The Minister of Social Rights: "I have no evidence that the DGAIA opened a case against the pedophilia network."

BarcelonaThe head of Social Rights, Mònica Martínez Bravo, has assured that in the transfer of portfolio that Carles Campuzno's team made to her, she was not informed about the case of the 12-year-old girl under administrative protection who was sexually exploited for months by a pedophile network in Barcelona. In an interview on TV3, the minister indicated that she also has no evidence that the General Directorate of Child and Adolescent Care (DGAIA) opened a file upon learning of the case of repeated rapes against this minor, although she also did not want to rule out the possibility that it was opened and not transferred to her when they took over in August of last year.

Martínez Bravo has avoided specifying when she found out that a minor under the protection system had been the victim of a pedophilia network between 2020 and 2021, and has limited herself to pointing out that she has learned "recently, during the development of the case." Without criticizing her predecessors, she has justified that in the transfer of a portfolio as complex and important as that of the regional ministry's powers, "individual files" are not considered. She also did not reveal what the DGAIA has done since the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan Police) dismantled the network, arguing that the case is being brought to court, pending the trial of the detainees next year.

Sources from the previous regional ministry admit that a "political transfer" takes place between ministers and not individual files. To emphasize this normality, they point out that, when Minister Violant Cervera took over from them in 2022, they also did not receive any details because the case was already under judicial review. The minor entered the DGAIA protection system in May 2021, and the pedophilia ring was dismantled in November of the same year. Sources familiar with the case explain that educators at the children's home where the girl lived detected strange behavior and, when reviewing her cell phone messages, found reason to alert the police.

Relief to the management

The councilor has underlined and defended the decision of to replace Isabel Carrasco as director of the DGAIA in March, just six months after appointing her. Martínez Bravo stated that he realized that Carrasco did not fit the profile to lead the reconstruction of the protection entity: "Her policy of continuity was of no use to us," he indicated, and then justified the appointment of Josep Muñoz, with a professional career in management and who, as he said, has "the will and capacity for transformation."

Apart from the case of the exploited minor, who was in administrative custody, the DGAIA now has three open fronts that question his management: a file from the Ombudsman and two investigations by the Anti-Fraud Office and the Audit Office for alleged financial irregularities. Furthermore, the parliamentary groups have agreed to open a commission of inquiry, in addition to the file opened by the Ministry itself, to clarify the chronological events, identify the processes followed, and identify system errors so they can be corrected.

A serene and profound transformation

At this point, Martínez Bravo reiterated her willingness to "calmly" address the "profound transformation" of the DGAIA, an agency that she said "has been in need of reform for many years" to improve its functioning. However, she defended "the good work" it has done, while affirming that it has "saved" many children from suffering violence by issuing abandonment orders and separating them from their families for their protection.

Although admitting that the rape of this girl is a "shocking case, which gives the dimensions of a tragedy," the minister indicated that sexual violence against children also occurs among minors who are not under the protection of the administration and, in fact, indicated that the percentage of cases of sexual violence when children are...

In line with the demands of the third sector and the professional associations of educators and social workers, the regional minister has reaffirmed the regional minister's commitment to moving towards equal pay for these professionals from private entities and companies outsourced by the DGAIA and other social services with the sector's workforce.

The president of the Generalitat (Catalan government), Salvador Illa, has ratified from Navarra the minister's statements on the need for a "profound transformation" of the DGAIA and has assured that it will be followed "to the end." Despite seeing this transformation favorably, the president has clarified that this does not mean that he does not have a positive assessment of the work carried out by the professionals of this organization.

In parallel, while the parliamentary groups and the government They have put the DGAIA in the spotlightThe CUP (United Left) also announced this Friday that it will promote legislation to guarantee the protection of minors. Pilar Castillejo, a member of the pro-independence party, stated in a press conference that a commission of inquiry to determine responsibility "is not enough" and advocated legislation to "change the model." She also pointed to an "economic network" of public money ending up in private hands.