Gerald Antonio Barrera Villavicencio
On July 8, at 5:30 in the morning, police forces and armed civilians violently stormed through all entrances to the Carazo department, to carry out the so-called “Operation Clean-Up.” During the attack against Jinotepe, Gerald Antonio Barrera Villavicencio was hit with bullets from firearms shot by paramilitaries, aimed at protesters at the barricades, who defended themselves with homemade mortars. He was just a few meters from his home when a bullet hit him in his ribs, with a clear entry and exit wound, perforating his lungs.
“At 11:00 in the morning, I went out in the middle of a firefight to find his body. The paramilitaries were there, but God protected me with the blood of Christ. At the Carazo Medical Center, I saw someone lying on a stretcher. I never thought it was my son there,” recalls Alisseth Barrera Reyes, Gerald’s aunt, who had raised him like her own son.