Daniela Patiño, the dreamer who ended up being a victim of human trafficking

The Patiño Hinestroza family, resident in Antioquia, told El Tiempo lhe tragic story of one of his daughters, Daniela Patiño, 22, who was offered a job in Spain in 2019 and They promised a lot of money in exchange for working in a restaurant. The result of that invitation was an experience full of worry, anguish and uncertainty.

“The invitation was made by a friend we did not know. As she was in Israel and it went so well, I had faith that this time the same would happen ”, says Martha, the mother. That same thought ran through the mind of Elkin, the father, who claims that, “Since she had already traveled alone and it was so good for her, it seemed normal to us that she did. But everything went wrong “, explained.

The invitation appeared in 2019, and neither Daniela nor her parents, Martha Hinestroza and Elkin Patiño, felt concern about their trip, since, in 2018, Daniela had traveled to Israel in order to get money and continue her studies in Social Communication and Journalism at the Minuto de Dios University in Medellín.

However, later, the parents learned that their daughter’s trip would have a one way, but not a return, something that did alert them. Martha told the newspaper that they trusted Daniela’s decision, convinced that she was telling them the truth.

With uncertainty of when he would return and with whom he would go, the parents went to accompany their daughter to the José María Córdoba airport, however, the night was about to appear and Daniela, in order not to expose her parents when leaving the airport so late, preferred to leave alone in a taxi. The father insisted on accompanying her, told her that she could speed up some steps at the airport, such as check-in, but her daughter explained that a friend would help her with that. So, Daniela went alone to the airport.

“She left then, and hours later she sent us photos eating alone from the airport. The flight was at seven o’clock, but it was delayed and finally took off, supposedly for Spain, at 10 o’clock at night, “said the father.

Everything seemed to be going well, Daniela was already on the plane to start her trip and the parents went to sleep with the certainty that good things would come for their daughter. However, a video at 4:30 in the morning sent by Daniela informing that she had already reached her destination It worried his parents, since the flight would only have lasted 6 hours, when, normally, from Colombia to Spain the average time is 9 hours and 30 minutes by plane, approximately. “Nor that he had taken a charter flight,” says Mr. Patiño.

Concerned, the parents sent a message to their daughter “Why are you there, then you were not going to Spain? Martha asked her by text message.” No, my friend turned out to say that the work was going to be in Guatemala ”, Daniela replied.

From that moment on, the uncertainty invaded the minds of the parents, since they did not receive a message from their daughter throughout the first day of their trip. However, it would be a video sent by Daniela at the end of that day, which would give them the peace of mind they needed. The recording showed that Daniela was at a friend’s house.

After two days of travel, the good news began to fade: “Mom, this is not a job, this is a slave trade”, “They are asking me for a million pesos to pay for the trip ”,“ they are going to kill me, call the Police ”, read the texts sent by Daniela.

Now, parents could only be in a state of fear and uncertainty. The mother insisted on her daughter to return, but, it was too late, Daniela was threatened and she did not have the resources to return to her country. Thus, the parents began to get that million pesos in the hope of seeing their little girl again.

After they got the money, they sent it to their daughter. Daniela was able to escape her kidnappers and now she was in La Plata del Carmen, Mexico. “They robbed me,” he texted Daniela.

The parents, still without explaining how they could fly from Guatemala to Mexico, tried to live in tranquility, hoping that their daughter could soon arrive in Colombia.

Daniela was able to get lodging in Mexico thanks to a friend she met on her trip to Israel. The plan was to stay there for a few days until she could get a job or decide to go back to her parents, her twin and her niece in Colombia.

Things were different in Mexico, Daniela constantly communicated with her parents: “Since the Guatemala thing happened, I communicated with her every day. That gave me peace of mind. Until there came a time when he stopped answering me, ”says Martha.

The calm disappeared when, on the night of September 13, 2019, Martha received a call from Mexico.

“Daniela is missing, she left her papers at the hotel, but she went to the supermarket and we don’t know anything about her,” was heard on the phone. It was the voice of a friend that the young woman had made in the Aztec country.

After the call, the parents re-experienced the feelings experienced in the situation in Guatemala and began the search for their daughter: “I started looking for her on Facebook, I was desperate. I went to the Medellín Prosecutor’s Office, they didn’t help me. I went to the Ombudsman’s Office, and neither ”.

The only help they had was through an image where their daughter’s disappearance was reported on Facebook. That message went viral, and they eventually got a response.

The profile that spoke to the parents sent a photo of Daniela, who they could recognize from a tattoo she had on her forearm.

“Madam, please tell us if this is your daughter?” “It was my girl, she was lifeless,” recalls Martha.

According to El Tiempo, Martha, upon hearing the news, went out into the street and crossed the street saying, repeating, “They killed my girl, they killed us,” she repeated over and over again. Meanwhile, her husband tried to reassure her, without success.

Insomnia and despair were states that accompanied the Patiño family from that moment on, as they found no peace. They could only think that their daughter was dead.

The Mexican authorities, together with the Patiño family, began the process to repatriate their daughter’s body. But, Elkin had to go claim it. Therefore, they began to collect money to make the trip and claim the body in the country’s Prosecutor’s Office.

After collecting donations from the United States; from Colombia, from Israel and get into debt. Elkin traveled to Mexico to claim his daughter.

For Elkin, the problems did not stop, as he had to register his daughter in Mexico and make the death certificate so that he could return to Colombia. After finishing the whole process, the Mexican authorities returned Daniela’s belongings together with her body.

The capture

According to the information collected by El Tiempo, on October 3, 2019. While the father was preparing his trip to bring his daughter back, several Colombian and Mexican media reported that they had captured the alleged murderer of the young paisa in Mexico. It was alias Pantera, a man who allegedly sent Daniela a message hours before she was found dead.

“The man they captured was a clown that they used to cover the story, to silence the press,” they say.

Fighting the pain

Daniela’s mother, every night, listens to an audio that reminds her of Daniela:

“I, Daniela Patiño, am a woman who dreams of winning the Nobel Prize for literature. I like to love and live, feel the trees, nature and feel loved “

He always hopes to meet her in his dreams so that he can hug her again.

In the same way, the Patiño family built an altar where Daniela’s photograph pools along with a statue of a Christ, a Virgin Mary and a phrase that projects the Patiño family’s love towards their late daughter: “We will always remember you with your joy, your ineffable heart. The miracle that God did in you was something impossible to explain, so much love in you for everything around you ”.