Pretty Lady Jacqueline
- Nicolás Dousdebès
- 28 nov 2022
- 30 Min. de lectura
Actualizado: 22 dic 2022
This is a story made of pain and despair, tears and blood. This is Ecuador, a place that could have been an Eden but has ended up being one of the most dangerous countries in the world, where life is worthless, law is only written on paper, and crime might be even above the state. In the meantime, thousands of dead people, tortured, massacred, slaughtered, or simply shot to death in prisons… or in any street. Who is to blame? Evil gangs, society as a whole, or the government that does not want or cannot make any changes?
Whoever reads this story must know that many facts are fictional here but the basic ones are not. Jacqueline is a real mother who has lost three of her five children so far. All of them shot or stabbed, all of them victims of irrational violence and brutality. They might have been guilty of crimes but never got the chance to take their lives on track again. There is not death penalty in Ecuador, but being sent to prison, almost amounts to be sentenced to death anyway... especially if you are poor.
Hopefully this story moves people or institutions to raise their voices and actions against this atrocity which is still happening, to prevent more violent deaths from increasing and eventulally, becoming a new kind of genocide.
Content Menu
1. Jacqueline mourns her murdered son
Before packing up his body, they let me see it. It was swollen, the head was huge, the eyes wide open...
She had no more tears to shed. Her eyes were dry, and her sight lost somewhere faraway. She had come to the Guayaquil’s morgue to identify her last murdered son, Jorge Enrique.
“Before packing up his body, they let me see it. It was swollen, the head was huge, the eyes wide open. He was lying on the cement floor, in a plastic bag. He used to be thin, just as you can see in this picture”.
Those were her words while she was trying to hold back her feelings.
No mother should go through this, the pain is unbeatable. When a son dies it is as hard as losing an organ of your body, you feel your heart breaking apart. Now just imagine what it would be like to lose not only one… but three of them! Had it been for natural causes it would have been disastrous enough, but her three sons were victims of violence, brutal murders, and shootings.
Ms. Jacqueline, aged now 52, was born in Esmeraldas, in the north-eastern coin of Ecuador, in a calm seaside resort city called ‘Las Palmas’, where people on vacation from the highland region used to go during the summer months. But here, summer does not mean the same as in North America or Europe. Temperature es pretty much the same all the year round. The only different thing is that during July and August it is the dry season, with no rain, but a little windy. Jacqueline’s children grew up in this beautiful location, watching how the sun goes down where the Pacific Ocean meets the sky.
She never let her four kids go hungry. Although she was a single mother, she worked hard to bring their daily bread on the humble table they shared. They could have looked for a job, a decent one. After all, there were some touristic activities in 'Las Palmas’, with restaurants and bars open most part of the year.
However, the father was not present. The hollow his absence left was filled by friends, not good all of them. Jacqueline did not approve such a company for her children. And they were suddenly teens, longing to see the world beyond their tiny village. Big cities and their glare appealed them from the very first time they went to Guayaquil or Quito.
2. Brian Eduardo, José Javier and José Antonio
I hear about another shooting; I don’t know whether it’s true or not... I’m so worried about that!
"'It hurts because it is not just one son, but three of them. The oldest, Brian Eduardo, was killed in Quito three years ago. The 18th of this month it will be his death anniversary. The other one, José Javier, was killed in a jail riot at Esmeraldas’ jail... and now, Jorge Enrique, here in Guayaquil. I’ve got another one, José Antonio, who is in this same jail. I hear about another shooting; I don’t know whether it’s true or not... I’m so worried about that!'
That’s what she was telling the paramedics who walked along her to the morgue’s entrance and were comforting her:
- 'we understand you, mother, but you have to be strong'”.
Brian Eduardo was her first son. He grew up in the middle of a very precarious life. Jacqueline was still a teenager when she got pregnant. So, as soon as he was born, she had to find a job and did not really have time to spend with him. When he became an adult, he decided to travel to Quito, where he was supposed to find a job while living in a distant cousin’s house.
But he was not ready to work. His education had been rather poor and was not trained for any useful trade. So, he eventually got involved with a drug gang and started selling small doses in parks and near some schools. Gang members fight with each other continuously to take over the local drug market. Those tensions may end up in shootings. That is when he was killed, with a direct bullet that split his heart. And his mother’s too, for the first time. She felt a piercing pain when that happened, even if she was way too far from her son.
A couple of years later, José Javier also decided to get some easy money. He was closer to his native Las Palmas, in Esmeraldas city, one of the most violent in the whole country, maybe because it’s the nearest to Colombia, the place where drugs usually come from to be sent overseas. Jacqueline’s second son was barely in his twenties when he was sent to jail. He was supposed to have joined the ‘Choneros’, one of the oldest gangs in Ecuador. He was getting paid to help smuggling cocaine packs inside of containers at the port. As he was working there, it was easier for him to conceal them among banana boxes or other items.
He was getting some extra money for his business and liked to show off brand new smartphones and stuff like that. One day he went to his mother’s place and brought a lovely jewel as a birthday’s present. Jacqueline knew there was something wrong with that and did not take it.
- Where did you get that, my son, who gave it to you?
- You’ve got to be kidding me, mom, I bought it for you with my own money!
- Do you think I’m stupid enough to believe that? Don’t make me laugh. Go away with that. You’d better give that thing back before you go to jail. I don’t know what you’re up to, but definitely, I don’t like.
- I swear I’m clean mom!
- I know you, as I knew your brother too. Don’t tell me anything else. I don’t want to hear a single word! Shame on you!
- Ok, ok, just take it easy mom. I’m off now, take care!
- You’ve got to take care more than me, boy. I hope you don’t break my heart again, just as your brother did!
Two days later a whistleblower went to the police headquarters and alerted them about what ‘Los Choneros’ were doing. After a raid in the port, José Javier was caught red-handed with two cocaine packs hidden in his underwear. He was sent to jail. He was there in a kind of a preventive prison period before his trial. In the meantime, a riot took place inside of Esmeraldas’ jail. The fight was between ‘Los Choneros’ and ‘Los Chone Killers’. The latter was a group that had split from the first one. José Javier was part of the original group. He was sentenced to death from the day he put a foot in that prison.
The day of the battle, he was unaware of what was going to happen. Even if he pretended to be a ‘macho’, he still was a scared boy who didn’t understand the trouble he was in. He simply felt a knife cutting his flesh from his back not once but many times. He felt on his knees, he wanted to say something, to pray, to call his mom,
- ¡Mamá Jacqui, mamá... ayúdame que me matan! (Mom Jacqui, mom... help me, they’re killing me!)
Jacqueline was sleeping, she had a nightmare and woke up sweating in the middle of the night. She knew Jose Javier was gone, her injured and broken heart was not wrong. A mother’s heart is never wrong. She went to prison just to confirm her boy has been stabbed to death. Her tears soaked her face, her clothes, her whole being. Once again.
José Antonio, her third son, wanted to be a lawyer. Jacqueline was so glad to hear that because she thought that at least one of her children was going to study, to become ‘someone’ in life. She honestly did all she could to help him and undertake the right path, to pursue his dream. He said he would go to Guayaquil after graduating from High School in Esmeraldas, he would go to the public university and study hard. He even promised she would be proud of him, one day.
Nobody knows, not even Jacqueline, how he also ended up in prison, just as her two older brothers. However, she was about to find it out. Wasn’t he supposed to be studying in Guayaquil? So, what was wrong? She once went to visit him as soon as she knew he was in jail. Then, she finally knew he had never been to any university, he did not even set a foot in a classroom. Everything had been a lie. A big one.
José Antonio also began selling drugs. The closest he was to the university was the main gates, where he used to contact his clients, all students, to hand them out their doses. He was making good money, until he got arrested. He's still alive, who knows for how long, maybe only a couple of months until the next massacre takes place in jail. Jacqueline feels a slow agony for him. However, she keeps a little light of hope for his redemption which was still sparkling in the bottom of her heart. Sadly, chances are that her only surviving son, has met the same tragical fate as his brothers, in one of these brutal events.
3. Gangs take over prisons
Prisons were the first place where these gangs started to show off their power and scary style.
Local criminal gangs were already fearsome. They used to extort small dealers and businesses’ owners using a kind of mafia-styled terror campaign. Any merchant who refused to pay what they had been told could easily be killed or seriously injured. So, they knew that at least paying they were going to be relatively ‘safe’. This was commonly carried out in medium cities like Esmeraldas, Manta or Chone. Some of the most known were actually called after the latter: ‘Los Choneros’. By the beginning of the 2010 decade, they saw a major source of dirty income through illegal drug trafficking.
The U.S. base in Manta (Manabi province) was not allowed to stay in Ecuador any longer after 2009. Ecuador was a sovereign state and was not going to tolerate to keep a foot of the empire on its territory. The Americans packed and left the country. President Correa was happy to boast about this great achievement every time he appeared on TV. Ecuador had made prevail its sovereignty against the hegemonic evil power of the U.S. This could have been true, but it was also true that the northern Ecuadorian coast stayed then largely uncontrolled for illegal ships and other kind of vessels trafficking drugs out of the country.
Once the peace agreement in Colombia was settled between the government and FARC (acronym in Spanish for: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) , other irregular groups had taken over the illegal business and it was easier to take the drugs to global markets through the Ecuadorian border and coasts rather than using the Colombian shores. Mexican cartels also realized how convenient was for them to use the Ecuadorian route to get shipments from South America to the U.S., Canada, and other major markets. They flew to Quito, Guayaquil and Manta looking for partners and the local gangs were their perfect match.
‘Choneros, Chone-Killers, Lagartos, Tiguerones, Latin Kings, Vatos Locos’ and some others are the names of local criminal gangs who got associated with larger and more fearsome Mexican drug cartels. However, it was not only a matter of businesses, they also adopted their brutal style to make others see how powerful hey are. Society in general, and the state in particular, were going to see how dreadful they had become.
Prisons were the first place where these gangs started to show off their power and scary style. They were powerful enough to bribe guards and clerks so they could get guns and drugs inside. For many inmates, especially poor ones, there is no choice; they have to choose among any of those. Otherwise, they are not protected in prison. However, such a ‘protection’ is not guarantee at all. If there is an open battle to take over the prison, all of them risked to be killed, executed in the most gruesome way.
4. A mother’s frustration
They could have always studied… studying is the most important thing!
“I used to give them good advice, ‘don’t go around like this, my son!’ The one that was just killed… I even put his hands on fire, hoping he was going to learn his lesson the hard way: ‘I don’t teach you to grab things that aren’t yours’… that’s what I used to tell him”
While she was remembering all she did to straight out her children’s lives, she was heavily sweating under Guayaquil’s warm tropical season. A storm of feelings was taking place in her mind and there was not any comfort to relieve her anxiety. Guilt was one of them. She kept asking herself whether she could have done more to save her children, to keep them away from evil companions and bad habits.
But Jacqueline was alone, she had to work hard jumping from one job to another. It is way too stark to raise children in a 'macho' culture, where men stay often away from their parental responsibilities. So, all the burden falls on women’s shoulders. This is the way it has always been in some places.
On top of that, poverty, the sort of which there should not be in a naturally rich country, with no extreme weather; a place that could be an Eden but has ended up being a piece of hell…
“I don’t have money for coffee or that sort of things. If you went to my house, I really tell you, on one day I might get some salt to have an egg but the next, I might not have it. I’m a single mother; I’ve had some men in my life though. If I’ve got some money to buy a piece of clothing, I won’t get it for myself but for my children. I’ve raised them, I’ve had them study but none of them has chosen to be someone in life, to get me out from where I’ve been living, to help me out. I’ve given them what I could, they’ve never lacked a piece of green plantain to eat. They could have always studied… studying is the most important thing!”
When Jorge Enrique went to Guayaquil the first time, he was impressed by the wide roads and neon signs all over. It was totally different to his native town, so peaceful and lost in time. That was an awesome city, and he was way freer to step out of the house and hang on with his new friends. Jacqueline though it was going to be good for him to change the environment a little bit. After all, he used to be really bored most of his time in ‘Las Palmas’, while his mother was working, and his older brothers had also left the house to follow crooked paths. That is why sending him to her mother’s place in Guayaquil seemed a good idea after all.
They both took the bus and headed south, to the big city. She spent there just a weekend with him and grandma. Then she had to go back home, to her same old grind. It was summertime so Jorge Enrique did not have to attend classes. When she left him, she warned her son:
- You must obey grandma and help her with the chores at home, don’t stay out. It’s dangerous out there. Did you hear me?
- Mmm…
- What kind of answer is that? Did you hear me?
- Ok, ok, I get it… but…
- But… what?? You shouldn’t tell me anything. It’s the same thing I said to your brothers and look where they are now. Two of them are in jail and the other one in Quito. God only knows their whereabouts…
- I’ll be fine, don’t worry mom.
- I hope so. Now I have to leave.
At the beginning, Jorge Enrique wanted to abide by the rules and stay home helping his grandma, but he also had to step out to get some groceries. That is when he made new friends. They were older than him; they looked so cool. It seemed to him they didn’t have to obey anyone; they were free and tough, swearing all the time, smoking, and hanging around with no one there to tell them what to do.
- Hey buddy, where are you from? Look at you! So scared, and so silly too!!
- Just leave me alone, I’ve got to go back home, with grandma.
- Hahaha, see? He’s like a little puppy!! Do you have to go back home? Oh… poor baby, go to grandma's lap, hurry up!
These gang members had a great time making fun of Jorge Enrique. He was just twelve. That day he felt harassed and scared. Actually, he was crying when he got back home. His grandma tried to comfort him, but he just wanted to be alone. Some days later, he saw one those boys who had been with the bullies’ group, a tall guy. He looked nice. It turned out they were neighbors, so they started talking. Guayaquil is a warm place, kids like to play around, so they get to know mates easily.
- Hi, what's your name?
- Hi, I'm Jorge, Jorge Enrique, actually.
- I see, but you're not from around here, aren't you?
- No, I'm not. I'm from Esmeraldas.
- And what are you doing here, so far from home?
- Mom left me here because I had nothing to do at home. She though I could help grandma instead.
- Sounds good, but you must be kind of bored… I guess…
- Yeah, just a little bit. Anyway, I’m just getting by, you know…
- Don’t be silly, come and join us. Make up something to tell your grandma and come tonight to my house. It’s just around the corner.
- Really, what for?
- Just come at 8 pm and see by yourself.
That night, Jorge Enrique was physically abused. It was a sort of ‘baptism’ to make him grow up like a ‘macho’. After being beaten, they made him drink and drugged him to allegedly make him feel fearless. Then, the gang’s leader ordered him to steal a cellphone to officially become a part of it.
- We are the Chone Killers. If you want to be one of us, you’ve got to do something. This is not for free. You’re too young, a baby, hahaha!! Well, that’s why we’re not asking you to kill anyone… by now. Just get a smartphone for me, tonight. You’d better get a good one! Are you listening to me??!!
- Yes… sir; I’ll get it for you.
Jorge Enrique tried to steal a smartphone from a woman who was coming back home late at night. He just threatened her with a kitchen knife and yelled. He was shaking in fear, almost crying. He knew that was not the right thing to do but he had no other option, so he kept telling her to hand in the phone. She was scared too, for but fast enough to push him away and shout for help. Some neighbors heard the noise and run to help her out.
Next day, the boy was sent to a teen correctional facility in Guayaquil, a kind of prison for young offenders. A policeman told his grandma what happened and she almost fainted. He had been sleepless the whole night because Jorge Enrique didn’t show up. He was supposed to be back soon after visiting a friend. She would have never imagined he was going to end up in prison.
Just like this, in the blink of an eye, Jorge Enrique was not an innocent child anymore. He was accused of assaulting a person for the purpose of robbery. Jacqueline had to ask permission in her job to go to Guayaquil. Once she got there, she was allowed to visit her son. She was crying from both pain and anger.
- Jorge Enrique!!! Why did you do this to me??? Do you want me to die???
- Mom, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do it but…
- What??? What are you going to tell me, what kind of lie are you going to make up now??? You told grandma you were going to visit a friend and watch TV and… look at you! You’re in jail, and you’re just twelve! Do you want to end up like your brothers???
He had no words to say. He was genuinely sorry for all what happened and truly wanted to get out of that place to go back home, with his mom, in Esmeraldas. He was lucky because the woman who had been attacked by him did not present any official complaint to the authorities, so he was given back to his mother after a couple of weeks and some paperwork. Jacqueline took him back to Las Palmas and tried to keep an eye on him almost all the time. At the beginning, at least, everything seemed to be back on track again.
5. A whole country in tears and fear
I really tell you, I don’t know where are bullets, knifes, machetes and bombs coming from...
Prison massacres began in 2019, news about them slowly became more and more frequent on traditional media, but above all, on social media. On these platforms there were shocking posts about them including explicit images and videos of mutilated bodies, heads used as soccer balls, corpses piled up as if they were sacks of rice. Death, death everywhere. Relentless death.
The assassination of one of the most famous gang leader, alias “Rasquiña”, in the port city of Manta, in December 2020, triggered more violent clashes inside prisons such as revenges and mass-scale massacres. At the beginning, they were gangs fighting against each other to take over the prison. However, that got worse everyday, and later, they began killing other inmates just randomly, regardless of who they were, whether they were part of a gang or not.
According to the Ecuadorian press, there have been eleven jail massacres so far, between 2021 and 2022. The worst took place at ‘Penitenciaría del Litoral’ on September 21st 2021. That day, 119 inmates brutally lost their lives. The raw statistic so far show that in 21 months, 413 inmates have been brutally and senselessly killed in these violent events.
The gangs’ methods were ruthless, they killed their rivals, or anyone else, shooting or stabbing them, attacking them with heavy machetes or hammers. In one of the massacres, bodies were beheaded and quartered in pieces using chainsaws. The very same instruments and tools that were supposed to be there to teach useful trades to inmates, were used to inflict terror and death. In another event, they even threw military grenades towards another pavilion. How could they get such a weapon, something reserved for the army?
Corruption is blatant in Ecuador, criminal gangs have been able to take complete control of prisons by bribing guards, police officers or even military ones. That is how they can get what they want from out of the prisons.
Jacqueline suffers from high blood pressure, she tries not to get upset when she complains for the complete lack of security in prisons,
"I really tell you, I don’t know where are bullets, knifes, machetes and bombs coming from. When I used to visit my son, the guards almost put their fingers inside my vagina, they made me jump to see if something fell down, they made me feel ashamed… the very authorities are the ones to blame.”
In the meantime, every time a new massacre happened, the president appeared on TV screens to reassure the population, to convey the message that the government and the public force are not going to let this happened anymore. But it kept happening over and over. A whole country is mourning their loved ones while empty official promises fade away.
They were in prison, but still human beings, they were supposed to have rights even if they did not enjoy freedom. Some of them were harmless, they had been sent to prison for minor crimes, like disregarding curfews during the pandemic, or they were about to be freed in few days. They could not make it. In some cases, the paperwork is so slow that prevents innocent people from recovering their freedom faster. It was too late for them, they were targeted by gangs just to show off their power and send a message to the whole society, we’re even stronger than the strongest, the very Ecuadorian state!
They were targeted by gangs just to show off their power and send a message to the whole society, we’re even stronger than the strongest, the very Ecuadorian state!
Of course, the story would have been quite different if Jacqueline’s sons had been rich. There are special prisons in Ecuador for those arrested under several charges but with enough money or political leverage not to be sent to a regular prison but to a nicer one, where you can be better off and without the risk of losing your life in the middle of a gang’s war. So, yes, we are all supposed to be equals before the law but… in the real world, in the real Ecuador, there are some folks more equals than others.
6. In prison, a dream is born
At least he had a dream to hold on to. He was too young, but he felt as if he had lived a million years after all he went through.
“The son who died last Tuesday, Jorge Enrique, was in prison for robbery, attempted murder against a cell mate and for smuggling marihuana into the penitentiary. ‘He comes from the Esmeraldas’ jail; then he was sent to Latacunga, and finally, to Guayaquil, without any conviction yet. He was accused of stealing a cellphone. He was prison for three years, yesterday, on September 30th, he just had his first hearing in three years!’, the mother complains.”
Once he got back to Esmeraldas, he was not the same boy as before. The experience of being involved in a gang and his short stay in a teen jail had definitely changed his mind. He realized he could get money by stealing, without having to study or getting a degree. Not even a job was required. He just had to be ‘brave’ (very macho) and get into a gang.
His teen years were very irregular, he never really fit into any learning system. He kept coming in and out from school. The psychologist spoke with him sometimes and Jacqueline knew it. She used to feel some relief thinking that a professional could be able to help her son as well. Although, more than any teacher or school clerk, it was certainly Jacqueline who warned Jorge Enrique about his bad behavior, not just once but many times, countless times.
But it was worthless. “I had him once buy some groceries and he came back holding a ‘LA VAQUITA’ milk bag (an expensive brand). He told me,
- ‘My friend gave it to me’, but I replied,
- ‘You’ve got be kidding me, don’t lie to me!’
I gave him a couple of blows and afterwards, the grocery shop’s owner came to complain about the robbery. From then on, he was just fooling around with his friends all time.
Jacqueline would have wanted to do more to keep her son safe and away from bad companies and gangs, but everything got out of her hands. One day, he told her he wanted to go back to Guayaquil and live with his grandma. He was just fourteen by then. His mother was reluctant to let him go. She remembered what happened last time he went there.
In spite of his mother opposition, Jorge Enrique had made up his mind. One day he packed just a few things and run away. When he arrived in the big city, he stayed some days at his grandma’s place just to reassure his mother; what he really wanted was to get in touch with his old friend, the one who introduced him to the Chone Killers gang.
He spent a couple of months in Guayaquil and got in trouble again for helping young offenders from that gang to steal cellphones and assaulting people in the neighborhood. However, he managed to scape and went back to Esmeraldas. He was slowly falling deeper into the cliff of crime and drugs. Just as his older brothers before him. It seemed there was no other fate for them.
As soon as he turned eighteen, he got completely involved with the Chone Killers gang. He became a 'talented' thief and went to live out of his mother’s house. One day there was a police raid and got arrested. There was evidence of his felonies on his hands. It was a brand-new cellphone he had stolen from a tourist on the beach. He could not justify it belonged to him. His next stop was the jail, a real crime university.
Once inside, he got into more trouble. He had a tattoo on his left arm, so everybody knew from the moment he set a foot inside, that he was part of the Chone Killers. The gang’s leader warned him about something very important.
- Welcome to prison JE! (His acronym became his nickname or alias too)
- Hi, what’s the matter?
- Don’t pretend to be a fool; you perfectly know what I’m talking about.
- I can’t guess what you’ve got in mind!
- Don’t you remember? Let me refresh your weak memory, my boy. You were a baby, and you’re still one. You were twelve, in Guayaquil. You were ordered to steal a simple cellphone, and you failed! You owe me that!
- I still don’t recall anything… you know…
- Ok, you’re so forgetful as I can see. No problem, this is going to remind you what you owe to me!
As soon as he said this, JE got several punches and then was left lying on the floor, almost unconscious. When he finally felt a little better, he heard a raucous voice behind him,
- Hi there! Do you feel better now?
- Well, kind of...
- Listen to me carefully. the boss wants you to kill your cellmate, he was one of ours but betrayed us. He must pay for that. Do you understand?
- Mmm, ok… what if I refuse to do so?
- Then… it’s so simple, you'll be dismissed, and you know what I mean…
Of course, JE got the boss' message. He had no choice. He was in prison, there was no place to go and be safe. He could not tell anything to a guard or anyone else because that would have meant to be targeted himself by the Chone Killers' boss. He would have been labelled as a coward and a traitor. In other words, an immediate death sentence upon him.
Until that moment, he had never killed anyone. He had been a thief and a sort of drug dealer too, but... to kill someone, to take a life… it was way too much for him. Many times, he though he was in time to rehabilitate and take the reins of his own life again. He felt like crying but refrained. He would have been mocked by everyone there.
He just sat down and spent a couple of hours remembering his mother’s tears and advice. He never did what she told him to do, the right thing in life. Now he felt it was too late. That night he had to assassinate his cellmate, otherwise he might have to pay the price of disobeying the boss, with his own life.
When the night finally fell, he was in his cell and got a knife. In prison it was quite easy to get a handmade one. The boss gave one to him. So, he waited until the guy was sleeping. Stealthily he approached his bed and just when he was ready to hit, the young man woke up and started fighting back. JE failed in his mission.
Prison authorities took him to another pavilion, the so-called ‘high security sector’, where the most dangerous prisoners lived. Of course, his boss was there. That night was the most miserable of his whole life. He was beaten and tortured repeatedly. He would have liked to die. When he was completely in despair, he imagined something clever, so he said to his boss,
- What can I do to repair this, is there something I can do? I heard you need some marihuana. I know how to get it into prison. Trust me.
- You’re a piece of s***!! Do you hear me?
- Ok, I get it. Sorry. I just want to help you.
- How do you think you’re gonna get it? You’re good for nothing. You failed getting a cellphone for me years ago. And now, you failed again, killing that guy!
- I know, but that already costed me an arm and a leg. Just give me another chance, please… I just need a phone and you’ll get your stuff tonight.
- Sounds good, but if you fail again, you’ll be dead!
JE got the phone and made the right calls. He had a friend pay a little bribe to one of the jail’s guards and got the drug smuggled that night for his boss. Finally, he enjoyed some peace while his bruises started healing. But he did something else. He also called his mom.
- Hi mom! Is that you, Pretty Lady Jacky? Kisses for you, pretty lady.
- My son! Yes, it’s me! How did you do to call me?
- A friend lent me his phone, I can’t talk for so long. I just wanted to say hello.
- Oh, my son, thanks for that, but don’t get into more trouble, how are you?
- It’s been a little hard… you know…
He got emotional and his voice broke. His mother knew something was wrong and cried also with him on the phone. JE told her how repented and remorseful he was for all he did. He wanted to change his life but now it was going to be harder for him to get out of prison.
- Don’t worry my child, as soon as you get out of jail, you’ll get a job. That’s for sure!
- Really, how come?
- I can get a little loan to buy a cart, like the one your uncle had, do you remember?
- Of course, I do!
- Well, I can prepare some 'corviches' (a typical dish made of fish and green plantain) for you to sell on the beach, what do you think?
- Mom, that sounds great, would you do that for me?
- Absolutely, you’re my son! I want to help you as much as I can.
The call suddenly ended because the boss was near. He had to erase the data and give it back to him. At least he had a dream to hold on to. He was too young, but he felt as if he had lived a million years after all he went through. Nevertheless, his current situation was going to get even worse. There was one more charge against him for attempted murder.
In addition, a raid took place and the marihuana he had helped to smuggle into jail was also found by the guards. The boss did not take any responsibility for that, of course. So, he had to accept this new charge too. The dream of selling 'corviches' on the beach, in his beautiful hometown, Las Palmas, seemed so far away. He was supposed to be a tough guy by now, but he was not. He just felt like crying while, at night, he longed to go back to a normal life…
7. Ecuador under a death sentence
Not only are jail massacres the result of growing crime in the country, but the society as such is under death menace.
Whereas in jails, different gangs fought each other to take them over and control extorsions, weapons and drugs smuggling, in the streets, violence experienced a sharp increase. The same criminal organisations that were wreaking havoc in the prisons, were also sowing terror outside. Explosions, assaults, and shootings began to take place, particularly between 2020 and 2022, killing innocent people in many places such as parks, police stations and even particular homes. Even kids were shot, those who should be safely studying and playing, are buried now.
An unusually high crime rate made Ecuadorians feel in danger more than ever. Hitmen, for instance, were easily hired to get people shot. They can mingle in the middle of traffic riding motorbikes and getting away quickly after shooting someone. That is still going on a daily basis while the public force is powerless to prevent it from happening again.
To face this huge challenge, the government led by Guillermo Lasso, has repeatedly applied some measures like curfews and raids with the participation of both the police and the military forces, aiming to reduce the crime’s impact, but in general, with little success. However, it began hitting the core of these organisations by stripping the most feared gangs’ ringleaders from their privileges such as access to mobile phones, guns, and drugs, all of which allowed them to keep managing their dirty businesses. This was done by getting them moved to allegedly safer jails.
As a reprisal, and even before that move was carried out, they ordered from inside the prisons, massive attacks against police. Assassins hit the road with the sole purpose of getting as many policemen shot to death as possible. As a matter of fact, on Tuesday November 1st, 2022, five of them were killed in several attacks which include the use of grenades, rifles, and many other heavy weapons.
According to recent statistics, 2022 is very likely to finish showing a sad and shocking rate of around 4000 violent deaths in the country. This means more than 330 killings per month and amounts to an annual rate of 15,48 violent deaths for every 100.000 inhabitants. As a consequence, not only are jail massacres the result of growing crime in the country, but the society as such is under death menace.
8. There is no comfort, for her children are gone
"Nothing remains of him on the body she went in to recognize on Friday, at the Police Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Guayaquil.”
" 'I used to come along to visit him just a few times, she says, because I'd rather sent him some money so he could buy what he needed at the cooperative shop, in jail, where costs double. In there, everything is so expensive, a soap bar for a dollar; with 20 bucks he could only buy 5 or 6 things. Here, you get a gallon of water for one dollar, but in prison you can’t get it for less than six. You can figure how much they’re earning with that’, Jacqueline complains. She’s been sleeping for two nights next to a mango tree on the sidewalk at the Police Station, expecting some news from her son."
On one of those times, when she made it to visit him, she realized it was going to be harder to get him out of prison. She already knew about the new charges he was facing. She brought some money for him, but more than that, advice and comfort for her son.
- You didn’t want to kill that guy, did you?
- Of course not. But I was forced to. Otherwise, I would have been killed.
- I get that my son. I guess you can explain that to a lawyer. But, please stay away from that people, the Chone Killers.
- It’s not that easy, this tattoo shows I’m one of them. I’m marked.
- Well, at least pretend to be with them but stay away from their plans, stay safe!
- Ok, it’s not that easy but I’ll try. But tell me about our plans, the corviches cart, do you remember?
- Of course, I do! I talked to a friend of mine who works at the community cooperative. They are willing to help us. We’re gonna get the cart, that’s for sure, don’t worry. That’s on me.
- Great! I look forward to leaving this place and start again!
- Hold on to that dream my son, may God help us get you free!
A nice dream, a light of hope, for both, mother, and son. Unfortunately, this little spark in the middle of the darkness was going to last just for a while. During the first six months of 2021, two jail massacres had already taken place. Nobody could guess where and when the next was going to happen.
Jacqueline, in the meantime, had been trying during several months to contact a lawyer to help her son. You need a good one to find out the exit in such a maze of laws, decreets and piles of paperwork. The problem is that you need money to get a good lawyer. Jorge Enrique’s mother, a humble woman who barely gets by selling food on the beach, wasn’t likely to find any.
One day she got an audio message on her phone. She was happy.
“‘Where is the pretty lady? I’m sending kisses to her’”
It was the last audio file Jorge Enrique sent his mother on a chatting app, in the very same morning of that fateful day, September 29th, 2021, when more than one hundred inmates were brutally killed, mercilessly, in what is known so far as the worst jail massacre in Ecuador’s History. Even if she didn’t know yet about her son’s fate, her heart, always her heart, was telling her that he was gone. The message he sent on the phone sounded like a last farewell.
“That’s what Jacqueline listens to, over and over, while she looks at her son’s pictures on the phone.”
A couple of hours after sending that last message, a hell unleashed in all the pavilions of one the largest ‘correctional’ facilities in Ecuador, the Littoral Penitentiary. There were bodies everywhere. Some were in one piece, some quartered and others partially burned. Jorge Enrique was shot twice. At least his body was complete when his mother saw it, although completely contorted.
“A cry is heard in Ramah— deep anguish and bitter weeping. Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted— for her children are gone.” (Jeremiah 31,15)
9. A thousand faces inside a single drop of tears
Jacqueline’s tears for her sons also contain the faces and stories of those young men executed by ferocious gangsters.
“Time keeps passing and her son’s body is not yet handed to her. She wants to get quickly to Esmeraldas, to her neighborhood, next to the 9th bus stop, ‘as if you were going to Las Palmas beach’. She wants to bury him as soon as she arrives there.”
Outside that doomed jail, thousands of wives, mothers, fathers, siblings, and more relatives were packed against improvised railings that barely stopped them from moving ahead. They were all begging for information, desperately trying to know whether their loved ones were still alive or not.
Jacqueline saw, heard, and feel people struggling to know something, crying and sobbing, shouting of anger and anguish. They couldn’t do anything else but watch the forensic vans go out of the prison’s gates, packed with bodies, or maybe just parts of them. Indeed, is not only Jacqueline’s heartbreaking story. There are hundreds of them, even thousands of them! The dead ones are many more than jail inmates! In the streets there have been fallen policemen, lawyers, journalists, teachers, teens, even children, and many more.
A wage of violence has shaken the country in the last two years leaving behind a trail of blood, sadness, and despair. Jacqueline’s tears for her sons also contain the faces and stories of those young men executed by ferocious gangsters. Some may have been guilty of crimes, some innocent. Nonetheless, neither of them got their rights respected. They were not targeted by the state like in other of brutal massacres and genocides, but the political power is involved as well for failing to prevent this unspeakable tragedy.
Jorge Enrique, or simply JE, had a nice last dream that will never come true. It was not any ambitious plan. He wanted to get out of prison to become a street vendor. He was just longing to work honestly selling 'corviches' on the beach and earn some honest money to help himself and his mother. He was completely tired of all the crimes he committed, of all the mistakes that led him to jail. Even if he knew there was a price he had to pay for them, he was ready to get a fresh start afterwards. Now everything is gone, his dream, as well as those of many more that belong to his broken generation, are lost forever.
“The night begins to fall. Jacqueline’s daughter goes out with her brother’s corpse. Everything is ready to start the eight-hours travel to Esmeraldas, where the closest relatives are waiting to bury Jorge Enrique. ‘God willing, I’m about to go to Esmeraldas, right now. I just ask the authorities, let there be no more violence! many families, as mine, are suffering way too much!’”
In behalf of all these mowed lives and their broken dreams, for all the bitter tears our mothers and fathers have shed, let us do something!
We all raise our voices to the perpetrators of these atrocities and to the state:
Stop the slaughter! What a daunting future will our children find if this keeps going on?
Text and drawings: Nicolás Dousdebés Córdova
Important note:
This is a fictional story based on a true report written by Marjorie Ortiz (Journalist at El Universo newspaper - Ecuador). All the paragraphs signed in italics belong to that orginal journalistic report and have been translated for this literary work. The link of the original article is:
Other sources:
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/seguridad/policias-bajo-ataque-ocho-uniformados-han-sido-baleados-en-guayaquil-y-duran-esta-tarde-dos-han-fallecido-nota/
https://www.primicias.ec/noticias/en-exclusiva/ecuador-tasa-muertes-violentas-ultima-decada/
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