Jarod Daniel Ramírez Cerda
“He had a lot of dreams. He wanted to make something of his life”
Murdered on June 21, 2018, in Managua
Jarod Ramírez Cerda was in his second year studying communications and public relations at the American University, and he wanted to study odontology.
He spoke English and Mandarin and liked to box and play soccer. “He was exceptional. He was the most beautiful thing I had. He wanted to make something of his life,” says his mother. A nephew who witnessed his death was left traumatized. He cries and says, “Why him? They should have killed me instead.”
Facts
They shot three times point black, once into Jarod’s thorax and twice into his abdomen. He died instantly.
Doña Raquel Cerda Méndez, the mother of Jarod Daniel Ramírez Cerda, recounts that around midnight on June 21, three armed and hooded subjects aboard a motorcycle stopped and pointed a gun at Jarod, who had just gone out of the front door of the house.
“They took him to the room in the back, where I was,” says doña Raquel. “They identified themselves as members of the Sandinista Youth (JS), and started going through everything looking for weapons. When I insisted that we didn’t have any, one of them pointed the gun at me, but my son intervened. The man turned to him and threatened him, saying ‘I told you that I was going to kill you for being mixed up in the marches.’”
As they left, they shot three times point black, once into Jarod’s thorax and twice into his abdomen. He died instantly. “I started screaming for someone to help me get him to the Red Cross. A neighbor put him on his motorcycle, but at the Red Cross they left him on the pavement and said if we wanted a death certificate, to take him to the Forensic Examiner’s. I was devastated, but they took him there.”
The next day at the funeral of her only son, doña Raquel fainted in the arms of her husband. “Don’t leave me, my baby, wait for me! What will my life be now?” she cried out.
With respect to why the JS looked for him, the family believes that perhaps they confused him with another relative who took part in the marches and the barricades.
Memory
Managua
Show more profiles
