Years go by and 28 Venezuelan women still have the hope of seeing their children disappeared on the border with Colombia. They did not hear from them and the authorities only tell them that they are investigating, but without certainty.
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“Why are we looking for them? Because we love them” shouted the mothers this Wednesday, who with banners They decided to visit Caracas and meet with some organizations to receive orientation.
“Esperanza de Madre” is the name of the collective that brings them together and that has 28 documented cases.
One of those disappeared is Elisael Contreras, who was apparently kidnapped in Cúcuta in July 2019 when he was 25 years old. “That year he had traveled to the Inírida mines to work for his livelihood, and it did not go well for him. When he returned from there, he arrived in Cúcuta. It was the last thing we could know,” said his mother Lisbeth Zurita.
Zurita told reporters that he still believed his son was alive.. With tears in her eyes, she insists that one day she will appear, as will the more than 40 missing people they know of.
“Esperanza de Madre” is an organization of mothers who are looking for their missing children on the Colombian-Venezuelan border. The years go by and they don’t know anything about their relatives. pic.twitter.com/OlShmGtJMN
— Ana Rodríguez Brazón (@anarodriguez_b) August 30, 2023
Of the cases handled by the organization, which was created in 2021, only seven are women. The rest are mostly men between the ages of 18 and 25, a pattern that attracts attention and leads them to assume that groups outside the law recruited their relatives.
The mothers want answers, but authorities in both countries have been lax. “The authorities tell us that we have to be patient, that the case is ongoing,” she told EL TIEMPO Cenaida Basto, Antony Colmenares’ mother.
The young man disappeared at 6 p.m. on June 17, 2019. He worked as a taxi driver at the San Antonio del Táchira terminal. “Until that day we heard from him. They took him out through Barinas to Apure and from there to Colombia, according to the telephone record.”Basto narrates.
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Disappearances on the border between Venezuela and Colombia are an issue that both countries must work on and respond to their families, many of whom are afraid to make their complaints public.
The organization “Esperanza de Madre” insists on continuing to search for their relatives until all means are exhausted.
ANA MARIA RODRIGUEZ BRAZON
WEATHER CORRESPONDENT
CARACAS
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