Veronica Zapana S. / La Paz
For almost four months, the family of Vanesa Aquino made a pilgrimage between the Prosecutor’s Office and the Police of the city of El Alto to demand the search for the young woman, who disappeared on December 23 of last year.
“During all this time, almost four months, we have suffered in the search for my sister, to find out about her whereabouts. But, unfortunately, there was no progress,” Vanesa’s younger brother, Rodrigo Aquino, explained to Página Siete.
He indicated that since last December 27 the pilgrim family between the Prosecutor’s Office and the Police in search of the young woman.
Aquino assured that during all this time, almost every day, at least one member of his family “went to find out between the Prosecutor’s Office and the El Alto Police if there was any progress, but there was never anything.”
The young woman’s brother said that they only asked for money for photocopies, statements and numbers, but “there were no results.” Then, the family began to despair and decided to look for Vanesa on their own, but was unsuccessful.
Seeing that all their efforts were in vain, the young woman’s relatives decided to go to the human trafficking division of the Special Force to Fight Crime (Felcc) in La Paz to ask for help. “We have seen that they have solved other cases of missing women, that is why we went. We wanted my sister to be found,” she explained.
Last Friday, the family went to the offices to ask for help. “We have told them to bring the case to La Paz for investigation,” he added.
The brother assured that from that day the family saw a change. “Yes, we saw that they mobilized” and the next day they already found the main suspect.
“We always suspect that her ex-boyfriend, Ángel Apaza, had something to do with my sister’s disappearance,” Rodrigo said, indicating that the day he did not return, “she sent messages telling us that she was with him.”
Vanesa was the first of the six siblings to go professional. Her whole family was very proud of her achievement.
Vanesa left her house on December 23, 2021 and since then no one has seen her again. At home, she said that she was going to collect some money that her father had sent her for her law degree at the Public University of El Alto (UPEA), since weeks before she had graduated from it.
On Tuesday, the police commander, Jhonny Aguilera, reported that according to the information he received from the investigators, the couple allegedly arranged a meeting to celebrate Vanesa’s birthday, since her birth anniversary was on December 25.
They both met at the Río Seco crossing, where they bought two drink combos and went to Ángel’s house. According to the investigation, it is known that two other people also participated in that celebration.
According to the investigations, on April 7, Ángel went to testify at the Felcc in La Paz, became unbalanced and died.
Aguilera said that before he died, Ángel confessed that Vanesa died because she was hit on the head with a bottle. She said that after going to the bathroom, she was bleeding to death, so one of the two people who were there told her not to say anything, they took her out of her house and took her in a car.
Page Seven reported yesterday that the Police denounced that the prosecutor Roxana C. already had the luminescence report on January 10. This report indicated that there were blood stains in Angel’s room.
“We knew that he went to testify twice, but he had lied, so he said he didn’t know anything about Vanesa,” said the brother and asked that the investigation be accelerated to find his sister. “It cannot be that more than four months have passed and we do not know where her body is. We want to give him a Christian burial.”
femicide
- murders From January 1 to date, 26 femicides were registered in the country.
- Complaints La Paz is the department with the most cases, since it is known that to date there are 12 femicides. Santa Cruz follows with eight and Cochabamba with six.
- Cruelty Every time femicides kill their victims with more cruelty. The women’s bodies are found stabbed, decapitated and strangled.
- Situation Many relatives of femicides are the ones who protect them, hide them and help them flee. Activists say this is common because they justify aggression.
