FABER LOPEZ VIVAS : "Not one step back..."

Tortilla con Sal, April 20th 2019

Interview with officer Edith Valle Hernández, widow of police officer Faber López Vivas, murdered in the city of Jinotepe on the morning of July 8th 2018 by a sniper of Nicaragua's opposition during their failed coup attempt.

Managua, 7 April 2019

In which municipality were you born and where did you spend your childhood and adolescence?

I was born in Rama, I grew up in Rama. I studied part of my primary school in Rama, for part of my secondary school I came here to Managua, I studied between from the age of 15 to 17 here in Managua in a barrio called Grenada. I don't know if it still exists. I studied at the Instituto Nicarao, second and third year I studied there. Then I went back to my hometown and finished my secondary school there. I am currently in my fourth year of psychology at university.

When did you join the National Police? Why did you decide to join?

I was 20 something. I entered the police in 2011. Ever since I was little I had liked the police. Wherever I saw them, I liked them. But my mother never agreed. Later, when I was in my fifth year of secondary education, they came to offer the recruitment the police normally make for people to join. They told us the benefits, the advantages and everything, how old you have to be to join. So that's where I joined. In other words, I put in the application documents in 2009. But I only entered in 2011, in a special course at the Women's Unit, as an investigative officer.

What rank do you have now? What unit do you work in?

Now I am in the Police Delegation of El Rama. I am a Senior Sub-officer. In December of this year I will complete eight years of service, in Zelaya Central.

When did you first meet Faber? Did you train in the same unit?

I first met Faber in 2014. He worked in the same department, Zelaya Central, which is a department made up of three municipalities, namely El Rama, Muelle de los Bueyes and Nueva Guinea. And he was a volunteer policeman from Nueva Guinea.

That's where I met him. He was a volunteer policeman in Nueva Guinea. Subsequently, he started the course to become a professional police officer. He joined the Directorate of Special Operations (DOEP). Once he left DOEP, as a professional policeman, he returned to El Rama and there we started our relationship in 2015, more formally, when he arrived in El Rama.  

When did he leave to train with the canine unit?

He became a professional police officer in 2015. He spent a week or so in surveillance and patrolling.

Subsequently, a selection of personnel was made and he moved to the GIR which is the Rapid Intervention Group there in El Rama.

After that in 2016, 2017, he came here to the DOEP for a six-month commando course. And then last year, in January 2018, he was notified on January 25 that on January 27 he had to go to the DOEP for a canine training course. That was the post he was  going to take up before everything started....

Did you know where he would be sent after completing the canine training course?

He joined it representing Zelaya Central. And I suppose he was going back to Rama, because he was from there.

Could you talk to Faber during May and June 2018, or was it difficult given the training course Faber was doing?

He did the canine training course, but... how do I explain it?… working in the police force is divided into two blocks. He arrived every 15 days on his normal leave when he was on the course. On leave he always came back to Rama. The last time I saw him in person was on April 6th of last year. It was a Friday. He set out for Rama, he was given leave at noon, and he arrived at about 10, 11 at night, since the journey is long. He arrived, was in Rama all day Saturday and on Sunday he returned. He was there on Friday night, Saturday all day and on Sunday he returned to Managua and he was due to arrive again in another 15 days, but that never happened because it was when everything started.... we always communicated via chat or calls, video calls at night, on the day when he had free time, we were in daily communication

In general, what did Faber think of what was happening at that time?

He was against what was happening. He wanted it all to end soon and to return to his place of origin, of his work, which was in El Rama. He was always Left wing. He said he was proud to carry his Sandinista Front militant card. He didn't regret it, he took not one step back.   

Was he ever anxious about the actions of the police?

He was proud of his work. He felt good about it. He was going through an experience that he lived that we never have there where we are, because there such things almost never happen. The towns there are quite peaceful. Yes. He liked it. He felt good when he went out to work. In other words, he was obviously against everything that was happening because all that was going to lead to economic instability.

Did he mention problems in the relationship with his mother? Did he ever talk about wanting to get out of the police?

When all this started, from the beginning she was supporting the Right wing. She was here in Managua in a university the opposition used as a base, I don't remember the name. But yes, I say that she was there because she called me and sent me messages and she told me that she had told Faber to resign, to resign, to leave the police, not to defend a President or a leader... the words she used are not words... she always spoke badly of the government. And not just to him. She also told me to get out, to renounce the police, that tomorrow the new government was going to integrate us into the police, that very soon they were going to be in power and that on the aeroplane out there wouldn’t be room for all the boot-lickers, toads, dying-of-hunger police... That's what she told me. And yes, many times I was angry. But I never answered.

Just once I asked her why she said such bad things if he was her son, even though she was against him being in the police, he was her son. That was his decision and that was what he wanted and why did she express herself like that... He never said he wanted to leave the police. As I told you, he said that now more than ever he was proud to be a policeman.

How was your relationship with his family?

Normal as a family. But, one thing was that she was not a very loving mother. Faber grew up with his Mamita. He called his grandmother Mamita, that’s her mother, Doña Corina. He grew up with her, not with Doña Fatima, because as I understand it, what he told me is that his mother worked outside of Santo Tomás and so he spent most of his time with Doña Corina and at an early age he started working because he felt alone.

And in relation to when the attempted coup d'état began, when he realized that his mother was in the roadblocks in Lóvago, that she was with Medardo, he cut off communication with her. They didn't communicate. When she says that he talked to her, that he called her, all of that is false. Because she called me but she always got voicemail when she called me. But since he didn't communicate with her, she sent me messages through Whatsapp, saying that he was hurt, that he was wounded, that something had happened to him and obviously I was desperate about that, knowing that he was here in Managua, I was there in Rama and if something happened to him, he was practically on his own.

So I called him and once when the first fellow policeman was killed in Masaya, he was there and she called and told me via text messages that Faber was wounded, that they had killed a policeman and that Faber was wounded and did I know about that. But I didn't know because, it was already night time when she told me that. So I told her that I didn't know anything, that I had just spoken to him and he was fine and he hadn't told me anything about it. So I called him and told him your mom says you're hurt.

"Not really", he said. We had a video call connection, so I told him I wanted to see him to be sure it was the truth, that he wasn’t just saying that so that I wouldn't worry. We did the conference call and he said that "What happened is that they hit me with a stone in my ankle, but that's all, nothing else" he told me.

And that's what I told her: "I looked at him and he was fine and that’s what  happened" and then every time there was a fellow police officer wounded she said it was him, that he had been beaten, that he had been wounded. And on one occasion, he wouldn't answer her, or anyone in his family, she told me. So she told me to call him. "We call him, my mother (Doña Corina) calls him, we all call him from the house and he doesn't answer anyone," she says. "Only you," she says, "He answers a call from you. Ask him." So, I told her I would because she seemed to be concerned about her son, but deep down I felt it wasn't true.   

So I called him. I did a conference call. And it was him that taught me to do it, because I didn't know how to do those things, but he taught me to do those conference calls. Then, the moment he realized there's one more person on the call, he asks me who the call was connected to. So I told him "your mother wants to talk to you", I told him, "she wants to know how you are", I told him, "if you're hurt, or something, who knows".

So, he said, "I'm fine", he said to his mother, "You know that when I have time I’ll call you. I already told you," he said, "That when I have time and I want to talk to you, I will call you.” Then he hung up. I stayed on the line and said to her, "You heard he's fine", I said to her, "there’s nothing wrong with him". "No," she tells me, "he only answers you, he only calls you”, she said. “Her family is us and we are not taken into account at all," she said.

But after knowing that she was in the roadblock at Lóvago, had he not cut off communicating with her?

Yes, he cut off communication with her, and that's when she told me she wasn't able to communicate with him. But obviously for propaganda, after everything that had happened, she began to say that yes, the communication between them was good, that he communicated daily with her, but that was something that was not true.

When he realized that his mother was there in Lovago, he thought I didn't know. But yes I knew because, as you know, in social networks and photo networks, because there was a photo, or rather there is a photo where she is with Medardo and another person. So, he told me that he wanted to tell me something but he didn't know how to tell me, that he didn't know how I was going to react to him telling me. But he thought I didn't know about that photo.

"Of what?”  "Of my mother," he says. "And what did your mother do, what happened to her?" Then he says to me, "It's because my mother is at the Lóvago roadblock," he said. "There is a picture where she appears," he says, "with Medardo in the roadblock and where she is with them," he says. "And I don't want you to think or doubt me," he said, "I have always been firm in my decisions and the things I do”.

And yes, he was proud to be in the police but he felt bad at the same time knowing that as a policeman, he wanted to restore the situation in the country, restore order and tranquility to the citizens, and his mother was doing the opposite of what he was doing.

Were you ever anxious that his mother's sympathy for the coup plotters might cause problems for him with his compañeros?

Not in that sense, but to me, he told me that he felt bad, that he was ashamed… when he came out of the canine training course, that course he was doing, he was going to ask to stay here in Managua, or to be sent somewhere else, so that he was not sent back to Zelaya Central, because in Zelaya Central we all knew that his mother was there at Lovago. And he felt sad because he thought that his comrades were going to call him a right-winger, just like his mother. "But you know," he says, "you are clear that I am not the same as her," he says. "I love my job. I’d give my life for my work."

Because there was a moment when I was afraid, when our police colleagues began to be killed, I told him to leave, not to stay in Managua, to leave. I told him "Come home, don't stay there". I told him to leave his dog there and come home. But he was there, he was such a determined and responsible man that if you delegated a task to him and you told him “I need this in this amount of time” he did it and never said no. Wherever he was sent, he never said no, whatever it was.  

And then he said that his dog was sad when he was not there and didn’t eat when he left it with another comrade, so he said that the dog was not going to adapt easily to another person and for that reason he didn’t leave and that soon all that was going to end.

But he felt bad, that he thought there in the police in El Rama his comrades were going to think badly of him, knowing his mother was involved in things. He said was that he was going to feel bad that...he thought the comrades were going to say that he too was a right-winger, back in Rama. Yes, because when they saw the picture where his mother appears at Lovago.

He was worried about it, that he thought we in the police and his co-workers might think he was also a right-winger and not from the Left as he always told us, that he was indeed in favor of the government and against everything that was happening.  

That happened the moment he learned about the photo of his mother. So I said to him, "You know that everyone here is judged based on what they do," I told him. "That's your mom, it's not you”. I started talking to him and explaining things. Then he got over it and forgot about it. But all that was when he learned that the photo was there in the media and it was his mother who was at the roadblocks.

When was the last time you spoke to Faber?

We always communicated. In the mornings, in the afternoon when he had his free time. We always had time because, thank God, where I was there was no such situation. I would call him but he would say, "I'll call you back”. Then, when he had la lunch break or maybe 5 minutes off, he would call me. That was every day.

In the evenings, every night we talked, through Whatsapp, by video call, we made video calls and with my boss he got along very well and sometimes she was there and said "take heart, all this is going to end" and he always said yes, with his laugh, "yes in a little while we're going to be together again.”

On July 7th, back in Rama our police chief... because there is Rama and Nueva Guinea and Chief Commissioner Denis Castro Rugama, who is the head of all the department was in Nueva Guinea because there yes, the situation was quite critical. So he was there. But in El Rama it was Commissioner Huerta, the deputy head of the Police Delegation. Well, in order to keep the police officers distracted from brooding on things, he set up some groups to play volleyball, soccer, basketball, dance, exercise. So each officer would join in where they felt best, where they could relax, calm themselves so that we wouldn't be stressed out.

So that day I was playing volleyball, on July 7th, but suddenly at 4:30, 5:00 in the afternoon the bell rang. There was an activity in the Plaza la Fe, I think it was, I don't know really, but the President was going to address the population, so we went to the dining room, all the personnel went to see the activity.

And Faber sent me some photos. He was in the activity. He was up in the area overlooking it. Then he sent me some photos, and I asked him where he was, that he looked handsome, "Thank you" he says to me, "I am here in Plaza La Fe, there is an activity and I am in the area overlooking it, based there". We were chatting via text. Anyway, they took us to see the activity and listen to the President’s speech, but we could still text.

Later that same evening. I talked to him. I saw him on a video call. We finished our training. We always went home between nine and ten o'clock at night and everyone was trying to rest. We went home, but only the women. The men stayed there keeping watch, patrolling.

So I went home and arrived at the house and he called me. I spoke to him. I saw him and he was fine. Between nine and eleven o'clock at night, that same day the 7th. And I told him that I wanted to rest because I was going to get up quite early because on the Sunday I was going to university for an exam and that I wanted to study early in the morning.

So, he told me that was fine and we finished talking and on the 8th at three o'clock or so in the morning, he called me but I didn't answer. I was asleep. I imagine that I told him I was going to get up early to study and I imagine he thought that I’d be awake, but I didn't wake up.

So I didn't talk to him because I didn't hear the call. He called me twice. And when I didn't answer, he sent three messages through Whatsapp. "Good morning," he said. "I'm heading out," he tells me. "Good morning my love, how are you this morning? I'm heading out," he says. "Don't call me. I'm going on a mission.” He didn't tell me where he was going. He just told me he was going on a mission.

"When I get back, I'll call you.” And he didn't call me. But because I didn't answer either at four or so, at four he sent me a text where he said “I love you very much” and then he sent me another to say, "Take care of yourself, my love, I love you very much."

I didn’t see them until seven in the morning, those messages, when I got up. When I read that last one, where he told me to take care of myself, I felt a strange sensation in my body because he wasn't one of those people that was going to say take care of yourself for the sake of it. He told me to take care of myself but then I thought that he is the one going on a mission, not me. When I told him that I was going on a mission, he always told me to take care of myself, that if anything happened he would tell me never to take on a criminal.

Then I started thinking, why did he tell me to take care of myself, I thought, when he’s the one who  should take care of himself, because he is the one who is in danger with the whole situation. Then, I texted him, that it is good that God and our blessed Virgin Lady take care of him and protect him wherever he went and that he comes back safe from wherever he was. But he never came back.

Then when I went to the university around nine o'clock or so in the morning I received a call and a message and I couldn't say who called me but they were fellow police officers here and they told me that he had died in a confrontation. Between nine and ten in the morning, that was it. Well, my boss was also chatting with me via text that same day, the 8th. And she told me how she also when she realized that there were some comrades wounded and that there were some dead, she said that she too felt a strange sensation.

And she said that "the first thing I did was let you know," but she didn't know either whether it was him. So I asked her who it was she was talking about, that I was no longer in class but that I was already on my mobile phone because I desperately worried. Then I asked her who the wounded people were and I told her that Faber was no longer in Managua, I told her, "He told me she was going on a mission, but tell me who they are, where they come from", who the wounded officers were, since she might know,

So she said, "I don't know, that's all they told me". And I asked another compañero here and he didn't know and it was not until later that I received the call saying it was him. Deep down I was hoping it wasn't him because the surnames were changed, so we thought and asked God for it  not to be so. That was between nine and ten in the morning. Then, they sent me a message telling me a police officer who was his comrade had died.

Then I started calling him on my mobile and all I got out was voice mail, voice mail, voice mail. His mobile didn't ring since earlier on and so I went back to the police station, so I left the class, we left, several other compañeros who were there and we went to the police station to ask if they knew if it was true. And we got there and my chief said that nothing was confirmed, but that it looked like it. And then, my boss told me to call Doña Fátima to see if she knew if it was true. because we kept on trying with other comrades that had stayed online, because you know that in the police force you always have friends here and there.

So we all started asking questions and in the social networks there was nothing, nobody knew anything, but some people called me, I don't know who they were, I didn't ask them but they did tell me and I think one of them was a superior officer there, I don't know anything about him or who he was and he told me that he was very sorry, that in his short time of having known Faber and having him as subordinate he knew that he was a self-sacrificing man who loved his work and he was sorry for my loss, but I don't know who he was and I didn't ask him his name and he told me that they proposed sending Faber’s body here to Rama. At the time I agreed but then I remembered better not to, because his mother was on the roadblocks and if Faber was sent there with all those people something might happen.

We all wanted to see him, but we couldn't. Then my chief told me to call Doña Fátima to find out if she knew. She told me, “You have the mother's number, call her, tell her”. No, I said, I don't have it because I know it because I have it in my messages but I don't have it stored in my cell phone. So, we looked for it and we dialled it. But I didn't talk to her. I didn't tell her  he was dead.... Yes, we did call her. But when we called, you could hear that where she was, there was a commotion. Then later on, she called back because she had my number and she knew it was my number.

That we didn't talk is beside the point, but that she didn't know who called is not true because she was 100% sure it was my mobile number. Then, later she called me back but I didn't talk to her because I couldn't talk because I was just crying. So, we answered, my chief answered and another young woman officer. And  Doña Fátima said to the other woman officer "I'm in a meeting right now" she said "what’s happened", she said, "what's up. What do you know? What happened to Faber?" So I told her because we put the phone on the speaker, so the compañera told her it was a wrong number. But it was the compañera, I didn't speak and Doña Fatima said she was in a meeting.

And that was the first thing we heard, that she was in that place in Lóvago and that she was in a meeting. So then my compañera said "wrong number". So I told my boss maybe it's not him then because she would have known her son was dead. But she must have realized it later at three, four o'clock in the afternoon. It didn't appear in the news media at the time. And the news media changed his last name. They said Faber Díaz and he was López Vivas. So when they said Faber Díaz, that's why nobody believed it was him.

Who told her afterwards, I wouldn't know. But then she began to call me when she realized. She started calling me, calling me but I didn't answer her. Then she sent me messages. And she sent me texts to say that I must be happy with what had happened, that her son had died, because she said it was because of me he wouldn't leave the police. Since she had told me to leave the police so he would leave too.

Do you feel that she started harassing you?

Yes, actually she started to send me messages and told me later, that night, she and her son Elgin were sending me messages. He told me to go, to go where they were to see him but they didn't have Faber’s body. He was here in Managua, still at the Institute of Legal Medicine. Then they told me that if I really loved him or that I loved him so much, that I should go to see him for the last time. Then I told her that....

She sent me to say that I knew Faber was dead and hadn’t told her, that it wasn’t fair that she who was his mother didn’t know, that everyone knew except her, and that she was never going to forgive me. And then she began to say that we had killed him. She sent me a video where he had supposedly been tortured, burned, cut and I don't know how many other things.

But that wasn't really the case, I personally don't think so, because every night I talked to him on video call and if he was being tortured, threatened or anything like she said then he wouldn't have had access to his cell phone.       

Do you still have your messages?

I will look for them tomorrow and send them to the Commissioner.

Do you know where Faber's unit was located the night before entering Carazo?

He was in Managua at the DOEP. He was there soon after the activity. After the activity ended, he returned to DOEP. He took a bath. These are quite intimate things for me, but he showered and while in the shower he made a video call and we were talking and I never saw anything, I saw nothing wrong.

What do you know about how Faber was killed?

Only what the police authorities have told me about what happened.

Have you visited Faber's family in Santo Tomás?

Yes, on several occasions I was there, in her house. They live in Barrio San José, in front of a small park there they live and in the house she lives with her youngest son named Wilber, a little boy, and the other brother, Elgin, lives in El Tule and a sister Raquel who lives in Nueva Guinea. In the house in Santo Tomás only the mother lives with Wilber and her husband. Doña Corina lives in another house there in Barrio San José but she has her own house.

For Faber, his Mamita was Doña Corina with whom he grew up. He always called Doña Fátima his mother, but the one he loved the most was Doña Corina. For him, his Mamita was everything. His mother, he loved her but not like his Mamita, as he called Doña Corina, his Mamita, she was everything for him. Doña Fátima was a bit brusque, hard in her way of speaking, of treating him. But he loved his mother in his own way.

Who is Fernanda who has been talked about in relation to Faber?

She is a girl he met in Nueva Guinea, she is a relative of Rachel's husband. Faber met her at the wedding when Rachel, his sister, got  married. Earlier, he was once in Nueva Guinea for about a month and there he met her and got to know her and then he returned again to El Rama. And in January last year Rachel got married, the wedding was on January 7th. Fernanda arrived and he took her home to Santa Tomas and there in a state of drunkenness he had relations with her and as a result she was supposedly pregnant by him with a girl.

He told me that, before coming here to Managua. He wanted to tell me but he didn't want our relationship to end because of what he was going to tell me. Anyway, he preferred to tell me himself before someone else did or who might tell me otherwise. So he told me the girl was pregnant. She is from Nueva Guinea. Exactly where she lives I don't know.

Why do you think Faber's mother talks about you as the "fake wife"?

Obviously everyone feels bad in the moment, right? But then I understand her, because since she did not achieve her objective of manipulation with me, now she has tried to denigrate the police, me, the police, even her own son, denigrate him and say things that never happened, things that were not true, to see if that way she and her people can get a bit more support among the few people who follow them.

How did you feel about receiving Faber's posthumous honor from President Comandante Ortega?

In El Rama, everyone who knows me in the police and outside the police knows that Faber and I were a couple. And when I was told that I was coming here for the award, there was a moment when I didn't want to. I thought about not coming because I knew what his family was like and I knew what was going to happen next. But then all our friends began telling me "He is going to feel proud, wherever he is, knowing that you are going to go for him and not his mother". They told me, "you know that he trusted you and not her. When he sees that you're standing up for him there, then he's going to want you to be there and he's going to feel good to know that he gave his life for love of the police force and that you're going to receive that recognition for his sacrifice and you're going to cherish it the way even his family is not going to do".

Then thanks to everyone's advice, and because I know what she and her family are and I knew that she was going to start sending me messages again to offend me, to tell me all the cruel things she has told me. Then, I said, let it be God's will and I'm going to do it for him. The truth is that I am proud of him. I know that, as he said himself, no matter what happens, not one step backwards will I take.

After the medal ceremony, I received a call from some journalists who were part of the opposition, I don’t remember the names, where constantly via Whatsapp they sent me messages that they wanted to talk to me, that they wanted to see me, that they wanted me to have a confrontation with Doña Fátima. They were journalists from I don't know which channel. I told my chief and the legal adviser and they told me that in any case I have a superior officer here in the delegation and they have to go to my superior, it’s not for me to tell them to come and do what they want.

She still kept sending me messages and telling me thousands of things. They... what they fight for is money. It's nothing else. It doesn't hurt them that their brother, their son is dead. They think I'm getting money for his death and for everything that's happened. Elgin even told me to ask him for anything, one hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand córdobas, "ask me what you want and give me information" he tells me to say things that are not true and  to say that the police killed him, that if I really loved him, that if I cared about Faber, that I should speak against the police, that I should be on their side and against the government.

On many occasions he sent me message saying "Count on me, I'm no different from Faber", he wrote, "I'm going to help you" he says, "talk to me and if they are threatening you or pressuring you, then tell me. We will help you," he said. "Very soon we are going to take power.” That was in September, October they were the last messages.

Is there anything else you want to mention?

My children's relationship with him. When we get together, I have two children. And one of my children was one year old who is Josue. They called him their Chando. For Josue, Faber is his Chando, he’s everything for him, and the moment he died or was killed, when it was on the news, he saw Faber’s mother and he said the lady said that the police had killed her son. When I arrived he said to me, "Mama, is it true that my Chando is dead and that he was shot in the forehead?" "No," I tell him, who told you that? "His mother was on TV," he says, "And she says the police are bad, she says they are killing people, you are bad, she tells me, you killed him.” "No my love," I say, "that's a lie." But he told me to take off the uniform, and he didn't want his mom to be bad, or for his mom to kill people. Because he heard the woman say that all the polcie were murderers who had killed her son and that he had been shot in the forehead.

So, I told him "No, that's a lie." I told him "You saw him last night.” Because they talked, they communicated there by video call, they saw each other. "You saw him last night" I told him. Then, "Let me make a call," he said, "to my Chando, I want to see him, I want to talk to him.” To see if it was a lie. My child is five years old now, last year he was four. To see if it was a lie, for me to call his Chando, that he wanted to see him. Then I told him that he couldn't because where Faber was he didn't have a mobile phone. That he was working and where he is working he is not allowed his mobile phone and could not talk to anyone.

Then he would say, "Give me the number and I'll tell my aunt to make a call for me to my Chando". And even now he still asks for a call to his Chando. My boy's birthday is December 14th and they always went out for his birthday, went to eat ice cream, Faber always gave him a toy, he loves the toy cars he has. He is small but I tell him that his Chando is alive and that yes, he is going to come. But since he heard that his Chando died, all the cars his Chando gave him are kept to one side and he takes care of them. He doesn't know what death is. But he tells me that if I'm telling the truth, to make that call for him or to give him the number. "Yes" I tell him “but I have no credit”... “Then give me the number to call him, to talk to him, why he hasn't come? why he hasn't come?”

Then my mother says I have to find a way to tell him but if you tell him he'll want to… because he doesn't forget anything. He remembers Doña Fatima, and he also saw in the news when she said that I was an imposter. Then he asks “Why does she say my mother is a fake woman and that my mother is... Mom" he says to me, "My Chando’s mom say you are a fake, why does she say that?" he says to me. "That you were not his wife". So, I tell him "That lady is crazy,", and I ask my mother not to let my child watch those things, because my child is actually going to end up being traumatized.

When Faber died, the moment that lady went out making a show stating then that he had been hit by a sniper with  a bullet in the forehead, my boy got sick. He almost didn't eat. He had high fevers. And he said, when he went to sleep... He slept alone, well, we slept in one bed and he slept in another bed, but then when Faber died, he moved over to sleep with me saying that he was going to sleep there on his Chando's pillow, that there where his Chando slept, that there he was going to sleep. And he got sick and in his sleep he said that he was looking at him, that he was looking at his Chando with another gentleman there. "There is a man," he says, "and he won't let him come.”

We suffered a long time like that with him, until my mother scolded him. We took him to the doctor and they tested him and he had nothing. He was fine. So my mother believes in those beliefs of people a long time ago. So my mom said Faber wanted to take him. So she scolded Faber to leave the child alone, that if he had left this life it was because God wanted him to, God wanted him to leave this life and to let the child alone and that God wanted him to do so. We took the child to a wise man who bathed him with aguardiente and I don't know what other hings and then the child began to recover.

But even so he occasionally says that he sees him. And my chief would ask him how he was, and he would say that his Chando had not come to the house and that he was looking for him. And my chief once said to him, "Have you seen your Chando?” “I see him with a man. But he doesn't come home. He doesn't go to sleep here.”

So my chief tells me that my child has been affected a lot by Faber’s death and most of all, you know, sometimes the adults are watching television and you don't realize there’s a child there, and then suddenly there’s a news item and there Doña Fatima appears saying the things she says and that has affected him a lot.

Thank you very much for the interview, compañera.