Emotional mass for the young Venezuelan murdered in Palermo: the priest’s demand for justice and his parents’ claim

A picture of Juan Francisco Fernandez Acostain which she appears smiling in front of a flag of her homeland, Venezuela, surrounded by flowers and candles, was the decoration that was placed on the lectern of the Our Lady of Caacupé Parishfrom the Caballito district of Buenos Aires, where this Tuesday mass was held in tribute to the 27-year-old young man murdered last Sunday morning by a criminal who tried to steal his cell phone.

Dozens of friends, neighbours, members of his community and colleagues from the two trades that the computer engineer exercised, who delivered at night to supplement his monthly income, went to the church located at Rivadavia Avenue at 4879 to remember from him.

“He was an incredible person. Very cheerful, very enterprising and always ready to improve and help others. He was a very funny kid, days could pass without speaking, but he sent me an audio message on WhatsApp and , out of nowhere, it made me burst out laughing,” he said. GlobeLiveMedia a girl who had known the victim since 2019, when both had been living in Buenos Aires for a short time.

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Around 8 p.m., when everyone had already arrived and was seated on the pews in the chapel, Father Eusebiowho sponsored the ceremony, greeted everyone with a few words of encouragement at the pain one goes through when “the estrangement from what has been left behind in the other country is felt strongly by something that leaves us strikes in these latitudes”.

“Today we come together as a community of the Venezuelan diaspora to say goodbye to this friend of ours, this young man who left his country in search of a dignified life, to help his family, that we all come to look for on this Argentine soil,” he said. .

Furthermore, the priest sent his condolences to the parents of Fernández Acosta, who are in Caracas, and remarked that “when you lose your parents, you are an orphan; when someone loses a child, that pain has no name.

“In the order of faith, it is good to look at the sky; but in the order of Justice, we must look ahead and demand justice for the life taken from this brother of ours. Justice is also one of the highest truths: that everyone has what they should have, but also that everyone pays for what they do in their life,” he remarked.

Towards the end, the religious representative pointed out that Juan Francisco was “a legal Venezuelan, who knows that you must always move forward, with the blessing of your parents”, and that he spent his last days “in pedaling through the city of Buenos Aires, in search of daily bread”.

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“Today we also ask for mercy for all those who suffer this forced migration, because the innocent always pay the price of evil. While others get rich, others continue to cling to power, think of themselves, emigrate innocently and often find themselves far from their homeland, which they do not deserve,” he concluded.

In this sense, once the Mass was over, all those present approached the altar, where the priest gave them a candle that each one lit with the flame that was burning next to the photo of the young Venezuelan, while the choir continued to sing Christian songs, accompanied by an orchestra.

At that time, everyone was going around Jessica Talaveraa close friend of Fernández Acosta, whom he met at school as a child in his native Venezuela, and with whom he met in Argentina to strengthen the bond that united them.

He gave a short speech to the crowd, in which he remarked that the victim was “an excellent son, brother and friend, who was not mean, who had a lot of desires and a passion for what he was doing. , and his whole life ahead of him.”

“What happened is very unfair, it’s very ironic, because he was not doing anything wrong, he was with a friend, sitting on the block of his house, having a beer, in the middle of Palermo, which is supposed to be a Safe Place. It’s almost ironic, because in Caracas you know what’s going on, you know what you’re dealing with, but you come here and it seems like nothing changes” , added Talavera, in dialogue with GlobeLiveMedia.

Already in the front patio of the parish, always with a few lighted candles, his friends and colleagues said a few last words in his honor in front of Father Eusebio and two altar boys who held the photograph of the young man.

A little apart from the tumult, walking from one side to the other, as if without finding a destination, and with his head bowed, he was Thomas Vazquezthe boy, also Venezuelan, who was drinking beer with Juan Francisco the night of the crime, who survived the attack and called 911 to ask for the ambulance which took 20 minutes to arrive.

Several compatriots of the murdered young man, who are also in Buenos Aires, are collecting money with the aim of bringing the parents of Fernández Acosta to Argentina, because, since it was a crime, they foresee that the body cannot be repatriated for a certain time, when they have completed all the relevant skills. The murderer(s), meanwhile, are still at large and have not been identified.

However, this is an initiative with more than one complication, since Asdrúbal and María Angélica, who remain in Caracas, have expired passports and renewing them under the Chavista dictatorship is a very long bureaucratic process that citizens rarely manage to carry out. .

After 9 p.m., people began to leave the scene, mingling with pedestrians who marched hastily along busy Rivadavia Avenue, where the chaos of Buenos Aires continued its usual march. Just two blocks from the church, a city police received a complaint from a woman who had witnessed a robbery.

*Photos: Gustavo Gavotti.

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