The young man was seen for the last time a block from his house, in Milagro. There are more cases in Ecuador, according to the records of the Ministry of Government.
Janine Saltos has been looking for the oldest of her three children for eleven days: Jordie Emilio Tamayo Saltos, 18 years old. On November 10, they saw him for the last time, at around 5:30 p.m., a block from his house, in Milagro.
The young man left his home at 5:00 p.m., like every day, to the gym that is located a few meters from his home. There, dressed in shorts and a blue shirt, he exercised for 30 minutes until, according to witnesses, he received a call. He left and went to a store located a block from the place to refresh himself with a soda.
“He sat on the sidewalk to take a line and, from there, you can see him walk to the corner and turn,” says his desperate mother, after seeing the recording of the only nearby camera. As there are no more devices in the sector, he asked neighbors, friends and family, but – he assures – no one saw him.
Saltos has sought him out with his relatives in hospitals, on the streets of Milagro and in other cities, such as Guayaquil, Durán, Yaguachi, Babahoyo, Santa Elena and Naranjito.. It has been mobilized, almost daily, to all the places where they claimed to have seen it due to its physical characteristics. But it was not him, laments the mother, who went to the Crime Laboratory to rule out his death. A friend came in to identify him, but — thank God — Jordie wasn’t there.
Jordie Tamayo is one of the 94 people who have been reported missing so far this month of November, according to the records of the Ministry of Government. On November 20, for example, three lost men: Saúl Almeida Santillán (15), Christopher Coronel Sánchez (27), Luis Palma Llaguno (30); and the day before, on the 19th, four teenagers: Norkys Acosta Paccha (14), Stiven Pilatasig Timbila (15), Carmen Paredes Santos (13) and Marjorie Achig de la Cruz (14).
Between January and August of this 2021, the Ministry registered the investigation of 257 missing persons, which represented 5% of the reported cases; while 4,951 were located. Of the latter, 90% disappeared “willingly”; 7%, “without will”; and 3% were found dead.
The Association of Relatives and Friends of Disappeared Persons in Ecuador (Asfadec), an organization that published the statistics of the Ministry on its website, shares the photos of the missing persons daily on its social networks. In recent days they posted the images of Giovanny Castellanos Aguaiza (38), who disappeared three years ago in Quito, and that of Gustavo Garzón Guzmán, whose whereabouts have also been unknown for 31 years.
“It is 115 months since your absence, my brother. 115 months that the changes of prosecutors and investigating agents have not stopped. 115 months of impunity, ”said Pilar Tobar on her Twitter account on November 17, recalling the nine years and seven months that her brother, Camilo Tobar, has been missing.
Jordie’s mother, who was in the third year of high school at the Otto Arosemena school, assures that she does not lose faith.
We pray, we ask God to enlighten us, that we find the right way to find it
Janine Saltos, Jordie’s mother.
On the day of his disappearance, his mother said goodbye to him with a kiss on the cheek before going to work.. That morning, remember, they had breakfast together and discussed that it was time to put down the Christmas decorations to start decorating the house.
When he got home from work at 8:00 p.m., he no longer saw his firstborn again. He called him several times on his cell phone and he did not answer. “He could have been kidnapped, assaulted, beaten or scopolaminated,” believes his mother, who filed a complaint the next day for his disappearance.
She rules out that Jordie has run away from home, because his clothes, shoes and other belongings are intact in his bedroom, which was corroborated by the Dinased staff investigating his case. If someone can identify you, you can contact your family at 098-860-4504.
Jordie es —tells his mother— a quiet, smiling, homelike young man, who went out little, only to play soccer and volleyball with his neighborhood friends on a field near his home. “If he had a party, we would take him and we would pick him up,” says this anguished mother, who, she assures, will continue to hand out flyers and pray until she finds her son: “We don’t give up.”
Cases in 2020
– The National Directorate of Crimes against Life, Violent Deaths, Disappearances, Extortion and Kidnapping (Dinased) located 6,227 missing persons during 2020, which represented 96% of the reported cases, according to statistics from the Ministry of Government. The remaining 4% (227) are under investigation.
-Of the 6,227 located, 89% would have left their home “willingly” due to various family, economic and social problems, among others; 8%, “without their will”; and 3% died in traffic accidents, committed suicide, or had a violent death.
-Of the 227 cases that were registered last year, 24% were reported in the province of Guayas; 22%, in Pichincha; 7%, in Esmeraldas and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas. 48% were adults; 44%, children and adolescents; and 8%, older adults. (I)
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