Cristian Alfredo Charris Arroyo

Cristian Charris Arroyo was murdered on his birthday. My son was returning from celebrating his 26th year. While he was walking up the stairs to his in-laws’ house, he was killed by members of the Fuerzas de Acciones Especiales (FAES) of the Policía Nacional Bolivariana.

They shot him in the thorax—the shot they always take—and they tortured him. Cristian had abrasions on his lip and back, a ruptured ear, clotted blood, and contusions on his head. They fired first and asked who they had killed later. When they realized my son had no criminal record, they set up a “parapeto” (cover-up) attempting to excuse themselves by claiming he was killed in a confrontation.

My name is Carmen Arroyo; I am the mother of Christian Alfredo Charris Arroyo. Since September 24, 2018, I have lived with the suffering of losing my only son, fighting day by day to find justice and clear his name. Not only did they steal my greatest love and leave three (3) children without a father, but they also chose to stain his name. The Venezuelan State defamed him. What will happen tomorrow when his children search for his name online? If I do nothing, they will only see that he was accused of being a criminal. But no; my son was a good man who stood out thanks to his trade as a barber and his commitment to sports in the sector: in La Dolorita, we collected and presented 580 signatures to the Fiscalía requesting that Cristian be removed from their criminal files.

What does seeking justice in Venezuela mean? It is a race of endurance against mistreatment and indifference. The first prosecutor assigned to me wanted me to say my son was a criminal; all she did was disrespect me. This has been repeated: in three years, I have been assigned six national prosecutors, and the case still has not moved forward significantly. Victims of extrajudicial executions see no light in judicial proceedings because there is no autonomy to conduct the necessary investigations.

I have sought help everywhere. I turned to the Municipio Sucre; the Mayor at that time and his right-hand man committed to helping obtain justice. However, after attending several times, I realized they were just playing with me and wanted me to stop denouncing. At the Defensoría del Pueblo, it wasn’t much better… [the lawyer] told me the Defensor del Pueblo was prioritizing investigations into deaths of young people in the context of protests due to the International Criminal Court investigations. To this day, he has given me no answer; he does not do his job.

The only way to move the case forward was by taking the prosecutors’ tasks into my own hands… I went to the central hub of the Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas (CICPC) in San Agustín to deliver the request for the Gunshot Residue Analysis (ATD), which was never typed due to a lack of logistical materials.

I was sent from one place to another (ruleteada) by different agencies. At El Helicoide, they refuse to give me information. I have gone so many times and have even seen my son’s killer active in the tactical group of the FAES command. I have seen him, unable to do anything, filled with pain and suffering the indifference of the funcionarios.

However, despite so much mistreatment, I have also seen the light thanks to my community… They supported me when they tried to make the body disappear from the morgue, they went out to protest with me in front of the Fiscalía General, and they have honored my son with basketball tournaments and a mural on the court where he used to play.

We know that you cannot ask the Venezuelan State for justice and that it will do the impossible so that we do not obtain it. But I do not give up; I will never give up. I know that crimes against humanity never expire, and the day I am no longer here to demand justice for my son, his children will be here…

I fight for you, Cristian, but also for the other mothers and families who have suffered the same as we have.