The mother of Romina Celeste, the young Paraguayan woman who was killed by her husband in Lanzarote four years ago, has stated that since this Friday she is "a little more at peace" after certifying that her daughter did not commit suicide, as the accused claimed until now, and has lamented that the gender violence protocol was not activated with her: "My daughter would still be alive."
This is what Míriam Rodríguez declared in a press conference just two hours after the end of the first day of the trial being held before the Las Palmas Court, in which her son-in-law, Raúl Díaz Chacón, has confessed for the first time that he killed Romina.
In her opinion, if two days before that New Year's Eve morning of 2019 in which her husband ended her life, the health center where Romina went with injuries and confirmed that she was a victim of abuse had activated the gender violence protocol, the outcome would have been different.
"My daughter would be with me," she pointed out, just as if her "supposed friend" and companion had reported what happened with her husband Raúl or "if she had told me."
She said she feels "a little better," although "very sad," because she never believed that her daughter had committed suicide, while also stating that Romina "is missing and hurts" since that December 31, 2018, when she did not return her call.
"It was New Year's Eve and I had arranged to call to celebrate the new year with her and her son via telephone, as I had done in previous years, and the fact that she didn't call surprised me a lot," said Miriam Rodríguez, who on Monday will be able to enter the room where the trial against her son-in-law will continue, with several of the experts and witnesses summoned.
For Rodríguez, this confession of the murderer is due to the fact that "his heart and conscience weigh on him," and she wants to think so because "my faith is great."
"I don't think it's a strategy, I have so much faith that I believe his conscience wouldn't let him sleep and because the evidence is considerable and everything is against him. I have confidence that justice will be done," she added.
Although she knows that her daughter "will never return her call," she has asked to take to Paraguay "that small piece of lung that was found because it is the only way for Romina to return to her family," said the mother, who pointed out that "it is very hard" to only have photographs.
In this sense, she has opined that the accused buried some of the parts of Romina Celeste's body that he did not throw into the sea and has asked him to "have a heart and say where he buried them."
In addition, she has thanked her lawyer, Emilia Zaballos, for her "tenacity" in the case and for having fulfilled her "promise" to get to the truth" and also to the media, which in her opinion have been an element of pressure "so that today we have finally been able to celebrate the trial" and for having "kept my daughter alive" in these 4 years and 5 months of proceedings.
For her part, Zaballos has pointed out that since the entry of the new defense lawyer, there has been collaboration and they have expressed the will of the accused to confess the facts.
She has assured that they have not renounced "anything" in relation to the penalties, and have only accepted the technical mitigating factors such as reparation of the damage, although they do not accept the confession because "it has been complete."
"We are talking about very serious crimes and we were not going to give in," explained the lawyer.
In her opinion, Raúl D.C.'s confession is due to the fact that "there was a lot of evidence that proves all the crimes," and she has once again asked for the improvement of the system, which is "an outstanding task."
