Catholic Priest Jose Luis Hernandez, pastor of the Sagrada Familia church community of Villa Francisca, has justified the assassination of 18-year-old Pedro Manuel Contreras in a case deemed by many to have been police brutality. His comments were picked up by El Nacional afternoon newspaper. He described the youth as a “savage beast that attacked regardless of whether his victim were a man, woman or a child.” The priest justified the actions of the policeman nicknamed Tyson, saying that delinquents had to be made aware that there is an authority that will confront them. Tragedy could have been avoided The husband of a 26-year old woman and her two daughters who died when the wall of a neighboring property crushed them inside their home has complained bitterly that the tragedy could have been avoided. Julio Cruz said they had appealed to the police on several occasions about the wall under construction. Josefina Caba and daughters Ileana, six, and Emelyn, three, died when a torrential rainpour resulting from Tropical Storm Iris on Saturday weakened the ground where the wall was built. The woman’s five-year-old daughter Erika and one-year-old son Julio survived the tragedy. The husband was not home at the time. The owners of the wall that fell have not been found. Listin Diario points out that the tragedy could come again to those who live in the Palma Linda barrio of Los Girasoles. The newspaper says many fragile houses there are at risk. The residents in the area complain that the community needs work to be done on a gully that floods every time there are torrential rains. “Do tragedies like this have to happen for the government to come to resolve the problems of the community?” one resident asked.
