The families of missing persons in Tenerife request a specific drive for the search. Not only in the police field, but with a multidisciplinary sense that should include experts in emergencies, health workers, psychologists and other professionals. It is a demand of maximum actuality on the Island for two reasons. On one side, Canary Islandswithout a clear reason, leads the disappearances in the State. And, on the other hand, there is a rebound in reported cases in the last two months. Some with fatal consequences like that of the young man Nacho Palmero Hijar, whose remains appeared on the mountain of Las Mercedes a few days ago. Other cases are in full process, such as that of the tacorontera Celia Rodríguez. The claim of the relatives is supported by the SOS Disappeared association, the only one in Spain that attends to these events.
The coordinator of SOS Disappeared in Tenerife is Santiago Carlos Martín, who stresses that “families feel abandoned.” In the case of Celia, for example, he highlights “the popular initiative to look for her in Candelaria this week,” but clarifies that “the neighbors barely have organization or experience.” Or there is also the case of Nacho Palmero’s mother, who had to mount a search with her own means due to the lack of a unit to take on this arduous task.
A social deficiency.
The collective was born in 2010 and Santiago Carlos joined a few years later. He has always been linked to Civil Protection and has been Head of volunteers for the municipality of Santa Cruz de Tenerife since last April in a second stage. Martín values: “This is voluntary, altruistic and free” for anyone who suffers the disappearance of a family member or close friend. The group is made up of 40 people throughout the Spanish geography and some European countries, time, effort and resources that they themselves contribute.
Figures on the rise.
From his experience, he points out that “there are many disappeared in the Canary Islands and the number has increased after the pandemic. We are at the head of the country and we are not clear why. Perhaps the orography or the social structure have an influence, but we don’t know.” He calculates that there may currently be more than 200 missing people in the Canary Islands. They work with 42 active cases in this province and 24 in Las Palmas.
Santiago values: “There are three large groups of disappeared.” It refers to those who have a mental illness and decide to disappear or their head makes them disappear. In both cases he is voluntary. Then there are the adolescents who, he interprets, “perhaps they are the ones who make us lead the ranking of autonomous communities because there are many.” There are those who run away from centers and those who participate in a recent phenomenon, posturing in networks that leads them to disappear on several occasions. Finally, those that disappear due to the action of third parties. Martín adds that “there are cases throughout the year but they have increased due to the pandemic that has left many people touched. Economic or couple problems have a great influence ».
The coordinator of SOS Disappeared clarifies that «there is no time limit to report. The times have to be set by the family, not the administration or the police. There is a prudent wait but the first few hours are the most important to be able to locate a missing person. Move quickly. But the problem, Santiago points out, is that “the majority are not advised, they lack information and whoever guides them is someone who can help them.” He understands that “from the moment of the complaint at the police station there should be that guidance and help, for example, that of SOS Disappeared.”
Family members complain that they lack emotional and institutional support during the process. But those who recover their relatives or the disappeared person do not receive it either when “they would really need it,” says Santiago.
Carlos was marked by the case of the girls Anna and Olivia who were taken by their father, Tomás Gimeno and supposedly murdered. He remembers it: «I thought it was incredible that it happened here. I was shocked by the outcome but even more so that in a huge ocean the proof that it had ended the lives of the girls was found as a miracle.
Geolocation.
The most pressing of the measures requested by the group is geolocation. Santiago Carlos values it: “One of the big problems is that the Police often take time to geolocate the telephone numbers of the disappeared person due to bureaucratic procedures that act as a barrier.” He explains: “We understand that the right to life is the generator of all the others and therefore that data protection or privacy do not exist without this principle that has to prevail.”
Martín adds: «Sometimes, when the investigation has managed to geolocate, not a person is found but a body or, in the best of cases, someone who has moved from one place». He values: «The time in a disappearance is important and the process is too complex, which wastes many days. And they are vulnerable people: elderly, minors, with cognitive problems, mental health or with a history of suicide. We talk about saving lives.”
Temporary incapacitation.
A new dilemma: the right to life versus others such as freedom. For example, the coordinator relates that “when a person in psychiatric treatment disappears, he stops taking the medication, he does not notice that his capacities are disturbed and he cannot retain it.” In the absence of such judicial incapacitation, serious danger situations arise. Again the bureaucracy that always seems to plan in these situations. Temporary disabilities always arise. When, for example, someone enters a hospital with a suicide attempt “it should be reported ex officio and the Prosecutor’s Office acts so that another person acts as a guardian temporarily and precautionary measures are adopted.”
Training and awareness.
Joaquín Amills is the national president of SOS Disappeared. He considers the good relationship and contact between the security forces and family members to be “key”. Empathy as an impulse. Information and affection. Amills values: «The number and increase in missing persons and the many unsolved cases in the case of islands are striking in the Canary Islands». He proposes to unite training with awareness in each case. He insists that in the Archipelago “there are fewer means and resources than in the peninsula and to change that we all have to work: government and political institutions, entities and us”, Several factors in his opinion make searches difficult. The complicated and abrupt orography, full of caves and ravines, or the mixture in the same space of urban, semi-urban and rural nuclei. He recognizes that on the peninsula, external aid workers can move more quickly. Both police units (the canine K9, drones…) and volunteers. He gives an example: «If there is a missing person in Seville, help can come from other Andalusian provinces or even from Ceuta». Amills believes that “it would be interesting to recover the training courses that we had to stop due to covid, free and lasting three days, in Tenerife.” «They would end the practice after uniting the police, emergencies, organizations and administrations; they cannot each go their own way », he adds.
Casuistry.
In addition to the cases that are still open on the Island, some have not ended well. Recently, those of Ignacio Palmero, Juan Pedro Alemán or Manuel Álvarez, 44, a resident of Valleseco. And a few months ago that of a father, Elio, and his daughter, María de los Ángeles, whose car plunged into a ravine. But, on the other side of the scale, in a few days the disappearances of Francisco Ortega Lara have been resolved, whose surnames gave him great media coverage for coinciding with those of the victim of the longest kidnapping in the history of ETA, that of Soraya Esteve, in La Laguna, or Gabriel Ayoze Pérez, in El Rosario. The most recent, last Wednesday, when José Guzmán, 95 years old and from Santa Cruz, appeared in Fasnia.
SOS Disappeared asks people who can provide any information about the disappeared in Tenerife to contact the telephone numbers 642 650 775 and 649 952 957 or the email address [email protected].
The most recent missing
The long-term missing
A very heartfelt testimony from the perspective of the families
Pilar Hijar is the sister of Lola, the mother of Ignacio Palmero, the last deceased on the Island after his disappearance. The testimony of the aunt in social networks expresses the feeling of the family. She criticizes “the poor performance of the people in charge of managing the case.” On the other hand, she thanks SOS Disappeared for “the attention and efforts in this year of anguish (Nacho disappeared in July 2021)”. She adds: “A non-profit association that does not receive any subsidies and whose members have worked hard and dedicated all their efforts to this, despite the limitations due to lack of means and official authorizations.” She ends with a “thank you for the humanity shown”. The relationship with Lola Hijar, a resident of San Andrés y Sauces (La Palma), has been constant and intense. Nacho’s remains were located last Monday after some young people found his belongings on the 16th in the Las Mercedes mountain. “Perhaps the hunt should have come earlier,” concludes Pilar. |
