Mexico City finalizes steps to open pioneering DNA bank against sex offenders

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Government of Mexico City presented on Tuesday the first DNA bank in the country that will house genetic information of sex offenders and address the wave of violence against women.

Although the work is finished, it is still awaiting certifications to operate, and it is expected to start operating in August, according to the authorities.

During the final event, several authorities, among them the head of government of the capital, Claudia Sheinbaum, visited the facilities and recalled that this DNA bank adds to a series of governmental tools and actions dedicated to eradicating violence against women.

While in the building, they presented the progress made following the gender alert that is active in Mexico City.

AN INNOVATIVE PROJECT

The DNA bank will be the first in the country, where more than 10 women are murdered every day and will be a “fundamental tool in the investigation of violence against women,” said Ernestina Godoy, head of the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office, at a press conference.

Defined since 2019, the objective of this DNA bank is to collect genetic profiles of people accused, prosecuted, and sentenced for crimes such as femicide, rape, or rape, who often re-offend.

But it will also have profiles of police and public officials who are linked to security issues, security guards, and even the head of government.

A genetic profile is a pattern of short DNA fragments ordered according to their size that is characteristic of each individual. This pattern is easily convertible into a simple numerical code very easy to store and compare with a high power of discrimination that helps to determine, in this type of crime, if a person was involved in them or not.

CONTINUOUS DELAYS

The project start after passage of the statute creating the DNA Bank for Forensic Use, published on December 24, 2019; however, the inauguration of the building has been suffering delays.

First, it was noted that it would open in August 2020, then in January 2021 and the latest news was that on March 31, it would start operating, but sampling has not yet begun.

“It is finished, with the equipment and everything, and we estimate that in three months, the process will begin. Once it is up and running, we want to certify everything, the equipment, the geneticists, and the facilities,” explained Godoy.

The certification will be carried out by the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) of the United States and the Mexican Accreditation Entity.

Therefore, Sheinbaum was asked if they could be breaking the electoral ban towards the June 6 mid-term elections by mentioning these achievements of the Government, something that the mayor completely rejected.

“Of course not, we are only making progress on the issue of the (gender) alert. We do not make a special presentation of any new program. (…) some actions are feasible to inform the citizenship, and one of them is the security issue”, she added.

INCREASE IN FEMICIDES

After the visit, the authorities presented the Alert for Violence against Women in Mexico City, which reflects that in March 2021, femicides increased by 85.7% compared to March last year, as they went from 7 to 13.

As reported by the attorney general, of the 13 femicides in March 2021, six arrest warrants were issued, of which four were served.

In addition, rapes also increased by 40.4 %, since in March of this year, 205 were registered, and in the same period of 2020, there were 146.

According to Godoy and Sheinbaum, the increase in these crimes corresponds to the result of official campaigns to encourage women in the capital to report assaults and the training in gender perspective that Mexico City police officers are receiving.

As denounced this Monday, April 26, by feminist associations and opposition deputies, March was the most violent March for women in all of Mexico since the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP) began the registry by gender in 2015.

The SESNSP recognized 267 women as alleged victims of intentional homicide, a record number, in addition to another 95 alleged victims of femicide, as the prosecutors’ offices classify gender-based murders or machista violence.