Gabriel Bermudez
02/09/2020 - 20:27
Clarín.com
Police
Science ended up confirming what Cristina Castro (42) had already feared in her heart for more than two months and that she became a body for the first time, just by looking at a photo, on the night of August 15.
The next morning, she was able to see the incomplete skeleton that some fishermen had found in Villarino Viejo and, some 30 meters away, she spotted Facundo's slipper.
She left the place with the feeling that her maternal instinct dictated.
She had been in front of the remains of her missing son since April 30.
This bitter revelation was deepened on Tuesday 25, after the autopsy that the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF) carried out in its laboratory in the former ESMA building.
Together with her two lawyers, the woman waited in an adjoining room and received the first indications that pointed to a young man between 22 and 24 years old and 1.60 meters tall.
She left the place "very badly", they said from her surroundings.
The genetic results would only be for the second week of September.
The leak, on Monday, of the data that anticipated the conclusion of the study on identity added pain and anger to her anguishing wait, already from Pedro Luro, her town, where on Saturday night she had been received in a caravan.
A clarification from the court in Bahía Blanca, together with the confirmation that the report would be released this Wednesday, only fueled her anxiety.
The nights before, he could barely get to sleep.
She had to decline the invitation of Judge María Gabriela Marrón to deliver the report in person, because she remains isolated at home for 14 days after returning from Buenos Aires on Saturday.
And at 11, she was connected to the virtual communication initiated from the Federal Court 2 of Bahia.
Less than an hour later, the predictable conclusion was already public.
“Cristina Castro's complaints report that after the hearing held remotely this morning, federal judge María Gabriela Marrón confirmed that, according to the DNA check carried out by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, the remains found on August 15 in a cangrejal in the Villarino Viejo area correspond to the identity of Facundo Astudillo Castro, the young man who has been missing since April 30 ”, it was reported in a statement.
She did so through her Twitter account, the Provincial Commission for Memory (CPM), also a plaintiff in the case.
The post with the letter from Facundo's mother.
The mother's first reaction came through a letter published by
La Garganta Poderosa
.
“It's Facundo.
I still don't know who leaked information two days ago, but now we do know that it is him.
They were days of great anxiety, without being able to sleep
.
We will continue to hold the enforced disappearance cover.
Now what I hope is that the media will come out and apologize, although I don't think they will, because they continued with their plates without caring about anything, despite the judge's pronouncement, ”the woman complained.
The first indication that something had happened to his son was on June 19, when he returned to Pedro Luro from the first rake that the Buenos Aires city carried out on Route 3, between Mayor Buratovich and Teniente Origone.
Two weeks after her disappearance complaint, she learned that two officers had declared that they had been with her son that day and a police officer abused her.
"
They killed him like a dog,
" she told her family, before starting to cry, sitting in her deceased mother's chair.
"It costs me a lot: it is one thing to say that I felt it was Facundo, another is to assimilate it. I had been preparing for this situation, but it is a very strong slap from life.
Reality is hitting me immensely
and it is difficult for me to cope, Seeing the sad faces of my other children, my dad ... It costs me a lot. The time has come to bring my skinny boy back home, and then continue fighting, because everything continues until I know what happened to him. Justice I only hope justice, "he said in another section of the letter.
Later, along with a photo of a smiling Facundo doing percussion, he dedicated a tweet.
“
Fly high my child, let your drummer sound so loud that it does not give peace to those who have hurt you so much.
Your witch will watch over you, for justice, until we embrace again,
"he wrote.
"Witch" or "Little Witch" was the usual way that Facundo used to speak to his mother.
Facundo Astudillo Castro.
The Facebook account "Looking for Facu", created on June 15, ten days after the complaint for the disappearance, joined Cristina's farewell message.
"
Rest my little one, rest that we continue for you.
Thank you all, all
”he published next to a black crepe and the message“
Rest in peace
”.
That site is full of photos and videos of the boy, as well as activities, messages and notes on the case.
On the night of April 29, before starting his last trip, Facundo spent it at Virginia Góngora's house.
His two children, Agustina and Daniel Gayte, are part of the group of closest friends, in addition to being his companions at Turmalina, the craft beer bar where he had started working in February, when he returned from Bahía Blanca after fighting with his girlfriend Daiana.
“Cristina had told us that once she knew the result, she was going to call us.
So at noon we went to see her.
I was alone.
It was a very terrible and sad moment
.
Beyond knowing that there were no other chances, no one wanted to listen to him, ”Virginia told
Clarín
about the moment they lived in the house in the Bonacina neighborhood.
Since the store reopened, she has occupied Facundo's position in the bar's basement, on 3rd Street. "We had agreed that he was going to replace him until he returned," Virginia lamented.
At the house of 9 and 16, in addition to their two children, were also Celeste Castillo, another friend and Juan Francisco Cardona, owner of the bar and who led the marches together with Cristina, Alejandro and Lautaro, the two brothers of Facundo and César, Grandpa.
The last living photo of Facundo Astudillo Castro, delayed in Mayor Buratovich on April 30.
"'
We managed to bring him home,
' he told us more than once," said the woman about the dialogue they had with Facundo's mother.
“He belongs here, to his friends, to Luro.
It has to be here where people want it.
I owe it to my other two children, to their nieces and to Tata ”, Cristina commented, every time he was asked about his struggle and mobilization, associated with the demand for justice.
Despite the pain that breaks her, she can say that a part of her mission is accomplished.
Now it remains to know
what happened to Facundo
, the question that everyone asks.
Were you the victim of a forced disappearance by the Buenos Aires Police?
Did you have an accident while walking down the tracks from Route 3, a situation that seems unlikely?
For now, in about a month it will be known what was the cause of his death and if, as his mother says, his body was planted in the Villarino Viejo crab, where they found him after 107 days of anguishing search.
EMJ
