“Any parent would the same for his daughter,” says Juan Fermín Heredia (36), a taxi driver from Santiago del Estero who on Wednesday became known for driving more than 200 kilometers with his 9-year-old daughter in the trunk. Upon reaching the height of Sinsacate, almost 70 kilometers north of Cordovathe police stopped Heredia’s Citroën Xsara, in which they were also traveling four other passengers.
They all ended up at the police station from that town in Córdoba on Wednesday at noon, where the circumstances of the incident were investigated. And, according to what the driver himself told Clarioneveryone in the car they knew there was a girl what was going locked back on the long stretch of route. Not only that. Everyone knew that the event had taken significance for obvious reasons. Although the girl’s father does not seem to reflect on it.
“We were arriving in Córdoba and we listened on the radio most important local to the police saying that they had caught a man who he had his daughter kidnapped in the trunk and I don’t know how many other things; but It didn’t take us more than 40 minutes.“After which, upon seeing that everything was in order, they released us to continue the trip,” Heredia contradicted, more concerned about the version of what happened than the fact itself.
The man, a native of Villa Ojo de Agua, in the south of Santiago del Estero, He has been a remisero for three years, when he left his job as a truck driver, which he inherited from his father. He has three daughters and a son, and The one who was traveling in the trunk of his car is his daughter May.r, Alejandra. She makes transfers from the south of Santiago del Estero to Córdoba, and vice versa, three times a week.
This Wednesday he had four passengers who had to do their errands in Córdoba capital, and also her daughter Alejandra, as she now explains, to a medical check-up in that city, since almost a month ago she was operated on for peritonitis and still had some ailments.
—How did you decide to carry your daughter in the trunk?
—I had already coordinated the trip with the passengers and my daughter felt bad, and I wanted to take her to the doctor. If my daughter was lying in the back seat, she couldn’t have moved the passengers.
—And how much does such a trip cost?
—Fifty thousand pesos, more or less. If I had my daughter in the back seat, I couldn’t have carried any passengers, and here we need the handle. We live looking for the mango to live as well as possible. I’m not a bad man Not even a bad father: I was taking my daughter to the doctor and also working to give her a decent life.
—And your daughter’s mother knew that she would travel like this?
-Yeah, my wife knew. My daughter was traveling lying down in the trunk, in which I removed the rear window, so the passengers also knew it. Furthermore, lying down she felt less pain and she was more comfortable than if she was sitting: she had a blanket, pillow, cell phone with WiFi, headphones. She was entertained and comfortable.
—But it turned out that she told the police that she had no one to leave her daughter with, and that the mother was surprised to find out that the police delayed her.
-It is not like this. They did not call my wife, but rather she was the one who contacted to clarify the situation, since I I didn’t have my documents or those of my daughter on me.. My wife was aware.
According to Heredia, near Sansicate they stopped at a tire store, since their car was running with the spare tire, and when it stopped, His daughter asked him to leave to go to the bathroom..
For the driver, it was not a vehicle control but a patrol car that was traveling on Route 9 that intervened when the police saw the girl coming out of the trunk. After interrogating the driver, the passengers and the girl herself, it was decided to transfer them to the Sinsacate police station.
The detention of the travelers at the police station lasted forty minutes, the driver estimates. He thus returned to try to rectify the police version that, strictly speaking, he maintained at the time that Heredia was delayed and that an administrative report was drawn up that the commissioner said he had elevated to the Secretariat of Children, Adolescents and the Family (SENAF) of Córdoba.
“They want to score some beans, but things didn’t happen as they said. I I never said I didn’t have anyone to leave the baby with.because I was taking her to the doctor,” declared Heredia, as if the relevance of the case was in that and not in the use he gave to his trunk.
—And what did the police tell you, apart from drawing up a report?
—Everyone treated me well except one, who while others were requisitioning the car, told me that ‘anything could be done.’ fix another way‘. But I was a truck driver and I know those tricks: I wasn’t going to leave him money because I was just working to earn a ticket. When we were at the police station, I signed the administrative document and left in a hurry.because two of the passengers also had medical appointments.
After being released from the police station, Heredia says that he accompanied one of the passengers to the Sinsacate bus terminal so that he could continue the trip by public transport, and the rest of the passengers traveled in the bus, including his daughter, who Upon arriving in Córdoba, she was treated by a doctor and, according to the interviewee, he found that she was recovering well from the operation.
That one of the passengers left by bus was a condition that the police made known to unblock the situation so that they could continue their trip.
After that, Heredia returned with his daughter in the car, and with other passengers, from Córdoba to Santiago del Estero. On Thursday he resumed his normal travel routine.
“I know that It wasn’t ideal – he finally accepts – but I had to do it and I think any parent in those conditions would do the same as me, or at least he would understand me“, Heredia concluded the dialogue with Clarín. Cadena 3 had told the media outlet from Cordoba that despite being aware of the consequences that his actions could have had, I would do it again if it is about the well-being of your daughter.
The contradictions between the driver and the police version of Córdoba
The version that was released on Wednesday about the case is far from the one that Heredia tried to reconstruct in dialogue with Clarion. According to regional media, the police authorities who intervened said that Heredia had been detained and then, they said, delayed. Since it could not be proven that the driver had committed a criminal offensewas able to continue his journey.
Regarding the girl, the Sinsacate police declared to local media that the SENAF had intervened to study the case and take action on it. consulted by this diary, The police reported having drawn up an administrative report that was submitted to that provincial body for the prevention of minors and adolescents. Heredia says he signed it.
However, the driver says that no one from the SENAF ever intervened, that no one from that organization showed up. For this reason, he discredited the fact that the girl had been temporarily protected by that organization.
