A TRAGIC SAGA IN THE FAMILY BEGINS

GUATEMALA, THE CITY OF ANTIGUA NOT VERY FAR FROM WHERE THE PRISON OF EL SOCABON IS LOCATED

It was on a cold Thursday morning in May 1971. I was assigned to a four week job in Quito at our client, Ecuador Feed & Farms Co, a company in the poultry business, vertically integrated to produce from fertile eggs to life broiler chicken and the corresponding feed. Our working group was made up of a Manager (a fellow brought up specifically for the job from Lima, Peru), a semi-senior (me) and three assistants, all of us were staying at the Colon Hotel, a five star hotel located in the Northern part of town.
On that faithful day, I woke up at about 6:30 in the morning, and after taking a shower and getting dressed up for work, I went down to the cafeteria with the newspaper under my arm and ordered breakfast. As I started to read the Quito paper “El Comercio”. All of a sudden, I saw in the first page of the paper a title that immediately called my attention; it said “ECUADORIAN CITIZEN IS DETAINED IN GUATEMALA CARRYING 80 KILOS OF DRUG”. Though I had no reason to be concerned, I felt compelled to read the whole article, and, as I read it, I felt that the whole blood in my body was suddenly pumped up to my head. The article said that XX Romero (the name of one of my brothers), an Ecuadorian Citizen had been captured at a downtown hotel in Guatemala City, and 80 kilos of cocaine presumably processed in Colombia and destined to the U.S. had been seized by the Guatemalan police in his room; It added that the detainee had been sent to the “El Socabon” maximum security prison located in the outskirts of Guatemala City for farther investigation by the police, after which he would be submitted to the judgment by the Guatemalan Justice system.

I immediately fell into a state of total confusion. On one side, I didn’t know what to do, what to say, where to go, who to talk to, I felt nauseating and felt stomach aches; on the other side, I felt sorry for my brother, I thought of him behind bars, totally defenseless, far away from his wife and children, and, at the same time I felt a tremendous amount of irritation, indignation, frustration and anger at the fact that he had gotten himself in that kind business and trouble, while the rest of our family was doing almost the impossible to get our heads above the water within the boundaries of the personal integrity instilled by our elders and especially by our mother!.
I excused myself with the rest of our group who had joined me for breakfast, and went upstairs to my room from where I called Pepe García, my boss, whom I told everything I knew which was what I read in the paper. I told him I felt terribly embarrassed and I didn’t want to have The Firm get stained by these embarrassing facts. I told him almost weeping that I felt compelled to submit my resignation effective immediately, as I really felt it was the right thing to do. I told Pepe that I needed to be replaced in the job I was doing in Quito and, that whoever it was to replace me, shuld count on my full cooperation to take over my responsibilities. Such was the respect and admiration I had for The Firm and for Pepe, his representative in the country.
After a moment of silence which appeared endless, I got a response from Pepe. He said: “Rafael, I feel very sorry for you and your family for what has happened to your brother, however, I must tell you something that you should keep in your mind for as long as you live; “There may be felons or criminals in a family, but that doesn’t mean that that is a family of felons and criminals”, and he added; “as an adult, your brother is personally and solely responsible and liable for his own acts, whether they are good or bad, you have nothing to do with his behavior, absolutely nothing, period”, and, then he added; “please go back to your work Rafael, I fully trust you, I fully trust your integrity, your professionalism and your judgment”.

That was one, perhaps the best of the many lessons I got from Pepe while he was my boss. He was not only a gentleman, a professional by all means, but he was also a great human being, a friend, a confidant, almost a second father to me.
A few weeks after the above happened, I received a letter from my brother in which he told me his side of the story, he said he was a prisoner of his own mistakes, that he felt sorry for having caused such a pain and embarrassment to the whole family, he said that among his many mistakes in life, the number one was that he have thought he could compensate his lack of wisdom and education in his earlier years by making quick money, becoming a “mule” transporting Colombian originated cocaine to Central America, from where it would continue its route to the US. He lamented all the damage he had caused to his family whom he recognized had been left without any financial means to survive, and he asked me to help his wife and children. My brother also asked my help to finance the professional fees to be paid to the lawyer who would defend him in front of the Guatemalan Courts.

I felt in a real crossroads; in the first place, I felt sorry for the guy, but I felt even sorrier for his family, for the young children and their mother who had been left on their own. I also felt very sorry to know my brother was behind bars in one of the most lugubrious prisons in the Western Hemisphere, and he needed to be helped legally, at a cost someone had to pay, and I was afraid somehow I was going to have to pay the bill, or at least a good portion of it. I discussed the contents of his letter with my sisters and with Pepe, my big brother who at the time was working for another of the big five accounting firms. The fact of the matter is that my sisters, all of them, were as emotionally affected by what happened to our brother as I was, and offered to help, with their prayers…

Their prayers however did not bring food to our brothers’ children’s dining table, nor did they help paying for a lawyer. Pepe and I decided to help our jailed brother’s family with their day to day needs, and we both had to borrow money to help with his legal fees in Guatemala. About a year later, our brother was released from prison and one day he showed up back in our home town, Guayaquil.

We all celebrated our brother’s return with jubilation, we all felt extremely happy to have him back, but after the celebration Pepe and I decided to have a talk with our brothetr, at which we clearly told him how much damage his actions had caused to the whole family and to his children in particular. We were very clear in mentioning to him that by no means he should interpret our help during his months behind bars as an endorsement of his actions, we told him they were just a humanitarian, brotherly attitude, and a show of solidarity to his family and to our old and ailing father. We added that his actions had caused tremendous anxiety and pain to our elderly father. I personally told him that for the first time I felt glad our mother had passed away years ago, because if she had been alive, the news of her son being imprisoned in a foreign country for a crime such as his’, would have instantly caused her tremendous pain and perhaps even her death. We advised him to get his acts together, to become responsible for his own actions and not to expect any help from us in case he decided to backslide. He cried out loud, he promised in the name of our dead mother that he would change, that he would become a responsible father and an honorable member of our family. Subsequent facts which I will talk about later proved, much to the suffering of our whole family, that our dear brother was far from done with his wrongdoings.

In my next posting: LIFE GOES ON