The wounds we inflict today will become the scars of tomorrow.
Ciudad Juárez, Mexico— At the beginning of 2025, it wasn’t an earthquake, it wasn’t a gunshot, it was something quieter that shattered Ciudad Juárez this year. The betrayal of its children.
It began in daycares that, until just a few months ago, felt safe. Colorful drawings, children’s songs, tiny backpacks hanging from small hooks. Spaces meant for care, for play, for life, but behind that cheerful façade, something darker moved in silence.
Mi Mundo de Colores, My World of Colors, was the name at the entrance of one of the centers. Today, for dozens of families, those colors are forever stained. Medical and psychological evaluations of more than a hundred children uncovered a nightmare, sexual abuse. It left invisible marks, scars on small bodies, and memories too painful to name.
Rosa Iveth V.G., one of the caregivers, was arrested and charged with aggravated sexual assault. Along with her, other workers from different daycares were arrested. Lourdes Z.M., Teresa Johana T.E., and later three more whose names barely appear in official documents.
The numbers are stark:
34 investigation files from Mi Mundo de Colores.
15 from Guardería Loon.
2 from Niñito Jesús.
Behind every number, there is a child, a family, a life torn apart and more cases are still unfolding.
The Estancia de Bienestar y Desarrollo Infantil, known as EBDI No. 32, part of the Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales de los Trabajadores del Estado, a federal institution created to protect, closed its doors under pressure from parents.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office for Women and the Family opened more than 19 investigation files at this center alone. Two were sent to the Federal Attorney General’s Office. The magnitude of the damage goes beyond local records, and to this day no arrests have been made, only confused parents, harmed children, and institutional silence.
That this could happen inside a federal childcare facility is not just alarming, It is profoundly serious. If even the institutions created to protect children cannot guarantee their safety, what hope is left.
Since January, the office has opened 71 investigation files related to abuses across different daycares. Medical and psychological evaluations have been carried out on 218 children, in 71 cases, signs of abuse were found. The response has been late, insufficient, and reactive.
Parents, holding investigation files in their hands, formed the Justice Colors Movement. On April 6, they marched, raised banners, and stood before cameras to say what this country often keeps quiet….Justice and protection for children.
Meanwhile, in the homes of Ciudad Juárez, mothers and fathers try to gather the shattered pieces of lost childhoods. They try to explain the inexplicable, some children are too young even to say their full names, yet they carry a wound they do not know how to name.
If even the places meant to protect can become dangerous, what kind of society are we building.
In a city where wounds are often hidden beneath routine, one truth remains. If we do not demand justice, if we do not demand real change, if we do not raise our voices, this will happen again. In other classrooms, on other walls, among other children.
Silence is a choice, and it has a side.
Demanding justice now, refusing to let these crimes be forgotten or minimized, is not only for the children who could not defend themselves, it is for those who are still to come.
Every time we fail to demand justice, every time we normalize pain, we bury the childhood of today and the hope of tomorrow.
Today we know that even the places meant to protect can fail. The only way to prevent it from happening again is to speak, to name it, and to refuse to stay silent.
Silence is also a form of violence…
