The call to the room, which started at 10:00had been approved weeks ago at the initiative of the National Party deputy, Pedro Jisdonianwho will act as questioning member. Civila attended in his capacity as head of the Ministry of Social Development (Mides), to which the INAU depends.
A few minutes after 7:00 p.m., already reaching the end of the day, the opposition held a press conference in which Jisdonian expressed his discontent with the few answers that, in his opinion, the authorities had provided. He said that of the 130 questions had been answered “less than 30%” and? He left the session “with the same questions” he had when he arrived.
“We trust that, for the construction of a better system, it is essential to have self-criticism and, above all, explain the conditions under which these tragic events occurred and, above all, the results of the investigations to determine responsibilities,” he said. “We leave with those same questions that we had when we started“.
On the other hand in the ruling party conferenceMinister Civila expressed “absolute support for the INAU authorities”.
“Unfortunately, in the course of the questioning we have also heard proposals that are not very constructive. In many cases They don’t even come from good information. what we are talking about,” added the Secretary of State.
At the same conference president of INAU Claudia Romero He stated that when he took over the government they found “a weak special protection system, in a critical situation“.
“There is substantive evidence that the Short stay centers are not the answer these children need. We have announced the closing of what many know as El Tribalhe May 19. We are going to generate alternative proposals, specifically that day we have a opening center for low-risk male adolescents“Romero added.
In his first intervention, at the beginning of the day, Jisdonian harshly questioned the Institute for Children and Adolescents of Uruguay and the Ministry of Social Development for what defined as a situation of “lack of protection” of children and adolescents under state guardianship, and pointed out “structural” flaws in the systemciting reports from organizations such as Amnesty International and the National Human Rights Institution.
In his presentation, He stated that the deaths recorded – 20 in the last year – “could have been avoided” and attributed the events to management problems, lack of supervision and erroneous decisions in specific cases.
Pedro Jisdonian in the interpellation of Gonzalo Civila
Also questioned the functioning of the centers, denounced situations of violence, problematic substance use and recruitment by criminal networks and demanded political responses by the authorities.
“How is it possible that with the entire structure of Mides and INAU, 20 children of the State die in a single year? That’s not a lack of budget, that’s a lack of management,” he asked.
At a certain point in his speech, he also denounced that while the Short Stay Center (ex-Tribal) was classified as a “scene of persistent violence” by the National Human Rights Institution (INDDHH), the INAU Board of Directors “instead of sending reinforcements to a center that is on firedecided to take two officials to work as his direct advisors and they did it without replacement“.
“Who are they protecting? To the gurises who are left alone in the center or to their own comfort with more advisors in the office? Taking people from where they are lacking to take them to where there are plenty of bosses is, simply, a slap in the face to the management and a lack of respect for the children who are inside there waiting for protection,” he criticized.
After his speech and after a fourth intermission, Minister Gonzalo Civila took the floor and spoke “surprised” by the intervention of the legislator.
“Surprise at the content and tone of the questioning member, with great respect I believe that does not contribute to addressing a tremendously serious and important issue for the country“he said and then called to board with “rigority” and “study” the theme.
After this, “on behalf of the Executive Branch”the ministerial leader expressed his “absolute support” to the management of the INAU Board of Directors.
The deaths that motivated the call occurred between December 2025 and February 2026. In that period, a young man under the protection of the organization committed suicide, another drowned in Capurro Bay on December 31, a third died after suffering from gastroenterocolitis and the last from cardiorespiratory arrest.
Gonzalo Civila and Federico Graña in the interpellation to the Ministry of Social Development
The minister also stated that “the questioning member made mention of pursuit or tracking to his person” and in that sense “outright ruled out any institutional action that is linked to that reference”.
“We want to make ourselves available in case there is evidence of a situation of this type, to accompany the deputy to make the corresponding complaint“Civila added.
He further noted that it was “impossible to answer the questions in the intervention” because They knew the questions “five minutes before entering the room”. “That’s why we made a general presentationwe understood that several questions were being answered in that presentation, but we also pointed out that In this second intervention we were going to dedicate ourselves to giving answers to specific questions that were asked of us,” said the Secretary of State and gave way to the vice president of the INAU.
