The last news of Brayan Rommel Corrales Bravo, the 14-year-old boy died last Sunday of a heart attack in the Darien jungle, is that they could not transfer his body to urbanized land and his relatives had to bury him where they were. “50 meters from the mouth of the La Resbalosa creek to the Río Muerto”, he says. the local press with source in the Defensoría and the Personería of Acandí, Colombia, the closest municipality.
“We hope that tomorrow, with our community defenders, we can have contact with Brayan’s family again, when they arrive in Panama,” the government agency told the newspaper. Time.
The minor, who died after having survived, on October 10, to a shipwreck in which his mother perished, Lisandra Bravo Alarcón, was accompanied on the journey by his father, Raunel, his five-year-old sister, his grandparents and a maternal uncle.
Nothing precise has been known about them for four days, says María Caridad Cemino, Lisandra’s aunt who lives in the United States, whose words and tears show her despair.
“My family is crazy, my family has no consolation,” says Cemino In an interview with America TeVé journalist Mario J. Pentón. On the verge of tears, the woman tells how they left Cuba in 2018 and, not being able to cross through Nicaragua “because it was at war” (the civic protests against Daniel Ortega that were answered with harsh repression), they decided to go to Chile.
The surviving relatives had to use his corpse as a lifeline, in the middle of the stalking sharks, until they were rescued
A few months ago, the late Lisandra, her husband and children, plus her parents and her brother, decided to head to the United States, where part of the mother’s family had already managed to arrive, including María Caridad Cemino.
In Darien, like so many other Cubans, they found their doom. “They arrived in Colombia, there they contacted someone who was going to transfer them to Panama and while there they asked each one for 500 dollars to pass them on a boat,” says Cemino. “These people, without scruples of any kind, put more people than they had to take in the boat and my niece Lisandra could not reach a life jacket.” The boat capsized at dawn and Lisandra drowned. The surviving relatives had to use his corpse as a lifeline, in the middle of the stalking sharks, until they were rescued. She was buried on land, along with two Haitian women who also died in the water.
They spent 18 days in Acandí, where they were admitted to a hospital due to their condition. “The five-year-old girl was very ill, the burns were tremendous, from so much sun they were dehydrated,” Cemino details.
“After so much sadness and pain, having to leave my niece there, there was no other choice but to continue,” he continues. “From there, in a nearby town they were told that they were going to provide things for their journey so that they could have a better time, but on the contrary: they were thrown to their death, because they had to go through very bad places.”
Cemino assures that Brayan was a healthy, normal child. “It seems that he felt bad going up the hill and did not reach it.” The relatives called Cemino upset so that she could contact a human rights organization in Colombia, but they could not do anything. Now, the devastated woman says, “I only ask God that when they arrive in Panama they help me after so much tragedy.”
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio He is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our journal. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
