Miguel Fernando Castillo Bracho

Miguel was a 27-year-old young man, a good son, brother, and friend. He went out to work every day to earn an honest living. He was a Social Communicator with great aspirations and goals.

Five years ago, he actively participated in the protests where millions of Venezuelans demanded dignified living conditions from the regime. The last one he attended was on a Wednesday: that Wednesday, his life in this world ended when he became a victim of an extrajudicial execution, receiving a gunshot wound to the chest and left arm that pierced his heart and lung, causing hypovolemic shock.

I am Carmen Elena Bracho, mother of Miguel Fernando Castillo Bracho, and I have come to tell what is now my story—a real story lived today by hundreds of Venezuelan mothers who lost their children to violence. Today I speak for myself and for them, hoping to receive something that does not exist in my country: attention and justice.

Miguel Fernando had graduated from Universidad Santa María in Caracas. He was passionate about the idea of living in a country with development opportunities for young people like him.

Miguel’s death occurred during the social demonstrations of 2017; Miguel joined the crowds protesting because their rights were being violated with total impunity, because the dictatorship mocked them to their faces, and because he believed he could change the situation. Thus, on May 10, 2017, as was his custom in his struggle to reclaim democracy, Miguel joined the protests.

As in previous days, State security forces began to repress all those protesting in a disproportionate manner. Miguel headed to Las Mercedes, a neighborhood in East Caracas where State violence was brutal and ruthless.

At approximately 2:30 in the afternoon, Miguel was shot by an officer of the Guardia Nacional Bolivariana. It was a lead marble fired from a service weapon, which immediately pierced Miguel’s left ribcage and lodged in his heart. Miguel died instantly.

As soon as he was wounded, a friend of his informed my daughter Luisa that Miguel had been admitted to the Policlínica de Las Mercedes. When I arrived, the doctor told me: “your son died.” I began to hit the wall. I could see him lifeless as I began to internalize the horror to which the bloody, selfish, and malignant dictatorship of Venezuela subjects us.

They were murdered by the same Venezuelans who swore to protect this country, those who took only seconds to destroy one life and affect many others. As with Miguel and so many others, a single shot was enough to erase his dreams of freedom—dreams that are gone because the dictatorship decided his voice was a risk to the nation.

We thought that after this, the family’s pain could not grow; we were wrong. My sister suffered a heart attack the day after Miguel’s death due to the stress she had been under.

Since then, as expected, through the voice of Diosdado Cabello, the regime has consistently denied the facts. It was easier to say that one of Miguel’s companions had committed the crime; it was easier to say that my son used drugs and that he was high at the time of his death; it was easier for the regime to say my son was a guarimbero. But the facts contradict the regime; while Diosdado Cabello says my son was killed by one of his companions, there is a video in the hands of the VEN 9.1.1. service that supports our testimony—a video that was not handed over to the prosecutor.

When justice is silenced, its clamor manifests in thousands of different ways, and Miguel’s death is a powerful example. Miguel is placed among the Venezuelan heroes; he is a hero of our homeland. And when he died, our struggle began—the struggle of his family and loved ones, the battle for justice, in which we have worked tirelessly.

From the day after Miguel’s murder, preliminary investigations were initiated, requiring the Unidad Criminalística contra la Vulneración de Derechos Fundamentales of the Ministerio Público to proceed with the investigative steps.

Tuvimos esperanza. La investigación seguía avanzando y pronto lograríamos ver el juicio del guardia nacional que le disparó a Miguel, pues incluso el Fiscal designado pudo ver un video de él disparándole a mi hijo, ¡habíamos logrado identificar su rostro! Y por un momento su enjuiciamiento no parecía tan lejano. Hasta que, el día 5 de agosto de 2017, fue nombrado Tarek William Saab como Fiscal General de la República, y con su llegada desapareció la esperanza sobre la investigación de la muerte de mi hijo, y seguramente las de tantos otros.

La Guardia Nacional Bolivariana, omitió deliberadamente dar respuesta a los oficios de solicitud emanados de la Fiscalía del Ministerio Público: aún cuando el expediente contiene suficientes elementos para identificar a la persona que accionó el arma en contra de mi hijo. 

¡Se han burlado de nosotros una y otra vez! Cada vez que nos citan al Ministerio Público, nos citan para hacernos saber que perdemos nuestro tiempo, para burlarse de nosotros, de nuestro dolor. Ser víctima de una violación de Derechos Humanos en Venezuela es igual a quedar mudo, porque ninguna autoridad se va a interesar por tu causa en lo más mínimo, nunca te van a oír, siempre van a obstruir la justicia. La única forma de que nuestro clamor sea escuchado por instancias con autoridad para exigir justicia es llevar nuestras denuncias fuera de Venezuela. Yo no creo en la justicia venezolana mientras esté el régimen dictatorial.

Siempre me he preguntado, en medio de mi frustración: “¿por qué a mí?, ¿por qué justamente a mí?” Hace poco una amiga me explicó que probablemente no me estaba haciendo la pregunta correcta, probablemente la pregunta correcta es: “¿para qué me pasó esto a mí? Y creo que, por terrible que todo esto haya sido, hay un propósito, debo afrontarlo, y mi testimonio lo demuestra. 

Tengo la esperanza de que quien lea esto, entienda este llamado, tengo la esperanza de que, como seres humanos, también les indigne una situación como la muerte de Miguel.

Miguel no ha vuelto a la casa, y no regresará. Por más que lo espero en la puerta, nunca la atraviesa. La dictadura lo asesinó. Es por eso que hoy, como madre, en nombre de sus hermanos, amigos, compatriotas indignados, y de las cientos de madres venezolanas que han perdido a sus hijos a manos de la dictadura, por Venezuela y por Miguel, exijo justicia para poder aliviar nuestro dolor e iniciar un nuevo capítulo en nuestras vidas y en la historia de Venezuela.