On September 21, Spring Day, of Friendship; From the student, he was highly anticipated by Iris Alejandra Gómez and two of his cousins. They planned to attend to ‘Festisaracho’ in Oruro. None of them imagined that it would be his last walk together and that Iris would leave, without saying goodbye.
The young woman’s dad, Juan Carlos Gómez, with the broken voice and trembling that overflowed in an unstoppable crying, said that he did not want her daughter to go to that event, but seeing the joy of her girl and that she would also go with her cousins ended up convincing him and accessing, although her father’s heart was restless.
Yesterday, after assimilating the loss of his daughter, he asked: “Who will answer me for my daughter?”, And the question was floating in the air without any answer.
On the night of Sunday, September 21, Oruro dressed in mourning and pain. The renowned Juan Misael Saracho school, after two intense weeks to advertise the ‘festisaracho’ on social networks and that would be an unforgettable night, was the scene for a tragedy that none of the hundreds of attendees can erase from their memory.
An uncontrollable avalanche that reflected the lack of security and disorganization, ended with the life of Iris Alejandra, 18, who was in her first year of the law career at a private university, while her cousin of only 16 years and who arrived from Huanuni to attend the festival, is in intensive therapy, because she was also crushed by people.
“No father can imagine that a misfortune like this can happen. I even told him not to go, but since he is young and curious and wanted to have fun with his cousin and other premiums, they went to the Saracho school party,” Iris’ dad said.
Gómez observed as causes of tragedy, the absence of security and the excessive number of people who allowed to enter a small space.
“Unfortunately there was no security, there have been people who have exceeded the ability of the Saracho School court. I don’t know if there was a security plan, and came an avalanche, my daughter already trampled my niece and they have killed her … my daughter has died, now who is going to answer me for my daughter? She was just 18 years old,” she said among sobs.
Euphoria and shock
That night, it had been about 20 minutes after the tropical music group ‘Blood Cumbiera’ began its show in the ‘Festisaracho’. The same videos that musicians recorded show that there were not one more pin in the school’s courtyard. The screams of the girls who chanted the songs and the name of the vocalist: “Percy, Percy!”, The euphoria of the musicians rose to the point that Percy R. The singing voice, took out his jacket and threw himself to the crowd, which caused an uncontrollable avalanche. Everything was recorded by hundreds of cell phones.
But that was not the only avalanche, according to the police report there was another one, so strong that it knocked down the gates of entering the school, which in turn caused that a railing itself that fell on young people was released.
They were in those fatal minutes that Iris lost his life, victim of a human stampede, with the body crushed by others and his last words were to ask for help: “Help me, they are crushing me …”, said one of the Iris premiums that also went to the Music Festival.
“At that time, the parents did nothing, the security either. My cousin started shouting: ‘Please, help me, they are crushing me, help me, help.’ Without serious consequences.
The young woman denounced that the aid orders were not attended by any of the organizers or guards that all they did was ask people to leave the place.
“At that time, the security were not doing anything, they were standing there. I saw my cousin and (above her) there was a head and another head, they were like four girls above us. It was already impossible to leave,” said the third premium.
When the avalanche passed on them, Iris’s cousin said that around her two affected premiums there was a pool of blood and did not know which of the two era, while asking for help without being treated.
“They wanted to get me, but at that time my cousins were already fainted. They had to be screaming about two minutes and then fainted. I was the only one who was aware,” the family said.
It was the last time he saw Iris already her 16 -year -old cousin because two people took her out so she can breathe and put air into her lungs, when she reacted and could stand up, she returned where her cousins and found no one. It was when they told him that they had been taken to the school management office and then to the hospital.
Meanwhile, the vocalist of the Percy R. group did not measure the magnitude of the tragedy, he made a live transmission to point out between nerve laughs that was affected by what happened. Hours later the man was apprehended.
Yesterday, the head of the Directorate of Equal Opportunities of the Mayor’s Office of Oruro, Karina Gutiérrez, said that the involvement of the minor who is in intensive therapy was to such an extreme that her own mother could not recognize her on a first visit to the hospital, because because of the blows she suffered, her face was very inflamed and did not know that she had a tattoo in her arm. “Only late at night he returned (to the hospital) and could recognize her,” he said.
On Sunday night, the director of the Saracho school was also apprehended identified as the person responsible for having allowed an event to be held even though it had no authorization.
