October 30, 2003 - Dayton Daily News: Truth About Statements in Carlos Amador's Story By Carlos's Mother and Father
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October 30, 2003 - Dayton Daily News: Truth About Statements in Carlos Amador's Story By Carlos's Mother and Father
Truth About Statements in Carlos Amador's Story By Carlos's Mother and Father
Truth About Statements in Carlos Amador's Story By Carlos's Mother and Father
By Carlos's Mother and Father By Truth About Statements in Carlos Amador's Story
Statement: “Peace Corps' official Web site stated that the cause of 27-year-old Carlos Amador's death in El Salvador on March 4, 2001, is "still undetermined".
Truth: This statement in the Web site is the truth, except Carlos passed away on March 2, 2001`. There are serious doubts on the procedures performed on his body with 5 days decay and severe dehydration. Forensic experts are currently looking for the true cause of death. As such the database information in this series concluding he died from a valium overdose, is not correct.
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Statement: An April 25, 2001, official autopsy report obtained in El Salvador by the Daily News said that Amador had taken "large doses" of valium, which caused his death.
Truth: Being official does not make it correct. We have evidence that there were "serious doubts about the autopsy report, both because of the state of decomposition and because so many "unusual" circumstances surrounded the conduct of the analysis (broken equipment, delays, ambiguous statements, etc.)".
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Statement: Judith Hidalgo, said during an interview in San Salvador that she had seen him take the drug.
Truth: The drug was valium, prescribed to Carlos by a local practitioner, as he was very anxious about the terrible earthquakes of early 2001 in El Salvador. He had told us of the impression he had when he visited his training quarters at San Vicente and saw them devastated and learning people around had been killed.
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Statement: (Carlos) planted trees as a forestry volunteer.
Truth: The statement is true, but it is grossly incomplete, as it represents 10 to 20 % of all of Carlos’s projects, many of which were self-initiated and took place during his free time. As his PC supervisor, Dr. Rolando Barillas, wrote to us – “Carlos’s greatest crop was in the hearts of the Salvadorian people” .
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Statement: Two volunteers said they and other volunteers were aware Amador was abusing drugs, and the Peace Corps country director said volunteers came to him after Amador's death upset that they didn't intervene earlier.
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Truth: The only drug Carlos was using was (prescribed) valium. His forensic lab report found no trace of any other drugs. Toxic levels of excess valium intake are being evaluated by experts. We believe the levels of valium found in the procedures are way under the critical levels that can cause death.
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Statement: “Yes, I equivocated in what I told volunteers because we weren't sure that that was the cause," Wise said during an interview in his San Salvador office”.
Truth: The cause of death is not yet conclusively known, as explained before. Mike Wise is aware and collaborating with, all of our efforts to clarify the case.
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Statement: Amador's father, Carlos M. Amador Sr., questioned the findings by authorities in El Salvador that his son died of a drug overdose, and he said he was working to have the official record changed.
Truth: The original autopsy report in El Salvador had the cause of death as “undetermined”. 23 months after Carlos’s death, we were given a second autopsy report (dated April, 2001) listing the cause of death as “valium intoxication”. With the expert forensic work being conducted we are trying to have the official record tell the truth. The truth about what caused our son’s death is still undetermined.
In our wildest dreams we could not imagine that such bad intentioned people exist. Just for a piece of bread, that will feed them for such a short period of time. No news is good if it has blood in it, because the cause does not justify the means when the dignity of a human being is being questioned and he is not here with us to defend himself. In our belief system, this is very cowardly.
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We cannot remain silent to the bad actions and bad intentions of some few, allowing them to stain names and dignities in order to achieve some goal. Justice cannot be achieved by being unjust.
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We fear terrorism. After September 11, life for many is not the same. We look for terrorists in far away lands. But they live right here in this nation we are so proud of. They sow terror disguised as justice and truth. But what do we do with this internal terrorism, which spreads terror and pain through words in stories that don’t add any value? Stories about people who can’t defend themselves? Stories aimed not at a common good but at recognition and false glories based on other’s pain. If what you do or what you say brings about pain, then it can’t be good. This is when the means become perverse. If a prize is awarded based on the pain of others, then that prize has blood all over it, because such a massacre of the spirit can only be the act of a coward.
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The net effect of this series of articles has not been a challenging of the system, but the killing of dreams, hopes and faith in humanity. The assassination of privacy and the respect we owe to each other.
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This is a silent violence with the excuse of doing justice – for many times evil is disguised as good. These reports are not produced in equality of conditions; they therefore represent a great injustice and an abuse of power.
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How can we be capable of so much hatred and so much devastation? What hunger for power drives us to such inhuman and miserable behavior? Are we not ashamed to have people within our society capable of such acts? What measures are we going to take to do away with this type of terrorism? Are we willing to continue being punished by the Dayton Daily News, specially Mr. Carollo and his crew, by not wanting to publish facts as they happened? .
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The consequences of requesting justice and asking that our son Carlos Amador’s case not be published, as it is still under forensic investigation, were surprisingly devastating. Instead of helping us, they whipped us by using words with a different, evidently pejorative connotation, thereby giving readers a message different from the complete truth.
To the parents of these volunteers who, like Carlos, didn’t return because they died in far away lands giving their very best, don’t let hate dwell in your hearts. Let us not blame anyone either, as no good will come out of those feelings. Let us change the negative pain of our children’s death in positive stimulus for the benefit of others and ourselves. With all the deficiencies that the Peace Corps may have – and we agree that big changes are needed – we cannot allow an outsider like Mr. Carollo to make this his personal mission because, as most of the readers replies have pointed out, his purpose is not justice for the death of our loved ones – as he has clearly demonstrated he does not care for them. His purpose is probably to earn a prize, using our pain as a means of tearing down the Peace Corps. It’s probable that my son could be alive if they had done right everything that had to be done. Maybe some other volunteers would also be alive today. We don’t have a doubt. But the question we ask is: Were the PC’s intention bad? What do we gain by feeling animosity? Would our sons and daughters have wanted us to feel that way?
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If we are really hurting, why don’t we write our own stories? We are sure there will be many forums wanting to listen. Allowing a stranger to fight our battles is very irresponsible of our part. The way Mr. Carollo did his investigation and the way he wrote it he never offered the complete story, but only those parts that feed his incredibly mean objectives. First hand we know Mr. Carollo even contracted locals with very questionable credentials and largely immoral and even cruel techniques to further his incoherent cause..
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We cannot change what happened to many PCVs, but we believe the Peace Corps has learned their lesson. What we can do is force a change of how journalism is conducted, by making sure the media hires people with high ethics, elevated morals, people with a real sense of respect for others. Our sight should be in Mr. Carollo, and our question should be: What are we going to do with all the suffering that Mr. Carollo has brought into our hearts?.
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This series of reports has been like a funeral of values. But those values have to prevail in order to have a society where we can live in harmony, and where respect for the fellow man is the norm. That will allow us to live, not just stay alive. So much injustice and so many lies (or half truths – which is the same) is a defeat for humanity and the peace we all have a right to attain.
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Let us not stain the memories of our sons and daughters by allowing Mr. Carollo and his paper to write whatever he pleases, with no consideration to respect or feelings of the families of these great human beings who consciously and voluntarily exposed themselves to serve in countries which they knew could present difficult if not dangerous situations. But they did so for the mere purpose of making a better world. And the dozens of letters and emails received from those to whom Carlos gave dignity in his 21 months of volunteer service, convince us that our kids achieved their dream.
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Story Source: Dayton Daily News
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Safety and Security of Volunteers; Investigative Journalism
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