The people who wanted to get on TV N ada in Young recalls that in this small city in Uruguay, a year ago, there was a gruesome tragedy that made headlines around the world. Nothing
remember that eight people died when a program TV show "solidarity" called the people to tow a locomotive in support of the local hospital.
where the slaughter occurred on March 17, 2006 There are no flowers to remember the dead. People walk around as if it never happened at all. Young around there is not even a graffiti mentioning the tragedy. It is as if the people had decided that never happened. ***
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Young train station. The Cover
was presented with the article in the journal
Leopard |
Young has 15,000 inhabitants, four-digit phones and one corner with light. Young-which is called Yung-departmental capital, is home to no party and no-renowned tourist attractions. Perhaps because it was so shocking that the national television decided to do a show there. The idea was
Crevoisier Griselda, a hospital's business of 51 years, looked at
weekly Channel 10 program Heart Challenge. In it, various institutions were warned to comply with an unusual test and received as prize money donated by viewers, sensitized through the screen.
In 2004 the hospital had no ambulance. Crevoisier then persuaded the director to participate in Challenge
so you can buy one. As she knew one of the owners of Channel 10
, managed the hospital was noted on the program's waiting list. Today
Crevoisier not believe have been wrong. Almost everything that is in the hospital, he explains, was possible thanks to grants that have provided sufficient input supplied by the State.
Celia Gonzalez, another officer, tells a story that took place years ago: one day there was an emergency and the ambulance was missing a tire. The hospital's director did not know what to do. Then, against regulations, telephoned radio
Young and requested a cover please. In a few minutes got four.
This always made things. ***
How to Creative Challenge to the Heart -Ernesto Depauli, 38, and Fernando Seriani, 30 -, it occurred to people to tow a locomotive are explained in the court file of the tragedy.
Two years after the administration by Crevoisier, hospital of Young's turn came to participate in Challenge . Seriani Depauli and visited the village in February 2006 and met with the new director of the hospital, Juan Pablo Apollonia, and his support committee. The suggested local test with horses, but that did not convince the capital. Seriani Depauli and Young walked and saw the railroad tracks, were inspired.
Back in Montevideo, Depauli sent an email to Apollonia:
"I think the challenge control group (...): Young people should draw a convoy consisting of a train car, truck and tractor , with the engines off, a distance of at least 56 meters using a rope or similar. It is important to be a passenger car because it is much more attractive. The more people the better, the longer the string, the better . If they can get an engine, much better. " ***
Young
boiling in summer. Water tanks overheated while in the hotel, even the cold tap out a liquid that burns.
The city grew up around a train station in one of the richest agricultural areas of the country. The intense movement of cargo led the people in the countryside. "Here we have no river or anything like that. In other places people go for a walk along the waterfront. Here you see a lot of TV," said Richard Fontana, employee of the local cable channel.
One of the most popular shows in Young at Heart Challenge was . Alba Lemes, 68, injured in the tragedy, says: "Everybody looked at it. It's so cute." Lemes spoke in his small living room with the television on. Participate in Challenge cost him seven broken ribs, shoulder blade, broken into three, fibula broken, a cracked ankle injury in the liver and 300 cubic centimeters of blood from the lung. He nearly died and still hurts, but says he would do it all again.
Jonathan Munoz, who was 14 when television visited the village, nor lost Heart Challenge. "I always watched," says his mother, Ivan Gomez, in the door of his wretched wooden hut. "Jonathan 'd be very happy as a goal was met.
Ivanna is strong. only to remember how good Jonathan played football, and a few days before the program had hired San Lorenzo, the local champion, the tears came into her eyes .
***
When Apollonia, the hospital's director, received the mail in which he proposed program creative tow a train, a truck and a tractor, said in another message: "It seems a very good idea. "
In that mail, Apollonia suggested the channel had better pull a locomotive and two wagons. The channel accepted. The director also changed the target the "challenge" had noticed three old ambulances and now wanted to provide heat to the hospital. He needed $ 30,000.
"The cold winter is terrible," he says. "I bought an electric stove, but they broke because they are not meant to be lit all day."
Apollonia is a nurse. He was appointed director of the hospital by the Broad Front, the leftist coalition that governs Uruguay since 2005. He admits that the heating should be provided by the state, but does not blame the current administration. "The previous government hospitals dropped. Things can not change overnight and I can not wait until the state has money."
When you do see that one thing is to raise funds for a hospital doing drawings and another is that people pull a locomotive on television, Apollonia agrees. "The idea was to support the previous commission. When it was proposed, I had to decide ... and I was hooked." ***
The news excited because it combined two passions of Young: Television and the hospital.
"There is a strong identification with the hospital," says Apollonia. "Until a few years ago when he opened a private hospital, all born here and died in it. The program would allow to demonstrate the love that he has." Yolanda
Faccio, locomotive who tore an arm, was happy to learn. "I was watching the show forever. And that excitement came when Young said!". Faccio smiles while lifting the left sleeve of her shirt to show his wound.
Once accepted the "challenge", Channel 10 disclaimed the entire organization. As a rule, the channel only records the evidence, puts drivers and sell advertising. Viewers shocked by the "challenges" are those who call on the phone to donate money. Organize, get what is necessary to meet the challenge, meet the cost, all borne by the institution needed. Those are the rules television "solidarity."
first thing they did Apollonia and support committee was running a locomotive to the Ministry of Transport and AFE, the state railway. They got it without too many questions or conditions.
also elected to the physical education teacher Adriana Borba, 44, to head the "cinch", as Uruguay is called the act of towing a string object.
As Borba did not know how many people are needed to draw a train, proposed to call the neighboring village of Algorta because there once in a festival, seven cars were towed. The call was made Gustavo Meyer, secretary of the Board of Young, the local government, but not helped to clarify anything. Asked by the judge, Meyer said: "The secretary of that board did not have much knowledge, did not know how many people had cinched (...) We could not know that." Borba
gave another version in court. He said that call found that 60 people were needed to pull the engine. For 80 volunteers (the owners and 20 alternates) invited companies and institutions. Firefighters, for example, undertook ten "cinchadores."
The exact number of people needed to tow the train was never entirely clear. There was no scientific calculations and tests. Pastor Gustavo Muniz, a Lutheran who was enthusiastic religious with the "challenge" came to believe that it required "at least a thousand people," says Marina today, his wife.
Meanwhile, Apollonia and members of the committee met with Commissioner Julio Sosa, police chief of the village. There are two conflicting versions of the meeting, as Apollonia, the commissioner said he would ensure the safety of the "challenge." According to Sosa, he only agreed to control the "public order" but not the safety of television evidence. A member of the support committee who attended the meeting told the judge that Sosa said that, at best, could provide eight agents.
Apollonia and Sosa agreed, yes, a group of unemployed members of an emergency work plan from the state the equivalent of $ 112 per month in exchange for low-skilled jobs, would help to control security. ***
Nothing was as advertised on Young. The school painted dozens of signs. Parades were placed in the main corner. It warned in the press of people. The organizers were interviewed in every local news program. It opened a page on the internet to participate younguenses emigrants. And, to the tune of an old television ad sausages, is composed a jingle that was irradiated again and again over loudspeakers: "Do not stay Home / Ni in the office / Come and neighbor / Come and neighboring / Come all together and fight / And the target will comply. "
The constant appeal to" all "caused many to believe that much more people "webbing" of the train, the better.
Despite its vagueness, the ad campaign was successful in generating expectations. When the day came, the enthusiasm was great. In the street some waved saying "all the hospital ", hoping that at last the time came. Yolanda Faccio was sure: she would pull the train. Ramón Bacino, who worked on a farm outside of town, he told his wife to travel especially for help the hospital. Racouky Jamie, 15, wanted to be there. "It was something new, things never go well here," he says. Jamie thought to invite the "cinched" to Jonathan, his high school buddy, the guy who played good football. The pastor also Muniz awoke excited and asked Marina, his wife,
- What do I do? If I can cinch the train, "girdle?
"Yes, of course, my love. If that is what you want. ***
Young The locomotive arrived at 13 am on 17 March, a half hour before the scheduled time to record the "cinched".
Just to see with their own eyes that giant mass of 56,000 kilos some organizers had a more accurate idea of \u200b\u200bthe "challenge" they had accepted. Eduardo Quintana, a member of the hospital support committee, told Mary Emma Reggio, another member: "Pah, this girl is fat! I do not think we will be able to move."
The locomotive brought two wagons and four railway employees: administrative, inspector, and assistant conductor. They had received no special instructions from the company. The senior was the administrative and superior Parentini Hector had not explained anything. "He just told me to come to Young to get to the orders of the organizers of the hospital," she told the judge.
The railroad left the machine in one of the three routes that pass in front of the station, which runs attached to the platform. Nobody could explain why they chose this route, a key detail in the tragedy.
did not test any "challenge."
While the station was filled with cheering people, the gym teacher Adriana Borba had a brief dialogue with the rail Parentini on how to begin the test. Borba said that at 14.30 would order out of the engine brake, but did not say how he would do and he did not ask. Parentini should give, in turn, ordered his companions, who remain in the cabin and would handle the brake.
At about that time, the team Heart Challenge came to Young. Thought to go for lunch, but stayed at the station. "We saw so much movement, so we decided to stay cool to shoot," he told the judge Fernando Seriani, one of the creators of the program. "There was an indescribable euphoria, which saw in Young had never seen." ***
Racouky Jamie's partner Jonathan Muñoz Lyceum, she did not miss it for anything. Young does not offer much fun for youngsters. "We're going to cyber, dance, sit on the sidewalk to drink mate. Not much to do." To make matters worse, the last departures had ended in fights between his friends 'plates' (poor adolescents reluctant to study and work) and "Concheta" (teens rich).
"Here are very distinct social classes, it's horrible," says Jamie. That friends "plates" out "and have no money to get drunk, stoned the houses start to insult people ...". Then come the fights. Yamila
have short fingernails painted pink. That evening went to look for Jonathan to go to the "cinched". Jonathan was poor but no "Iron." "He was very outgoing, loved the people."
wood on the ranch where he lived, Jonathan told his father Jamie I did not want to go to the "challenge." But she insisted and Jonathan lied to his father, he would kick in if there was high school. His father believed him.
guys at the station met with cheering crowds. They were all students, his fellow high school, the whole town. Since the speakers sounded loud, again and again, the catchy jingle: fight together, fight together. Over music, Ariel Perez, a local journalist and two journalists of the people cheering the party. Climb to the train was Paola Bianco, TV star, host of the Heart Challenge . Jonathan was excited and told his friend he would pull of the locomotive. Jamie reminded him that in high school had warned them that only adults could, but Jonathan did not listen. Yamila
also saw many of his friends "plates" in front of the machine, looking for a place to "cinch". "One of them said, 'when it starts, I'm going to throw under the wheels, and once I die'." Jamie asked Jonathan to stay, but to no avail. ***
Adriana Borba, the gym teacher, told the judge on his vast experience in driving successful social events. Organized, for example, the fair queen of the pool to 500 people. But this time things did not go as well.
had begun to rain. The crowd was huge and there was no police. The human chain that was separating the public from the tracks was made only for the unemployed in government health care plan and nobody paid attention. Nor are placed yellow ribbons for people not to approach the edge of the platform. "There were people who kept them up for others to pass. I saw them," says Mary Emma Reggio, a member of the committee support. A crowd huddled at the edge of the platform and hundreds of people were on the track before the locomotive.
Borba, who had expected to be sufficient for four strings 60 shooters, he tied two others. At 1410 called the "cinchadores" a talk to explain how they should pull the train, but only 20 were to listen. She had calculated that, to avoid being hit, everyone should be located more than ten meters from the locomotive. But according to Francisco Lafourcade, who attended the meeting, that figure was not provided. "At no time were we told how many meters of the train we should be," he told the judge. "We said how he would give the order, but we were going to start at half past two." Borba also warned that if one fell, the others had to raise it fast. For safety, The teacher wanted the firemen were the "cinchadores" closer to the engine, but otherwise they understood and were located at the tip of the ropes, the further away from the machine.
The jingle rang out loud, singing schoolchildren, the leaders said that Young could, people applauded. Past the 14, Seriani, one of the producers of the Heart Challenge, he called his companions to Montevideo. I wanted to listen to the noise, told the judge: "It was beautiful noise." ***
Maria Lopez, an employee of Commerce, was excited at the station. He thought: "This town is very individualistic but here we are all together to help the hospital ".
Almost everyone in Young are defined as jointly and severally the same time. And at the station noticed: many wanted to help the hospital and decided to" cinch ", even though they knew they should not.
Just after 14.10, hundreds of people sought to take a piece of rope so they can participate in the "cinched" to help the hospital, going on TV to prove to all that Young exists Uruguay. The excitement was indescribable. Those who were against a machine called their friends who stayed on the platform to come down to shoot.
Adriana Borba today revives despair that began to win it at the time. "swatting All strings. It was not planned. Was the desire to help, to say I am, I was, I threw. I asked them to leave and no one cared. I went over. "Selva
Carballo, 57, had not thought to participate, but there it felt like." It was a feast, and nobody said anything as I saw that others did it I was a cinch and you I told some known: come, come. "Alba
Lemes, the 68 year old woman who broke seven ribs, fibula, and scapula in three, down to the tracks and took a string along with her friend Silvia Porcal. He was happy. "Such was the euphoria, the excitement." Lemes still remember when Jonathan came and said, "Ladies, do not let me hold the rope here?". ***
Some perceived that things were not quite right. Hector rail Parentini warned organizers that there was a dangerous gap in the floor under the sleepers and against the platform, where it was to do the "challenge." Apollonia, the hospital's director, called the police station to protest the absence of police. Susana Estigarribia, another physical education teacher, took the tracks to several children and an adult who wanted to pull the train with a girl in her arms. However, no one suggested stop the test.
"There people saying 'this is going to end badly, "but the vast majority of those who were not living this event we wanted to do", regrets Ariel Perez, the local journalist who encouraged the day.
On the track, taking the ropes front of the locomotive, was elderly, sick, lame, women in heels, guys in Hawaiian. A Eliseo Silva, 57, who had a bypass, a friend told him "you can not shoot you," but he ignored and stayed there with his wife. In total, 400 people were ready to tow the train.
were missing fifteen minutes of scheduled time, 14.30. But many were already "webbing".
Muñíz Pastor I told the people around him, "Do not shoot, not shoot, we still have" not made her case. The cords were strained, but the locomotive was not moving because I had the brake. "I wish I drop a heavy rain to cinch just have to cinch," asked the pastor. But the sky did not listen. ***
Who and how should give the order to begin testing is the key point of the court case. officials Channel 10 said the order would give them. The hospital's director, Apollonia, said he rents the best audio equipment Young to hear everyone's order. Professor Borba said she was going to give the order with a bullhorn and a signal to Parentini, I would be on the locomotive. Parentini, the railway should tell the driver when to get the brake was not top of the machine, but down among the crowd crazy. He expected the order to Borba, but did not know it was going to give. Parentini
looked Borba, who came and went among the crowd cheering. Borba
trying to remove the tracks not to be the shooting. Had gathered so many people who, instead of ten meters between the "cinchadores" and the locomotive had just two. "Let go of the rope," he shouted, but nobody paid attention. Missing about twelve minutes for the set time, decided to go for the megaphone, he had a colleague. I wanted to alert all the evidence and would not start. It never occurred to resort to powerful audio equipment was blaring the jingle (fight together!) And the breath of drivers (we can!). Borba
finally found the megaphone. It was 14.20. Gestures a lot when the teacher tells his story. It is possible that in that moment of nervousness also gesticulated. She swears she made no sign, but Parentini says that yes, everyone started yelling "Go!" and then saw Borba make the sign I was expecting. It was ten minutes, but The railroad said that nobody told him the exact time of beginning the test. "I was pulling everyone together and it was a scream 'go, go' and all pulled. First came the cry, and then the lady raises her hand," said Parentini in court. "What else would you expect? I interpreted that the lady gave me the ok"
then told the driver to take out the brake. ***
The engine started. Borba said: "The bitch that bore him, who gave the order?". Channel people caught on camera. Ariel Pérez driver, hesitated. I knew it was not the time, but will not wanted to spoil the moment so he shouted, as recorded in an amateur video, "Come on Come on Come on Come on come on, we can!" Yes, yes, yes. "
The joy was short lived. When Perez made his fifth "we" because
everything that had happened had to happen.
So many people pulled the rope the machine started at a speed unthinkable. Wet rails potency. Those who were too close to be run so that the locomotive is not reached them, had children, old people in sandals. The gap that had marked Parentini was a death trap. They slipped and fell a woman who pulled the rope closest to the platform. It was the end of the party: those behind began to fall, one above the other. The machine was approaching and they could not get out of the way because the platform prevented them from rolling or jumping aside. "We ran, but someone came and gave us no time for anything," says the grandmother Lemes. "The locomotive was a feather and when we wanted to agree was horrible," says Selva Carballo.
Some were crushed by the crowd, others crushed by the machine.
"A crowd came over me," recalls Silvia Porcal. "I felt like I broke the spine and ribs stuck me in the lungs. It was a pain horrible. Also felt the train was sucking people. I screamed for help, help! I thought I was dying. I had no air. I was conscience. I turned on the ground so that the train did not suck me, the twisted my body ... "Yolanda Faccio
the locomotive rammed." I saw that I came over, came quicker than I could move, I I fell and got up without the arm, "he said in court.
stop at the platform Racouky Jamie's friend Jonathan, he saw at once there was silence. He saw a woman without an arm and a friend who was with her Niece of Yolanda Faccio, began to mourn.
***
Ariel Perez, the animator, was speechless. "I saw a person walking out without an arm, do not forget more. After a while someone came and said: 'A disaster that did. There are dead people down there'."
He thought he teased, but no. There was dead, blood, pieces of body. Pastor Muñíz
had died. Eliseo Silva, the man who wanted to shoot despite having a bypass, died of a heart attack to see how the machine killed his wife. Ramon Bacino, who had come especially to "cinch" for the hospital, had died. Also, the former commissioner Elbio Recoba, 77, and Royal Forest, 56. Jonathan Muñoz had the engine open to the media. There were serious injuries as Faccio, Porcal, Lemes, Carballo and an elderly woman suffered lacerations unrecognizable. Panchito
Portela, 14, who played football with Jonathan, was not letting the body of his friend. When his cell phone rang and his mother asked him where he was, he said, "Mom, I'm next to Jonathan and people are crazy. They say he is dead and is only asleep."
While some children away, the rescue was chaotic. There was no stretcher or ambulance. Somebody got some boards and, above them, the wounded were taken to the hospital which had made Challenge to the Heart. ***
Néstor Díaz owns a property opposite the station. I thought to close at 14.30 to go to the "cinched" but gave no time. At 14.20 started crying and begging people to get water to the wounded. "I was nervous for my wife and my daughter, who were there. For my mother, with nearly 80 years, what I would have thought!".
Women and Diaz's daughter were okay, but his mother was unrecognizable old wounds. Dying, Ramona Gallay managed to stammer his name and so knew who he was. As soon
Diaz arrived at the hospital knew something bad had happened: "Everyone cried, even the nurses were crying, the situation had completely overcome." Jonathan's mother was also there. He had gone to donate blood for the wounded and was told that her son was dead.
Diaz found his mother. "She had been transferred because he was very serious. The train had opened the skull, had erased the face, had destroyed one side of body." Ramona
Gallay, 79, died two days later. It was the eighth fatal victim of the Heart Challenge . ***
Channel 10 gave the premiere. Apollonia, the director of hospital, said on the screen that what happened was the result of "enthusiasm is contagious when we're all together for a common effort." Judge Young, Mario Suarez, said: "It was an accident."
March 18 Challenge six victims of were buried in Young. Channel 10 was there all the famous and many people took the opportunity to get autographs.
At the cemetery, the priest Fernando Pigurina, principal of the local Catholic Church, said that everything happened "by an excess of love, do not look round. The people wanted to give so much that he gave all." A nun identified the dead as "martyrs of solidarity."
That weekend, a rich neighbor donated $ 30,000 that the hospital needed. On 2 April
Channel 10 aired a program called All for Young. Viewers donated $ 100,000: the families of those killed or seriously injured received $ 7,000 each.
The city gave a job to the father of Jonathan, which was unoccupied. Montevideo
Psychologists came to serve the population, which was in shock. Apollonia, Borba, members of the committee to support the hospital, all were among the most beloved people of the village, like many of the dead. Began to gain ground the version given by television and by the priest Pigurina: was not guilty.
in the press and especially television, tragedy soon lost ground. For some weeks Channel 10 did not rule on the fate that would Heart Challenge. They had recorded another program, in support of the hospital in the city of Tacuarembó. In it a "mentalist" driving a car blindfolded between people sitting in the street. Also started a watermelon with a machete in the head of a volunteer.
March 21, the faithful of a Young Evangelical church prayed for Challenge not taken off the air.
The program returned on April 25, but never aired chapter Tacuarembó recorded. ***
the people in the court began a criminal investigation of the tragedy. But unlike usual in these cases, Young was not a crusade to see justice done. Was led by Silvia Sosa, 46, widow of Ramón Bacino, who died in Challenge. Sosa visited each family hit by tragedy and asked to sign a letter to Justice drop the case. Sosa wears a large cross on his chest. He says that exceeded what he lived through the power of God and many friends. "Stay calm that Ramon was happy webbing", have said some who were there.
- Why did the letter?
"Here there is no blame. Nobody has to go to jail, because in any case everyone would have to go. If someone was arrested, would be very sad. The people involved are very dear. "I'd feel better if they were prisoners? No, I would feel worse. Ramon never return.
- Did you ever think about why the tragedy occurred?
"Just once, the same day. After Mentalic me to make no drama. For 25 years I catechist, I can not wipe out everything in what I believe. I know that Ramon is well, died for others to save lives. I feel sad, but a great inner peace. We can not live looking guilty. Happened, he ended.
Jonathan's parents signed. "It was an accident. You can not blame anyone, because we were all guilty," says the mother, who was not even in the "cinched". "The father Pigurina was the spokesman of the community. We will not sue anyone. Here you always need the hospital and Channel 10 wanted help, how can we make something? And for more money, not my son me to return. "
also signed Gallay Ramona's family and most of the wounded, and Faccio, the woman who lost her arm. Judge Suárez
swears that he never received an order and in your life. ***
The letter promoted
by Silvia Sosa was not signed by the children of the marriage Silva, the family of former commissioner Recoba, widow of pastor Muñíz or by Silvia Porcal, serious injury. She knows how hard it is to sustain Young truth than the official. On March 23, her husband and lawyer Pablo Benitez Jacqueline Portillo announced a civil suit against the organizers for the damage she had suffered. Porcal, who worked as a maid, broke three lumbar vertebrae, two ribs and had fractures of the tibia and fibula. Spent four months in plaster from head to toe. He spent the worst day of his life when placed in a device called "the cross of Christ" for a cast. Still can not work.
The news triggered a wave of condemnation in Young. "I do not want the hospital," she said Benitez. "To you, nobody forced you to cinch" Porcal accused. A local radio viciously criticized them and the matter ended only when Porcal called the station from the hospital where I was admitted and said he would not make any claim.
Benítez, a metal worker, is outraged. "If I had caused such a tragedy, was held in an afternoon. That is not guilty! Is easy to speak, but Silvia will not be able to work more."
Porcal Silvia, 38, says he went from working all day to be in the house from dawn to dusk. "I'm awake at two o'clock, three o'clock, and the accident makes me: feel the noise, the pain. I look much the mirror: There are times I think 'I'm all old, broken, broken, and no good at anything. "
Counsel advised Portela still sue and they believe it possible." Where were the police? " Benitez says. "How to pull the train left a boy of 14? They say the dead were "martyrs of solidarity 'How will they be martyrs! Were there to die? No, went to work and were killed by the disruption. Negligence ... "Nobody is going to do a mea culpa?"
***
"Your mother is a bitch, tell Panchito in school. Panchito is the guy who was crying beside the body of Jonathan. His mother is a lawyer Portela.
"I feel battered. It is sad to see the people you meet are so ignorant," says the lawyer. Young believes that no one speaks up because the Church is powerful and there is much fear.
"The priest Pigurina campaigned in favor of those who organized the event. Obeys the laws and brainwashed him to younguenses. He meetings which were said to be forgotten. But it can not go against the right people to be repaired by an event that curtailed our lives. " Portela
criticized by Channel 10 propose a challenge as useless as risky as the organizers for doing so without the minimal security. According to her, having created this mixture of uncontrollable fervor and misinformation caused the disaster: "The jingle was so irradiated that today's kids are still singing. The people believed that everyone had to go a cinch. The jingle would repeat all day: we throw all, throw all. " ***
Apollonia, the hospital director, said having peace awareness. While taking
mate, says: "A committee supporting a hospital in a small town has no choice but to do things by hand. All that was within our grasp, was made. There was a collective enthusiasm ungovernable, no rational explanation. "Borba
The teacher does not mind going through the scene of the tragedy. You think you expected it would have been to anticipate the attack on the Twin Towers." Yet I can not find a logical explanation. Acting on feelings. People were totally elated. It was a great party. I think there would have been more people watching, also had passed over.
The mea culpa that Benitez wants there. Apollonia is still the director of the hospital. Sosa, the police chief of the village. Borba heads the municipal union. Members of the committee to support the hospital are the same. Those who had the idea to tow a locomotive still Channel 10 , thinking further success. ***
Pigurina
The priest smoking a pipe. As a veterinarian cares for her basset, says he has conflicting ideas about programs like the Heart Challenge : there should be, but if not there who would serve as the hospital claims of Young? She knows that television
exacerbated the people's enthusiasm: "It was a way to tell Uruguay: here are the younguenses!". And he believes that, in a fateful, that goal was accomplished, now the Uruguayans, including the world-view with respect and admiration for its Young reaction to the tragedy, "have kept the unit, do not blame people argue that it was an accident, to agree that those who participated and those who died was a general good intention."
When asked if he still thinks that everything went through "too much love", he replied: "I do not know if today would use the same expression, but there is much love for the hospital. That love in excess caused the disaster triggered organizational tragedy. "
The priest admits that it is easy for someone in Young dares to demand accountability, as most require otherwise. "They closed ranks around and come loose interpretation of it is very difficult. There is an internal pressure, that is not violent, but very strong. "
***
judges in Uruguay can not prosecute those who are not accused by prosecutors, depending on the executive branch. The prosecutor only asked Silvia Blanc prosecute Parentini rail, the only one involved who is not in Young.
Parentini The day was called the Young Court to hear his fate, 400 people gathered there to demand that no one was arrested. They carried banners saying "we are all guilty". They were the parents of Jonathan, Yolanda Faccio without his arm and the other signatories of the letter.
In his ruling, Judge Smith said it is clear that Parentini was not solely responsible of the tragedy. So it processed, but not prison. Wanted to avoid the injustice that one pays in prison than many caused. "There were two or three more responsible," he says today.
Anyway, no one was arrested. In Young there was a caravan of celebration. ***
Two sons of former commissioner Recoba who live in Montevideo are the ones who today accuse the promoters of the "challenge" in civil justice, blaming them for the death of his father. Gustavo Salle, his lawyer has said Channel 10 and several state agencies are responsible. That "the call was for a purpose which, ultimately, it is essential to the state, which is not in compliance and that in Uruguay there is a real cultural involution, educational, intellectual, which also explains the tragedy of Young. " In the small town
insist otherwise. Ana Portela, a local journalist and championed the "no blame", insisting that all happened to be a people as well. "In such solidarity that we are, we did not realize it was an outrage what we would do." ***
Ramón Díaz cries when she recalls her mother, 79-old woman disfigured the train. Known that there were errors in organization, but do not want to think about it: "I prefer to protect family life, I try to forget."
Diaz spent more than 20 years to support other committees. Once a mob snatched handing out toys for a child benefit. "People are trampled, lost his composure. The day of the tragedy were people very quickly, they wanted to get on TV. There were many young people who have nothing to lose, those who fight every night just to get noticed ... and very little police guard. The organizers fell short, but it was not on purpose. Those who participated and I feel guilty too. With my experience I could have helped. " ***
Ariel Smith, the animator who shouted "Go, go" when the train started, now works in Montevideo. Many Sometimes there heard that people saw the video of the tragedy and hear their cries, says: "Such must be killed."
"My job was that," he explains. "If we are guilty of 3,000 or 4,000 people there. All we saw that was wrong: cinching a locomotive on the rails wet, children ... it was a test by the hospital and had not even an ambulance. Everyone were: the authorities, people from Channel 10 and nobody reacted. I saw and I did not realize. I was one who was in the great slaughter that did, and it hurts. "
pain not to live with Ruben Munoz, the father of Jonathan. "I can not stand," he told a newspaper. At his ranch the bricks are stacked to build a house bought with the money they gave him. Yamila
Racouky tragedy that changed his friends, one is building a house, another went to work, she wants to go to study in Montevideo.
Marina Rodriguez, wife of the pastor Muniz, an Argentina of 34 years, thought about leaving, but stayed. "It was painful, but my daughters Young told of his father and Buenos Aires." Cries when that usually go to the station to "talk" to her husband. Did not sign the letter requesting the case file. "I agree with anyone go to jail, is to add pain to pain. But it is important that the courts put the record straight."
Silvia Sosa, the woman who led the crusade for justice to drop the case, is satisfied with what he did. "I just want this to happen at once. When I try to minimize accidents, and minimize what all I could and I will try to disappear." Yolanda
Faccio not want to remember. After the tragedy, kept looking Heart Challenge. His dream is to receive a prosthetic arm to replace that tore the engine, and with it go to Montevideo and appear, this time on the screen Channel 10.
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