Esteban Mikkelsen Jensen
08/19/2020 - 16:57
- Clarín.com
- Police
Jorge Ríos (70) breaks down in tears five times in sixty minutes. He claims to be "exiled" from his neighborhood. He will no longer live in that house on 2700 Ayolas Street, in Quilmes Oeste, where in the early morning of July 17 he was the victim of three robberies and ended up shooting one of the five thieves in the town of La Vera, located three blocks. With his children Gabriela (40), Cecilia (38) and Federico (35), whom he defines as "made of gold", he has already agreed to put it up for sale.
The retired blacksmith, grandfather of five grandchildren, receives Clarín in pajamas, with stockings and black shoes. The external traces of the fight with Franco "Piolo" Moreyra (26) and of the handcuffs that the police put on his wounds still appear on his body. Because the inmates also emerge: not only because of their poor health (he suffers from COPD and only one kidney works, among other things), but also the psychological aspect.
This week he had a peak of hypertension (22/19). "I thought I was dying," he says. They did a CT scan, which revealed a tear in the intercostal area. That is why he wears a handkerchief (black, with white skulls) on his right arm, which he must keep immobilized for at least a month. "I can't pick up a match," he says.
For a security issue, his lawyers Marino Cid Aparicio and Fernando Soto recommended that he keep the place where he spends his days confidential. In the home of Ayolas, where the family lived since 1978, there is still a custody of the Infantry Guard of the Buenos Aires Police.
Retired Jorge Ríos, after leaving the clinic, together with his lawyers Fernando Soto (left) and Marino Cid Aparicio (right), and his two daughters behind.
Born on January 12, 1050 in Gilbert, a small town in Entre Ríos, Ríos grew up in Concepción del Uruguay and at age 20 he moved to the south of Greater Buenos Aires. His wife, María Cristina Nievas, from Salta, had a degree in Nursing and died in 2013, a victim of liver cancer. Jorge suffered a heart attack and recovered.
The ashes of his wife accompany him in an urn, on a shelf, in his little new home. He comments that in the struggle with Moreyra, in the kitchen of his house, it was one of the few objects that did not fly to the floor. Then cry again.
Jorge Ríos (70) says he is "exiled" from his neighborhood. Photo Germán García Adrasti.
-Could you sleep straight after what happened?
-Never.
-Do you get the images of what happened?
-It is unavoidable.
-Don't you regret not calling the police after the first robbery?
-The truth is. In part I regret it, but I was so scared that the first thing I did was call my son, because what one wants to have is a relative next door at that moment.
-What happened in that corner, when the thief was lying on the sidewalk? Did you shoot him?
-When I get to the corner he tells me: 'We're going to put it on you, you bald son of a bitch'. I was crazy, in another world, beaten, I had a T-shirt and blood was dripping all over my arm. I got bad heat and I don't quite remember what I did.
Franco "Piolo" Moreyra (26) died when he was shot by a retiree who he wanted to rob, in Quilmes.
Since when did he have the gun?
-I had bought this weapon precisely because of insecurity problems, a year ago and coins.
-Were you afraid of insecurity?
-Yes, it's common there. You live three blocks from a villa. Not to speak badly because people who work live there too, but if you live three blocks from a village, things will happen to you.
Jorge Ríos, the 70-year-old retiree who killed a thief in Quilmes. Photo Germán García Adrasti.
- Do you think your reaction was good?
-I don't know if the reaction was good or bad, but it saved me. What if I didn't have a gun? The thief is not leaving and I am a dead man.
-Your case divided public opinion: many defended it, but also criticized it. Even the prosecutor Ariel Rivas accuses him of homicide.
-Yes, there were also detractors, of course.
-What would you say to convince them that you did not act badly?
-A very simple thing: put yourself in my place. That alone. And to see what happens when you feel that your life is in danger.
-Does it hurt that you can't be living at home anymore?
-Yes, this is an exile.
-Would you like to go back there or do you agree to sell it?
-Not only for me, for them. We sell that house and something else. You can't go back, less close to such a place.
The house on 2700 Ayolas Street, where retired Jorge Ríos lived until July 17. Photo Germán García Adrasti.
- Were there new threats from those close to Moreyra?
-Yes, there were threats, but my children handled them well.
- Did you go back to the house?
-The other day Federico took me. I stayed outside talking with the police and two passed on a motorcycle. When they reached the corner, the one in the back turned and made the gesture of shooting at me. If that's not a threat ...
-Did you receive a call or visit from someone who surprised you?
-Yes, people have come home. Here came the doctor ( Sergio ) Berni ( he gets excited again ). One pingazo. The way that man spoke to me, he lifted me up, I was very down at the time. It lifted my spirits. It will be because he also has his political confrontations, but I am older than him and I think he spoke to me like a father.
Retired Jorge Ríos (70) suffered injuries to his arms and face during the assault on his home in Quilmes.
-How do you continue to be 70 after such an event?
-You have to continue because life goes on. We don't have to stay. The years come, and above with these little gifts that you get. I am a human being, I feel human. These guys turned me into an animal one night, because I too behaved like them.
- Does it hurt to continue being charged with homicide?
-No, that's it. This crying over spilled milk, no. But there are people who, being professionals, release prisoners from prisons, they go around. In the fact of my house there were two of the 4,000 that were released by the Covid. And they are professionals. What do we have to do? More prisons? And make more prisons, man.
-If you had the family of the thief who died face to face, what would you say?
-Nothing. I have a concept of what poor people are, and that they are good people. Sometimes I didn't have enough to eat when I was in Entre Ríos and I know how I behaved. I would grab the rod and go fishing. He would not grab a knife or a gun and go out to steal.
- Did you send condolences to the family of the assailant?
-When I found out that this boy had died, I did not know how to send condolences to his family, because one is not born to kill, or to be killed that way. That's why I felt very bad. I'm never going to brag about what happened, but if I didn't have a gun, I'm dead today.
Jorge Ríos, during the interview with Clarín. Photo Germán García Adrasti.
-What changed in your life?
-This took out a part of the things I did, an important part of my life. Things that I will not be able to do anymore, like walking calmly, freely. If we want to find words for all this, I am exiled from the neighborhood. A self exile I had to do. And my family? Will these people retaliate? Will they continue in the same vein? You have to fight not to finish ruining ourselves, nothing more.
- Isn't it going to come out anymore?
-I can't expose myself. I cannot expose my family. That is what I feel the most, it hurts me terribly, because I know that they are things that I will not be able to do again. I don't mean to say the bad word, but they ruined my life.
EMJ
