the city of Buenos Aires”. Sadly, “treatment, from television to networks, and vice versa, is associated with entertainment and sometimes the place of interest that the victim or the victim’s family should have vanished.”

In this avalanche of words, “they speak of the“ minor ””, a term questioned by the Convention on Girls, Boys and Adolescents, which recommends “girl or boy”, because they are “subjects of rights” and not “objects” of their parents or guardians. Another questionable issue, Calzado noted, is what is said “about the mother’s care for the baby.” When discussing this issue, “the care that the media and politicians should take” is not taken into account when referring to these issues.

“The Convention on the Rights of the Child has been in force in Argentina since 1994 and it is serious that this type of retrograde treatment still exists, which does not take into account the best interests of the child.” Mercedes Calzado argued that this led to “sometimes turning the victims into perpetrators, as happened with the family of Candela” Rodríguez, who was assassinated in August 2011. She recalled that the Special Commission that had followed this case had concluded to “the spectacular nature of the police action” in finding the girl’s whereabouts, but “the lack of clear lines of work seemed more intended to respond to the media explosion than to find the girl’s whereabouts”. It sounded more like “public justification: we work”.

For his part, the vice-defender of the rights of girls, boys and adolescents, Juan Facundo Hernández, told this newspaper that “it is intolerable that there is a mother with her daughter in the street”, as that happened in this case. He warned that “the time it takes to find him is worrying.”

“At this point, many questions must be asked. On the one hand, if the man had a history of sexual abuse, one must ask why these events were not investigated,” they said. indicated relatives of the suspect.

On the other hand, Hernández declared that “in the city of Buenos Aires the offers for people living on the streets are somewhat rigid and often make families prefer to continue in this situation.

Report: Lorena Bermejo.