At the Guasmo Sur hospital in Guayaquil, the “managers” would charge between $ 10 and $ 100 for information.
Several citizens denounce excessive charges to be able to bury their relatives in Guayaquil, despite the fact that they have previously paid funeral services.
As the province of Guayas reports the most cases of COVID-19, the demand for caskets has increased. Not only has this created a shortage, but the few coffins found are selling for up to $ 1,500.
To confront this situation, the private company donated a thousand cardboard coffins to be delivered free of charge in cemeteries. But having a coffin does not mean that the body will be buried at that time, as it will have to wait a turn.
Some of the users assure that despite having fully paid for a grave, they are charging them to open the spaces and put the tombstones.
Carla Cobos is aware that giving money in exchange for information about the corpse of her mother, Cleotilde Montero, is an atrocity, but given the situation she is willing to do so.
Cleotilde’s body has been missing since March 27. That day José Daniel Rodríguez Maridueña died in the Infectology hospital, although his report from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC) indicates that he died on the 28th. His ordeal began there. They told him that the remains would be transferred to the Judicial Police or the Guasmo Sur hospital.
According to complaints from the relatives, it would be intended to charge them an amount to give them information about the dead that are piled up in the morgue of that place.
Carla’s brother, who has implored to be returned to his mother, was told that there are people who receive money to give some clue to the bodies. So-called “managers” would ask for $ 10 to $ 100.
Something similar happens to Mariela (protected name) who is looking for a relative, but she admits to paying one of those people $ 40 to receive information.
For Michael Murillo Álvarez, this situation is an “ordeal”, as he cannot find the body of his brother.
Her brother Juan José was admitted to the Guasmo Sur hospital on March 24. Michael remembers that they only asked for their data because they assured them that they would call them, but they never received a communication.
Billy Navarrete, executive secretary of the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Guayaquil (CDH), confirms that there are relatives who pay the entity’s staff to search for the remains of their relatives and warns that forced disappearance is considered a crime of It hurts humanity.
Source: Ecuavisa, Expreso, social networks
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