📸 Photo

HIDDEN ENEMIES

The other prisoners urged me to keep quiet so that the police wouldn't know who had been fighting.

After the fight, I went back to my room to calm down. I couldn't get any rest because people kept knocking on my door, wanting to hear what had happened. It seemed that everyone throughout the whole prison was talking about the fight, and I was worried the guards would hear that I was involved. At the time, they were really cracking down and you could be sent to Chonchocoro on the slightest pretext. What use would I be to Abregon if I was stuck there in maximum security with him?

Then, a strange thing happened: the Velascos sent word via one of the taxistas that they wanted peace. They had the money ready and I should come and get it from their room. I smelled a trap immediately. For a start, how did they have money now if they hadn't had any before? And if they did have money, why had they suddenly decided to pay it to me, rather than keep it for themselves? No one had won the fight, so it wasn't like they were afraid of me.

At the same time, I couldn't ignore the message, because they might blame me later for not going when they'd said they had the money. I sent a guy we called El General, who worked for me in my shop, with a note authorising the Velascos to pay him. El General came back empty-handed, saying that the Velascos didn't want any possibility of confusion – they would only give the money to me directly. This convinced me that it was a trap. However, I couldn't let them think that I was afraid. If I didn't go then, that would mean they had won and there would never be any chance of getting the money for Abregon. So, I had to go. But there was no way I was going on my own.

I asked Julián, my section delegate, to come with me. No one answered when we knocked on the Velascos' door the first time. We knocked again and this time a voice from inside told us to wait a moment. Julián suggested that we stand back from the door, just in case. As we waited against the railing a few doors down, I looked around and noticed that all the inmates were leaving. Within half a minute, the balcony was completely empty and everything had gone dead quiet. I could almost see what was about to happen next before it actually did.

Suddenly, there was a rush of footsteps as police sprinted up the