Time does not heal a mother’s pain. There are days when Ana feels that the death of her son hurts her more than ever. “As time goes by, the more it hurts. Time does not heal wounds. When I go to bed and when I get up I ask God for strength. It’s hard to live like this all the time. Every day I remember when they killed him.”
Andrehus Yasmani was their second son. “Affectionate. When she was angry she hugged me, she told me: ‘Lady, don’t get angry’. He was 22 years old. It’s hard to live without him.” In the early morning of February 20, 2022, a charge of dynamite exploded in his body and detached his head. The noise woke up the residents of Block 2 of Bastión Popular and caused a commotion in Guayaquil, the city with the most violent deaths in the country: 1,954 in 2022, between murders and attempts, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
A year has passed and not only the pain for the death of Yasmani has been Ana’s motor to seek justice; she is also outraged by “the way she died, everything they did to her.” “My son was not bad for them to have done that to him,” Ana said on January 30, one day before the pending hearing was held for the judge to pass sentence.. This process, claims Ana, has been very long.
It’s been a year now and I still don’t have an answer about what’s going to happen. There is a detainee; he has never declared: the times that he has had to declare, he has never done so. The detainee was the friend who was with him that night. That day they caught him, they said that he had a lot to do with it, because they found more blocks of dynamite in his house. It’s the only report I have from the police. I don’t know what else he told the police. He took refuge in silence
Ana, mother of Yasmani.
The death of Ana’s son has not gone unpunished. The same day, the Police arrested, in flagrante delicto, a friend of Yasmani, Brian Rafael, whom a witness saw fleeing the scene after the explosion, as stated in the judicial process, which includes the evidence that determines the responsibility of the accused. . “He fled from that place. The explosives found at the defendant’s home are of similar characteristics to those found on the victim, and the clothing has the same chemical composition”, reports from the Prosecutor’s Office indicate; while the police report reports that the morning Yasmani was killed, around two o’clock, he arrived with some friends at his house and they stayed drinking on the porch.
‘Stop the deaths’, cry of families of collateral victims
At half past three, when he wanted to continue drinking and his mother would not let him, Yasmani and his friends went to a nearby corner to continue drinking, while Ana went in to rest. “At approximately 5:30 a.m., they would have heard a loud noise, leaving at a precipitous run, but they did not see their son. Then a woman named Nataly Chernes approaches, telling her that her son had been murdered.
The case —highlights the Prosecutor’s Office— caused a great social alarm. “This event was atrocious, since they proceeded to insert an explosive device, which caused the detachment of the head, producing an event that caused tremendous social alarm. This is the fact on which the accusatory opinion is based,” said the Prosecutor’s Office.
Yasmani did not have a permanent job, but he used to accompany a neighbor who took him to work two days a week ‘at what he had‘; she also helped with the housework. “I want justice for what they did to my son, despite the fact that so many people told me not to do it; even my family didn’t agree, but something inside me wouldn’t let me. I had to do it, I had to denounce it, although I am afraid that they will do something to us, because we are here alone”.
At least 90 dead and 385 injured make up the collateral victims during the year of the greatest violence in the country
When the Yasmani crime occurred, Ana was included in the program of victims and witnesses of the Prosecutor’s Office, but for a short time.. “They told me that she was in the group. The first month, they were around here, they put the panic button on me, they told me to press the button at all. Then they made me sign a sheet for the entire month; They made me sign, but they didn’t come. It had to be daily, but no. They brought me to sign for the whole month. Only one month they did it; then they stopped coming,” Ana complained, pending the final date of the court ruling hearing.
She hopes that the judge will set the maximum sentence, 34 years, for the person responsible. “I am in charge of the process. I go alone to hearings. I already gave my testimony: I said what I saw that night; it was at dawn. In my testimony I tell everything I saw, who he was with, his last hours, “said Ana, still afraid of some reprisal from those who murdered her son, but confident that God is the guide to seek justice. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
