Relatives still do not know why they killed PN Colonel "Mateo"

“They killed Mateo, oh, God, they killed Mateo”, was the cry heard from inside the humble house of the colonel of the National Police, Elpidio Guzmán Pérez.

Three days have passed since he was found shot to death at a fuel station at kilometer 20 of the Duarte highway, near the entrance to the municipal district of La Guáyiga, and the pain caused by this crime is still latent.

The officer's family is still trying to decipher the circumstances in which this crime took place, a blow that ended the life of a man who, at 62, had 30 of them in the public order body.

“He got up around two in the morning that day (last Tuesday), and the eldest daughter listens when he picks up a broomstick and, when she asks him where he is going, he only answers that he goes for a walk; she finds it strange and tells him that it is still too early to go for a walk; he became aggressive and she let him go, without falling behind him”, narrates Blanca Iris, now Mateo's widow, as the neighborhood knew her.

The colonel left his house wearing exercise clothes, a mismatched pair of shoes (of different pairs), and without his service weapon.

Mateo was on police leave, according to Iris's sister-in-law, who added that the colonel left his home "looking crazy," so he was not "a palpable victim for a robbery."

According to Blanca Iris, Mateo walked every day, but around six in the morning and close to his house in the “La Esperanza” sector of Los Alcarrizos, so the situation surprised his relatives even more.

“He normally left at 6:30 in the morning and walked, and at 7:30 he was already here, that's why when I saw that time had passed and he hadn't arrived, I told the daughter that I would I went out to look and half an hour hadn't gone by when they got to identifying the body,” said Bianca, who through tears could barely order the facts and was helped by her sister to help her tell the story.

The colonel who was not a colonel

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With 30 years residing in the "La Esperanza" sector, there were many neighbors who did not have much time to find out that he held a "high rank" within the ranks of the National Police.

“He was like that, he almost never wore the uniform, nor with the weapon; He didn't even look like a colonel, he didn't have problems with anyone or mess with anyone, he was a very good person, always empathetic and always showed us a smile and not to mention how good he was with his children”, says Bianca.

This testimony was shared by the majority of the residents consulted by the LISTÍN DIARIO, who affirmed that "what he was doing was sitting outside his house and singing along with everyone."

No support from the police

While the tears went from pain to impotence, Bianca exclaimed that she has felt abandoned by the National Police, since they have not had any type of support from the institution to which Mateo dedicated half of his existence.

“Beyond that first day, when they came for us to identify him and part of the wake, no one has ever come, the only policemen who have come have been the friends of the daughter, who is also a policeman; but the authorities here have not shown up to offer their condolences, some of the pensioners who helped us went for the burial and he was still active; Not even a patrol went to the cemetery, not even a flag appeared, you can believe that, not even that it was a private that they had killed”, continued Mateo's life partner.

Bianca says that she feels that the institution has “left her alone” despite the fact that her partner did all his actions “for the right”.

“Look where we live, most of the Police colonels live in doggies, with good vehicles and hardly even work anymore because they are rich, but he doesn't because he always did things the way they should be done, I bet you that If he had been a criminal, this would have been full of policemen”, said Bianca, who lived with Mateo and several of his 8 children in a house with a zinc roof, with several rooms.

The colonel's wife says that she “doesn't need a plate of food or financial help, because they aren't starving but rather the support of the institution to which her husband dedicated his life.