By Andrés Torterola
On repeated occasions, border cities are used as a refuge by people who have fled from justice.
María José Moreira is Uruguayan, she is 30 years old, with a daughter of one and a half years and another of 8 months. He lived for three years with his partner in the city of Artigas, he is a 25-year-old Uruguayan citizen who today is allegedly a fugitive from Uruguayan justice, and is also prohibited from approaching women in both countries.
María José told CAMBIO: “When I met him, he was under house arrest, he had been prosecuted for a smuggling crime, from the beginning it was a conflictive, toxic relationship, anyway, we agreed to go live in the city of Quaraí –Brazil -. “
“On one occasion the relatives of my partner warned him that he was required by the Uruguayan justice and that if he returned they would arrest him, he has been taking refuge in the Brazilian city for 18 months.”
According to his concubine, this person, a fugitive from Uruguayan justice, set up a business and together they worked there until a violent argument broke out again, which led Moreira to return to his parents’ home in the city of Artigas.
When he returned to look for his daughters, a Brazilian lawyer and the conselho tutelar, which is an autonomous body in charge of ensuring compliance with the rights of children and adolescents, were at his home. To all this, they asked him to return the next day with officials from the INAU, the Institute for Children and Adolescents of Uruguay, which is the governing body in matters of child and adolescent policies in Uruguay, and that in border cities when there are complex situations they work together to settle differences.
“I’M AFRAID HE WILL KILL ME”
“In the city of Quaraí they did not believe me, and they decided that I can visit my daughters, but I must live in the Brazilian city, my partner has a precautionary measure for assault, there is no court order that prohibits me from seeing my daughters, they did not resolve give the father tenure, but they don’t let them leave the country either, and they force me to live in that city, I have to run off to try to rent a place, the Brazilian justice requires me to move to Quaraí to be with my daughters and I must prove that I am not going to elope to Uruguay ”The question of María José’s family is precisely why, the Brazilian justice favors a wanted person in Uruguay, allegedly violent, with evidence of mistreatment, with medical certificates, precautionary measures in both countries and that justice forces her to settle in Quaraí knowing that she may suffer more violent actions. “In Artigas I am sure, but not in Quaraí, I am afraid of the violent attitude that he may have, I am afraid that he will kill me,” María José Moreira told CAMBIO.
