On December 8, Ángel García Aguilera would have turned 17 if it had not been for a mob of windshield wipers (of foreign origin, according to witness testimony) attacked him on the night of last Friday, July 29in the vicinity of Calama and Bellavista streets, downtown area of the city of Antofagasta.
Related note | A 16-year-old boy is murdered in the middle of the street in Antofagasta
The young man was not alone. At the time of the attack, he was walking with a group of about four friends who accompanied him to take locomotion, exactly the taxibus of line 103 that left him closest to his house, in the upper sector of the Las Pulgas fair, precisely in the camp Ecuahilep.
Coming from Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia), Ángel arrived in Antofagasta with his parents when he was two years old. Four years ago his mother separated, for which Ángel became a kind of “man of the house”, since he not only took care of his mother, but also of his two sisters, who today are 6 and 11 years old.
He forged his basic education at the General Santiago Amengual Balbontín school and until last week he was in his second year of secondary education at the Liceo Industrial. Ángel wanted to specialize in welding, since he managed the trade (inherited from his father) and with that he did small jobs with which he earned some money to contribute to the home.
He practiced Judo, a sport that allowed him to travel to different regions and win championships. Photographs with then regional authorities where they gave him galvanos and recognition give an account of this facet. But all that ended last Friday night, when a report from Carabineros confirmed that “at 9:23 p.m. a call came in at 133 (…) and Carabineros from the 2nd police station attended. In the place was a person with wounds attributable to a stab, caused by third parties. He coordinates his transfer to the Regional Hospital, where he dies at 10:20 p.m. The victim is a 16-year-old minor with no criminal record. It was Angel.
The tragedy
Elizabeth Aguilera is Angel’s motherand together with a group of family friends, he hopes to receive the body of his son, who until 3:00 p.m. yesterday, was still inside the Antofagasta Legal Medical Service (SML).
“He didn’t go out much, he was from many friends, he got together with everyone, but he didn’t go out much. He hurts me and it weighs on my soul that they killed me that way ”says the woman, while waiting for 3:30 p.m., at which time the SML was going to deliver the body to her.
Elizabeth remembers that on that fateful Friday, Ángel told her that he would go to the house of a friend who lived in the Parque los Eventos sector, since he would teach her how to apply for technical careers. Despite initial reluctance to give him permission, he agreed. Total -he explains- the young man was locked up for too long with the pandemic and it would not be so bad if he went out early to share with his friends. He was also compliant with his schedules and was an exemplary son.
“He left the house around 6:15 p.m. There she spent a while with her friends, then they went for a walk along the waterfront. At 8:00 p.m. he called him and told me that he was about to take transportation, and that he was accompanied by his friends. I arrived at the house at 9:00 p.m. and it seemed strange to me that he was not there, I called him back but he did not answer. At about 9:30 p.m. my brother-in-law arrives telling me that a girl called him who told him that the Angel had been stabbed “says the mother.
The case is currently the subject of an investigation, which according to a statement from the Presidential Regional Delegation, is being carried out by Labocar and the Carabineros OS9 in order to find those responsible for the homicide.
cruelty
But for Elizabeth, the authors of the crime were a group of windshield wipers of foreign origin, who had been following the young people with possible intentions of assaulting them, which they would have noticed.
“When we arrived at the Regional Hospital, my son had not yet arrived, because he came in the ambulance, but One of his friends arrived, who told us that a group of Venezuelans gave them an ugly look, there they talked and a fight broke out, in which the Venezuelans took out sticks and machetes and hit them. At first there were 3 or 4 Venezuelans but later more appeared, who caught up with my son and grabbed him together”, he says.
The mother must have recognized the young man’s body, noting that among the multiple wounds, one of his legs and his head were completely destroyed. “There I went in shock, at that moment I lost myself,” he says.
Elizabeth was very close with her son, together they went to the movies, to the mall. They accompanied each other everywhere and the young man, despite his age, had no complexes about walking with his mother everywhere. In addition, he had very good friends, almost all of them now have the mourning logo on their WhatsApp photos.
“He protected him a lot and almost never let him go out alone, but this weekend I allowed him to visit a friend and what happened happened,” says his mother, with a voice on the edge of brokenness.
The death of this young man generated a statement from the Presidential Regional Delegation, where they lament his death and -once again- commit themselves to the safety of the community.
Related Note | “We deeply regret the homicide”: Government referred to the crime of an adolescent in Antofagasta
“I’m sorry I’m not going to get my son back. I would tell the delegate to lead an initiative so that the law is enforced. There are many crimes, today it was my son and tomorrow it could be someone else. We parents cannot take our children everywhere, and I have two other daughters left. The streets are very dangerous and it would be much better for her to raise her voice to get these people out who are causing harm”, concludes Ángel’s mother.
