A group of retired citizens protested outside the Jalisco Government Palace this week to demand the release of federal pension funds denied to them since the beginning of the year.
Senior citizen advocate Gilberto Parra says 34,000 people aged over 70 in Jalisco are entitled to money that is currently laying dormant in a trust fund (fideicomisio) administered by the state government. The fund has accumulated 400 million pesos and by now each person should receive around 6,000 pesos in back pensions, he says.
Parra says the hard-up seniors have never received pensions from the fund set up by the federal government and that previous Governor Emilio Gonzalez diverted the money to other concerns.
Parra blames authorities for delays in drawing up a reliable list of beneficiaries and has urged current governor Aristoteles Sandoval not to repeat the mistakes made by his predecessor.