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Aniete Dantas, 52, mother of sailor Rodrigo Dantas, 26 years old, who spent 14 months in Cape Verde, lived through all the stages of the process followed by her son and companions, Daniel Dantas and Daniel Guerra
The three Brazilians, in addition to French captain Olivier Thomas, were arrested in 2017 for international drug trafficking, after the Cape Verdean police discovered more than a ton of cocaine in the hull of the boat
They say l & # 39; innocence. They were hired to perform the delivery service – the delivery of a ship to another country – from a sailing yacht owned by the British George Edward Saul.
Brazilians and French were acquitted as part of the investigation of the Brazilian Federal Police – in July of last year, Until then, President Michel Temer had asked the President of Cape Town -Vert to pay more attention to the process.
However, Cape Verdean justice did not understand this and sentenced them to ten years in prison.
The decision acknowledged that there had been breach of the defendants' warranty during the proceedings and that a new trial had been ordered.
On the fifth day (7), the three were released and will now wait for the next Cape Verdean justice procedure.
In his testimony to Folha Aniete recounts the ordeal to which the family is confronted and speaks of the hope that the child will soon return to Brazil.
This was Rodrigo's first international trip on a sailboat. In a way, it was the beginning of the realization of a dream that began to emerge at the age of 12 and enrolled in the sailing school of Salvador.
In our family, there are no sailors, but we have always had a lot of ties with the sea I am a teacher of physical education and taught swimming lessons. And for those living here, near Toussaint Bay, this relationship is inevitable. For Rodrigo, the sea has always been a pbadion since his childhood
His main objective with the trip was to accumulate nautical miles to obtain the authorization of the captain of the navy
. He became professionalized and wanted to live that way. . So for him, this trip was surrounded by a very big wait.
But what must have been a great adventure became a misfortune. Rodrigo arrived in Cape Verde about 20 days after leaving Natal, where the boat left Brazil.
He called me as soon as he arrived in Cape Verde, everything was fine. He called the second day but did not call the third. It was not his custom. Whenever he was on the ground, he called us every day.
I called the marina where they had come from and they told me that Rodrigo and his colleagues had been taken to the judicial police cell. And that they were trapped.
It was as if my floor was opening. I did not know how to handle that. Imagine what it is to find a lawyer in Cape Verde, a country I had not even heard of before my son went there.
The following months were an odyssey. My husband and I, João Dantas, thought that the case would be settled in a few weeks or months. But we stayed more than a year in Cape Verde.
For the first four months, Rodrigo was out of jail. Since they were not on the boat at the time of the offense, he and Daniel Dantas were released.
Upon his return to prison, my husband and I would visit our son twice a week – Thursdays and Saturdays – and we could stay with him for an hour and forty minutes.
Before we return, we and the food we had was being pbaded through a rigorous magazine. It was a little aggressive, right? An embarrbading affair. But you do not even think about it because you just want to see and kiss your child
But deep inside you, it sounds like a nightmare where you never wake up.
You know that your son is innocent, but he must endure it by condemning him to a prison sentence, living in an unhealthy place, without hygiene. I do not even talk about food, because in a country where so many families have nothing to eat, talking about the quality of the food even loses its meaning.
Between 2017 and 2018, we live in five different properties. In one of the houses, we were invited to leave after the owner discovered that we were the parents of one of the Brazilian sailors.
We face prejudices even in the street. I was called the trafficker's mother. This is the kind of thing that slams a lot, you see your son scratched for something that he did not do.
We and parents Daniel Guerra and Daniel Dantas have become a united family around a single goal, prove their innocence. We cry a lot together
It's very difficult when you leave the tour [da cadeia] sit on the sidewalk and ask yourself why you're going through all this. Today, we do not ask why, but for what, we will learn from this situation.
When there was a trial, we thought that everything was going to be solved, that they were going to be acquitted. It was a crew of young people without experience, without weapons or money.
They had a contract to bring a boat that was not theirs on the other side of the ocean. Nobody understands why the judicial police did not charge the owner of the boat. Neither because the court did not consider the Brazilian witnesses and the investigation conducted by the Brazilian Federal Police who cleared them.
This Thursday, we did not even expect him to be released. My husband came to visit him – I came back to Brazil two months ago – and I knew he was coming out of jail.
It was a big surprise, a gift for us. What I want most now is that he comes home.
I also hope that my son will soon be able to lift the candles and return to the sea. He owes this experience, as it is for a crossing of the ocean that it is n & # 39; 39, not even finished.
My wish is that Rodrigo come back with more experience and with more strength to continue to realize his dreams.
But I know I'll look back and see that this whole story was a hole in my son's life.
CAS CHRONOLOGY
Jul 17 Hired by an international company, the Brazilian Rodrigo Dantas, Daniel Dantas and Daniel Guerra trio leave Salvador at the wheel of the Rich Harvest sailing boat bound for Portugal
] of August 17 A boat calls at Cape Verde; after an anonymous report to the local police, officers searched the ship and found more than a ton of cocaine, which led to the arrest of the three Brazilians and the captain, the French Olivier Thomas [19659002] of March 18th . Cape Verdean justice condemns trio to ten years in prison for international drug trafficking
July 18 President Michel Temer then asks his Cape Verdean counterpart, Jorge Carlos Fonseca, to reconsider The 19 January The Cape Verdean justice cancels the previous conviction for violation of the defendants defense and decides on a new trial [19659002] 7.fev.19 After 18 months in prison, the three Brazilians and the French are released from prison by court order; we still do not know if they will be able to return to Brazil
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