Pedro Romero is a waiter in Terrassa (Barcelona) who was imprisoned in probably the most harmful prisons on the planet, La Modelo de Bogotá (Colombia), a way more harmful heart than the outdated Modelo de Barcelona, transformed into an exhibition area. Romero was arrested on the airport when he was attempting to camouflage seven kilos of cocaine and sentenced to 41 months in jail. He has instructed his story in a e-book, ‘From Hell’, and now he’s additionally doing so in a documentary that can premiere this Tuesday, February 14, on the Cinema Catalunya in his city.
Pedro desires his message to succeed in people who find themselves contemplating getting into drug trafficking as he did: “I made a decision to inform my story to make them give it some thought,” Romero explains. His conclusion is lapidary: “Fast cash doesn’t exist and medicines solely have two exits, the cemetery or the worst prisons on the planet. And not everybody will get out of there alive,” he explains.
The documentary can be a denunciation of the violation of human rights that organizations resembling Amnesty International have already condemned. “Everyone ought to get out of there. The situations are subhuman,” says Romero.
“When I spotted it, I used to be dealing kilos of cocaine”
It was the yr 2009 and the brick disaster additionally hit the restaurant that Pedro had in Terrassa: “My mom had endorsed me for the enterprise and she or he didn’t need to see how they threw her out of her home,” she remembers. He admits that “desperation” took over him and he contacted an acquaintance linked to drug trafficking: “He opened the door for me and after I realized it, I used to be already dealing kilos of cocaine,” he explains.
He had deliberate one final grasp transfer: “Buy seven kilos of cocaine in Colombia, deliver it to Spain to promote it and repay all my money owed,” he explains, however he was stunned with the stash on the El Dorado airport in Bogotá. Remember the date nicely. “I entered La Modelo on August 15, 2010 and was launched on January 7, 2014,” he provides.
“You lose your loved ones. It’s very arduous to be alone for therefore lengthy, with none type of love. I had two kids right here and I requested that nobody come to go to me, that they make investments the cash in serving to them,” he says. “The solely visits I acquired have been from the Embassy they usually gave us little assist. What the prisoners want is authorized recommendation and medication for many who are sick, however they by no means got here,” he explains.
“My dream was to exit and hug my kids once more”
The sentence plunged him into melancholy: “I went three months with out consuming, I walked and fainted as a result of I had no power however little by little I recovered. My dream was to exit and hug my kids once more,” he remembers.
The three and a half years he spent behind bars grew to become a wrestle to outlive: “That jail makes plenty of impression. You see how individuals die alone and you realize that at any second you will be one in all them, on the whim of one other prisoner. It’s value loads little to kill somebody”, he recounts the criminality of the jail during which, based on Romero, the guards have been additionally concerned.
“When the guards wished cash, they took all of the prisoners bare to the patio and requested us to gather the quantity of pesos they demanded. We needed to handle no matter it took to present it to them,” he laments and continues: “Colombia’s jail management is at palms of a personal firm that does what they need with the prisoners and the complaints stay on paper”, he provides and tells of the horror of the incarcerated: “At night time they didn’t allow us to sleep, they exhausted us with little meals, chilly, there may be maddening moments,” he says. “If somebody desires to kill somebody, they pay the guards and look the opposite means. They give them free rein,” he says.
“I defended myself how I can and by chance I did not die like different teammates”
Romero defends that no prisoner deserves this remedy: “I dedicated some crimes of which I’m not proud and I paid for them. But I used to be not born a prison nor will I die a prison, I’d not need anybody to undergo there,” he explains. It was his love for his household that moved him to proceed: “You must battle with stones and knives to outlive. I defended myself as finest I might and by chance I did not die like different colleagues or must commit any homicide,” he remembers.
January 8, 2014 was “probably the most dreamed days” of Pedro’s life. A number of hours after touchdown in El Prat in Barcelona, he was capable of hug his kids once more. He went again to work within the resort enterprise, the place he continues to at the present time: “Now I work as a supervisor in a restaurant in a polygon. I dwell in peace, surrounded by good individuals and having the ability to sleep peacefully is a supply of satisfaction.”
Romero can be in touch with manufacturing firms to have the ability to shoot a movie about his expertise. “We’ll see what occurs. I belief they have a look at the mission with good eyes,” he explains hopefully.