Family Violence Accounts for 88.9% of Complaints at Playa del Carmen Women’s Institute

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — Family violence accounts for 88.9 percent of the complaints received by the Women’s Institute of Playa del Carmen, the agency’s director general, Idania Gamboa, said.

Gamboa said the cases handled by the institute mainly involve people close to the victims, though she did not specify the period covered by the figure or the total number of complaints filed.

“It is inside the family circle where the violence is happening — with a relative, a husband, an ex-partner, a boyfriend or a stepfather,” she said.

The institute provides legal and psychological support to victims and sends staff out to neighborhoods, where they distribute the “violentómetro” — a tool that helps women recognize warning signs of abuse.

Staff also give talks in schools together with SIPINNA, the national child and adolescent protection system, and the municipal Youth Institute. Those sessions use the “acosómetro,” a similar scale for measuring harassment, along with a version adapted for children so that minors can identify conduct that is often treated as normal.

No Reports of Harassment Cases Similar to Cancún

Asked about the alleged harassment of a teenage girl reported in Cancún, Gamboa said the institute has not received requests for help in similar cases in Playa del Carmen. She added that it has no record of requests channeled through the state alert application.

She explained that the state emergency center, known as C5, operates the tool and forwards alerts from Playa del Carmen to the municipal center, C4, and to the city’s Public Security office.

Gamboa said that when a 911 call reports violence against a woman, the Specialized Group for Attention to Family and Gender Violence (GEAVIG) responds first and then refers the case to the institute.

She noted that legal and psychological assistance is free and available around the clock. Women can seek help by calling 911, through the institute’s social media accounts or at the city’s Violet Points, designated safe spaces for women seeking support.