“Dilan has only received impunity, impunity, impunity from the State”: mother of the young student killed during protests

November 23 marks the one year anniversary of the murder of Dilan Cruz by a member of Esmad, who fired a 12 gauge shotgun they use the uniformed men to disperse the marchers.

The tragic death shocked Colombians and brought criticism to Esmad’s actions, which led authorities to question the use of this weapon. After almost a year of the departure of the young student, his mother, Yenny Alejandra Medina, gave an interview to the newspaper El Espectador. There he related what he felt when he learned of the death of his son and called for justice to be done.

The woman told Cecilia Orozco Tascón that she did not know that Dilan was in the march, because she only knew that there was a “national strike and student demonstrations, but not that he was there.”

Alejandra Medina assured that media that she found out when they called her in jail and told her that her son had been shot.

I felt what every mother feels: anguish, despair … They transferred me and took me to the hospital. I could see it there. They left me disfigured.

He also narrated that when he learned the news, he also knew that many people came out to ask for zero impunity for the life of his son, but that he could not speak or thank them because the Inpec prohibited him from speaking to the press.

“I would have liked to thank you, but they prohibited me from having contact with the media and only allowed me to speak with my family, with my daughters,” said the hurt woman in the interview.

He even maintained that those from that prison told him that he had to do things like them whether or not you were allowed to see your child.

They repeated to me: “We are going to take her; We let her see her son, but she can’t talk to the press or use cell phones, nothing. ” I, in the condition I was in, did what they told me as long as they allowed me to see it. I had no choice.

In the interview, she continued to narrate the tragic moments that she lived in the hospital, and that she was always accompanied by her daughters.

In the present, Yenny Alejandra Medina says that she should go out to work and try to pretend none of this had happened due to the toughness of her financial situation.

He also assures that the false news that came out about Dilan hurt him a lot, because “He was a student like any other” and that day he left to march “because, surely, other boys were going to go.”

When asked about whether he has had support from the State or private entities to carry out the criminal proceedings or the family, Dilan Cruz’s mother says that from the lawyers of the Committee for Solidarity with Political Prisoners Foundation, she has felt great support . But that from the State has not received anything.

It has been very frustrating. These processes can take eternities and I feel that justice will never do what is right. It is very discouraging. Dilan has only received impunity, impunity, impunity from the State. A year has passed and there is no clear answer. Every time they put more obstacles and delay each step in an impressive way. The truth is that, instead of gaining strength, one falls into discouragement.

He also questioned the attitude of the Minister of Defense, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, and the apologies he had to give for the excessive use of force by the Police. He said that “If the Court had not insisted, it does not. And what he said was against his will, reluctantly he uttered words that sounded false. “

He concluded by saying that his hopes of justice “are in God” and that “about human justice, he prefers not to say more.”

He said that in commemoration of his son there will be different activities starting at noon on November 23 where they will ask for justice and “artistic and cultural acts will be held. There will also be a candle. And we will put the plaque with my son’s name again, because the first one was violated: they scratched the image with his face, ”said the mother.

It may interest you

Video: hooded men destroy a police patrol amid demonstrations in Bogotá

“We are going to arm ourselves to finish off these students”: the serious threat of a man during a march in Medellín