The 19-year-old young man, in what would be an afternoon of fun, lost a cousin, two cousins-in-law and his best friend Jhon Jáuregui Parra, whose body has not yet been located
Friday September 23. César Adolfo Rovira Ramírez leaves San Cristóbal, with his best friend Jhon Jarvey Jáuregui. They were going to spend an afternoon of fun with other young people gathered in Potrero de Las Casas, Lobatera municipality.
Two months ago, cousin Víctor Ramírez invited César Roviro Ramírez to the camp, which he and his father Thoby Ramírez organized for members of the Methodist church in San Cristóbal.
Methodist churches derive their name from an appellation given to a group of 17th-century English students whose piety and spiritual discipline were characteristic. From this group emerged the founders of the movement. “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who is worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy, catholic and apostolic church. We recognize only one baptism for the forgiveness of sins”, is indicated in the bibliography regarding the Methodist church.
They arrive at Potrero de Las Casas
Friends César Adolfo and Jhon Jarvey left in an Optra vehicle for Potrero de Las Casas. A village in the Lobatera municipality, about two hours from San Cristóbal, located at 1,600 meters above sea level.
Potrero de Las Casas, has in its characteristics a cold, pleasant climate and a complex of houses destined for groups of people and families who wish to spend days away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Arriving at the village, the friends César and Jhon noticed the cloudy day and the drizzle that was falling. The plan was to join the young people gathered at the Methodist camp and go to a creek. They did not know that it was called La Molina.
The fun: on the way to La Molina
laughs. Stories. Jokes. Photographs made the road to La Molina lighter, about 40 minutes. The expectations to get to spend a few hours of fun, was the goal of the group.
In addition to the young people there were adults, who participate in the days of coexistence.
“As soon as we got to the river, the people from the area who were guiding us told us: You have five minutes to be in the ravine and we’re leaving,” Cesar Adolfo Rovira recalls precisely a month later. That seemed a little strange to me, because when one arrives at a place like that, a ravine or a river, one wants to bathe and enjoy as was the initial plan.
At least Rovira Ramírez did not hear any further explanations as to why they should only be in the ravine for five minutes. Bad weather, guessed the young people who were looking to have fun, take photos and videos.
The La Molina creek descends from the top of the mountains of the Lobatera municipality. Between those mountains Potrero de Las Casas.
Through the town of Lobatera, passes La Molina and another ravine, La Lobatera, and below the edge of the town they join. Then that union merges with a third ravine, La Parada, and forms the Lobaterita River that flows into Lake Maracaibo.
The roar, the tragedy
Almost the entire group of about 30 people entered the La Molina creek. Others stayed at the farmhouse.
Joy, laughter, shouts of happiness, more photos and videos. Although they attended to the guide in the area —César Adolfo, he does not remember the name of the person, but he did have 50 years in the area— he knew that they would not spend part of the afternoon in the ravine, as was the plan, but they would not spend five minutes… a little more, for the photos, the group said, inside the calm waters.
“We had a bath and we were having fun,” César Rovira Ramírez recalls with precision and nostalgia. I was with my ex-girlfriend and my friend Jhon today, we bothered, we laughed. From one moment to another, we heard a roar from the upper part of the ravine, where there is a kind of waterfall, and we saw how a kind of avalanche of water was coming. That was very fast.
In his memory, he has the moment when the ravine filled with a lot of water, which prevented him from seeing and moving. Screams and more screams. She still has the flashes of the youngsters trying to flee from what, just minutes before, was a tame tributary.
—I managed to save myself because I was behind a stone. The water didn’t hit me. I was able to save myself, climbing up a side that was half high. That’s how I saved myself —she faithfully saves these seconds, which like the name of García Márquez’s book, it can be said that she lived to tell about it.
Cesar Adolfo Rovira Ramírez, only 19 years old, also remembers the seconds of confusion, screams, fear, when he saw how the water carried away his cousin Víctor Ramírez, one of the leaders of the meeting.
—To my great friend Jhon Jáuregui, when I slipped and was looking towards the avalanche of water, I managed to see how his knee was going up on something. It wasn’t a tree, it was something he was trying to hold on to. It was the last time I saw him,” says the young man from Barquisimeto.
“Everything went very fast. It was in a few minutes. It was too incredible”, insists one of the survivors of what is already known as the Lobatera tragedy.
—My uncle, Bishop Thoby, together with the guide and my aunt managed to get out—this is another of the images present in the young survivor, which he cannot erase.
In La Molina, they were not more than 20 minutes, but it was in a matter of about five minutes that everything was confusion, death, fear. In a few seconds, the ravine swallowed ten of the young people who were laughing, shouting, and taking photos.
The hard after
Everything went very fast. It was in a few minutes. It looked like a horror movie. When they got out of the water, everyone realized that several boys were missing. A lots of. They began to call them to look for them. It had no echo. They had no answer.
The guide who moved them and other people helped get several of them out of the river, some of whom were trapped but alive. They are then transferred to the camp. Lobatera Civil Protection answered the call and arrived. They did not think that the tragedy was of such magnitude.
In La Molina, they were not more than 20 minutes. In this short time, the ravine that appeared to be gentle showed its most lethal side and engulfed 4 men and 6 women. All with the common denominator of being young.
In the Potrero de Las Casas camp, shocked, and already knowing that it was not a nightmare but a reality, they assimilated that that night of September 23, 10 of the people were missing, that hours before they had been full of life… that it was part of the Lobatera tragedy.
César was until nightfall, in the surroundings of the ravine with all those who dedicated themselves to looking for the 10 who were not there. They were hoping they would show up. César got tired of looking at every corner of the area and yelling “Jhon, Jarvey, Jhon”. Screams that stayed in La Molina.
In the camp they reviewed the names of those who, in about four minutes, were lost in the water and stones: Elian David Navas (25) and Leonela Carrillo de Navas (21), Ledys Suárez (19), Eliany Pineda (15), Karina Franchesca Grizales Nieto (12), Frayer Grizales Nieto (17), Valentina Ruiz (15) and Víctor Ramírez (27). Anny Monsalve (21) and John Jauregui (23).
César lost his cousins: Víctor Ramírez, Karina Franchesca and Frayer Grizales Nieto. And to his best friend Jhon Jáuregui, whose body has not appeared.
Twelve people died due to immersion, is the balance of the rains recorded in recent weeks in the state of Táchira. The figure corresponds to the balance issued by Yesnardo Canal, director of Civil Protection of the Táchira state, who stated that the events have occurred after the increase in rainfall and, in some cases, due to a lack of precaution.
“Excuse me”
—What message do you give to Jhon Jáuregui Parra’s mother, who has been looking for his body for a month, and still hasn’t found it?
—Excuse me, I didn’t want to cause any of this, I loved Jhon like a brother. He was my best friend.
—A month after the tragic events, what is the great lesson learned.
—Well, love your relatives, as if it were the last day because you don’t know when you’ll lose them.
César does not belong to the Methodist church, he was a friend and relative of several of those who do follow the postulates of this religion. He wants to make it clear that this religious movement is not a sect, that they were in a camp, where they did not do anything wrong, but were days of distraction. He also asks to stop attacking the leader of the Methodists in San Cristóbal, especially the national bishop Thoby. “Please leave the bad comments towards him.”
Thirty days after the events, which do not fade from his mind, César Adolfo Rovira Ramírez knows that the La Molina ravine divided his life into a before and an after.
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