Injustice! - A Prayer Request for Adela, her Daugher, Son-in-law, and grandchildren
June 16th, 2009
Adela, our house parent, is suffering with her daughter, Gaby, as Gaby’s husband was sent to jail. Gaby’s husband Goyo, has no car, so he hitched a ride with a stranger who had a traffic accident. His leg was broken badly, but even worse than the injury and resulting surgery was Goyo getting blamed for the accident and sent to jail for several years. No one knows how many.
While Goyo and his family fought his injuries in the hospital, the driver of the car, in order to avoid any liability, said that Goyo was driving. In Mexico, if you are found to be at fault in an accident, they put you in jail until you pay all the damages. So they arrested Goyo and told him he needs to pay $30,000 - which would be about 10 years wages for him.
Gaby, Adela, her children and granddaughters
This story is particulary tragic because Gaby just had her 3rd child. They are a very poor family, but they are honest, hard-working people. Their children are beautiful and so precious to all of us. A simple ride with a stranger, something so common here, has turned into an un-ending nightmare.
Evidently the driver of the car had a friend in the court, and within days of the accident Goyo was found guilty. The case was closed, without Goyo ever being contacted or knowing what happened. Adela and Gaby both were in Hermosillo at the time, struggling to get proper care for Goyo. It is unbelievably difficult to get proper care in the hospitals here. These ladies literally had to sleep on the cement park benches outside of the hospital for weeks at a time while they worked around the clock to organize blood donations, appointments, etc. They went without food and other necessities just to get Goyo’s leg properly set. And then endured the horror of watching the police haul Goyo off to jail.
This was especially traumatic for Adela, who vividly remembers her husband being hauled off to jail when she was a young mother. She said, they were beating him and calling him every bad word in the book as they hauled him off.
They have asked friends and family for funds to hire a lawyer to try to undo this injustice, but it is very difficult to do and may take years. In the meantime, the family has no income and no way to pay rent or school expenses for the children, etc. Adela says that Gaby visits Goyo in prison and that Goyo’s leg is causing him problems. It is not healing right. Also that the other prisoners have beaten him and stolen his clothes.
I share this in order to ask you to pray for this family, for the resolution of this injustice, for Gaby and her children in this time of need.