Elvira Vásquez, mother of Joaquín Castro Vásquez, one of 19 missing young men, recounts her tragedy to SEMANA
“I found out about the death of my son on Saturday, Sept. 20 because they called me from Medicina Legal (forensic department). They told me to go to their offices because there were some N.N. (‘no names’ or unidentified bodies) and it was possible that my son could be one of them. I went and they showed him to me on Internet, after he had just been killed. It was a photo from the waist above and I identified him. He was 28 years old and had been missing since Sunday the 13th of January. On that day he was with his friend Elkin Verano Hernández, a kid who was 25, and they were drinking a few beers here in Soacha (a city near Bogotá). Both of them had been working in a foundry workshop in Bosa (neighborhood in Bogotá) for eight months. A neighbor told me that he saw them get into a car, but nobody knew with whom or where they were going. They both disappeared. I never saw my son again since that day. He never called; he never left any message.”
“At first I thought that he had gone to Ibagué where he has family, but no. I checked with other family members, but they didn’t know anything. Then a week later I went to the Fiscalía (public prosecutor’s office) in Soacha and to Medicina Legal in Bogotá to inform them of the disappearance. They told me there that if they found out anything they would call me, and I went there every once in a while to ask about him, but they never provided me with any information. They only told me that he had not turned up anywhere. I don’t know why they killed him. I never noticed anything strange about him. He was a good boy and a good worker. He never had problems with the police, or if he did, I never knew about it as long as he lived with me. Until this day they still haven’t told me why he was killed. I never imagined that he would be dead. Also, I don’t believe that they killed him and his friend Elkin on January 15th like they reported in the news. I believe that they killed Joaqúin just recently because in the photo that they showed me in the morgue it looks like he was recently killed. We took both of them, along with another boy who also was killed, from Ocaña and buried them in the Soacha cemetery. The three were from here.”