Diplomats, 6 months with their lost baggage

group of about 20 diplomats They were assigned to various representatives of Mexico abroad and did not receive their belongings (clothes, furniture, among others) for more than one semester, and they denounced this, due to the fact that the company Sancalsa SA de CV, which hired them Chancellery For 181 million pesos per year, they did not comply with this service to transport their goods.

For the third time, the affected diplomats sent a letter to the Secretary of State (SRE), Marcelo Ebrard, to urge you to take action on this matter. This is because the measures that were imposed to provide a solution did not work.

The diplomats affected are in Uruguay, Egypt, South Africa, Cuba, China, Bolivia, Argentina, Turkey and Denmark, among other places in the world.

In the letter sent to Ebrard, who is now on a tour of the Middle East and India, he stated that 30 days after the establishment of the Office of Message Service and Communications related to support members of the Service Exterior Mexicano (SEM) to expedite the relocation of belongings, delays persist and communications are ambiguous.

A service table headed by ambassadors has been installed Henry Reed Stein And the Juan Carlos LarraThe first meeting was held on March 14 at the Central Office of the People’s Republic of China. They explained that while the problem was acknowledged, there were many cases that went unanswered.

“The messages are still in their place of origin or are held in the customs of the destination countries, and in other cases SEM members do not know their whereabouts.

“Obviously you have instructed to support us, but so far there has not been much progress on this issue, letters delivered are scarce, in addition to the fact that communication with officials in the SRE is not fluid and information from the authorities and subcontracted companies due to lack of liquidity in Sancalsa to implement deferred paymentswhich means hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt,” the affected people showed in the letter.

Officials explained that the current situation is adding to the concern, as there is no confirmation of payments that have apparently been made for debts incurred by Sancalsa.

“As you can see, our situation is very serious, so we ask once again, as a matter of urgency, to please issue instructions so that effective measures are implemented and resources are allocated to resolve the delay in moving household items.

“We are not ignoring that with each passing day the violation of our right, as SEM members, to receive our letters, with the consequent impact on our right and the right of our families to a life of dignity, is exacerbated. Likewise, it increases the risk of losing our legacy resulting from working life institutional”.

What they have requested, henceforth, is that at least the heads of the Administration and Finance Unit, Moisés Poblanno, attend the meetings of the family services table; That the Directorate General for Programming, Organization and Budget (DGPOP), Thomas Zaragoza Rodriguezand the Director General of Diplomatic Corps and Human Resources (DGSERH), Princess of Stanford Beast, so that these people are the ones who communicate what is happening in concrete terms, as they hold them directly responsible.

“We require to ensure that each person transported has their own insurance policy and that these will be effective to compensate for damage to our property which, as a result of long storage periods, arrives in some cases completely damaged or unusable.

We appeal once again to your valuable intervention [secretario Ebrard] To resolve the situation which is extraordinarily detrimental to the dedicated and professional public servants, who, despite the serious effects they have suffered, continue to perform our functions from our various fields of competence.”

Months

As many as eight months have passed since some diplomats were transferred to Mexican representation abroad, and their personal belongings have not arrived.

All this derives from a conflict that arose with sancalsawhich was the one that awarded the SRE the tender to be responsible for the Mexican diplomatic takedowns.

What’s serious is that the announcement of the Mexican Foreign Service (ProSEM) 2022 rotation program is coming, and that’s without those who entered that scheme in 2021 haven’t received their stuff yet.

The conflict erupted as a result of the epidemic because of COVID-19. Namely, that the State Department, after a tender, selected Sinkalsa to take over the diplomats’ household supplies. This Mexican company, in turn, subcontracted to other carriers to carry out the work abroad. But from the end of 2020 and already in 2021, container prices have increased significantly and Sankalsa can no longer cover the costs.

Subcontracted companies, not receiving payments, began leaving household items in warehouses, charging interest fees.

SRE initially said it would not pay more to Sancalsa and so cases have piled up and many items have been hoarded, some of which are threatened with destruction. Affected diplomats also complained that they did not have a copy of their home insurance, because the company had avoided giving it.