136 – That is the number of days that Erick and Luis Daniel Zapata, Puerto Rican brothers who were arrested on June 28, and have been in confinement after being identified by a 17-year-old girl as the perpetrators of an alleged rape.
The days accumulated and turned into weeks. The weeks into months. The accusation of rape it was reclassified to a sexual assault, after no evidence was found through physical examinations carried out on the minor.
Similarly, the story is not in accordance with what the images of the Barceló hotel captured, which is located in the tourist complex between Cancun and Playa del Carmen, the place in where the alleged incident happened.
The victim, recently wrote freely and voluntarily, asking to desist from the accusations and expressing that she could not remember well whether or not the young Puerto Ricans had been the authors of the denounced act.
Despite all this, the case is not dismissed or expedited to be seen in its entirety. Hearing dates are scheduled and then canceled, without much explanation. The court system allows up to two years to hear the case and, despite the alleged victim’s attempts to remove everything, the authorities insist they will go ahead with the case. Of course, one could understand that it is fair, because it would not be the first time that a victim regrets going forward for a whole range of reasons. If so, and the prosecution has solid evidence, it would be fair for them to come down once and for all with all the power of the alleged evidence. But this does not happen.
The parents of these minors already have three legal defense attorneys. Each presenting different resources, with no luck. They are trapped by a system that they do not understand.
This inaction is what has prompted the Group of the World Organization for Peace to intervene. They arrived and immediately tripped over the same problems. Delaying tactics, bureaucratic actions and a slow process. Here technology is not worth it. They don’t want emails or other formalities. They have returned to the 60s or 70s, where a face-to-face paper is required that must have the signature of one or another guy. Burning gallons of gasoline, because the process cannot be done in one place and they are forced to visit different centers. Of course, as you can imagine, they want to take advantage of the territorial extension and send them to centers that are three and four hours away.
While this fight for roles take place in the different forums, the young brothers are in a Detention Center full of accused people. There, under the same roof, is the aggressor of gender violence, the vilest of murderers and even common thieves. There is no division.
The cell where they are found is shared by them and seven other people. Nine living beings in a not very big space and where, at least three, have to sleep on the floor due to lack of beds.
Occasionally, they empty the place a bit by moving prisoners to another prison that is located about four hours away in the Chetumal jurisdiction. The young brothers have not been moved by their citizenship and after the intervention of the United States embassy in Quintana Roo, which is the state that houses the municipality of Solidaridad, which has, in turn, the entire tourist complex from Playa del Carmen, where the events occurred.
The embassy staff has not done anything else. The same complaint has been filed against the Department of State of Puerto Rico. According to their parents, they practically no longer make calls to find out what is happening.
