The key day was this Thursday. Yolanda Rodríguez, from Lanzarote, had to enter the Tahíche prison, after being sentenced to four years in prison for a robbery with force in some apartments in Costa Teguise in 2006. The problem is that the Lanzarote penitentiary is not equipped to accommodate children under three years of age, and Yolanda has two children, 21 and 9 months old. The oldest, Joel, 9 years old, was going to stay with some uncles, because at his age he can no longer enter the prison. "I will serve the sentence, but without my children I will die," she says at the doors of the Arrecife Courts, while assuring that only two days ago she found out that she could not serve the sentence with her young children.
Her lawyer, Cristina Duque, has managed this Thursday to delay the entry into prison and it will take place on Tuesday, August 31. In addition, she is awaiting a suspension appeal. Duque will try to speak with the director of the penitentiary so that the two youngest children, Gloria and Airán, can be with their mother during the sentence. Because this Thursday, the only solution for Yolanda was to transfer her to a penitentiary in Seville. "I don't want to leave here, I have my family here," she says desperately.
Yolanda's nightmare began in 2006. According to her version, she accompanied an uncle of hers to some apartments in Costa Teguise. "I didn't know what we were going to do there," defends Yolanda, who says that suddenly she heard screams, entered and realized what was happening. "I realized that he was robbing and I just yelled at him, let's go, let's go", she says. She was convicted as the author of a robbery with force and her uncle was not judged. "He has entered and left prison many times. He has many cases," she emphasizes. She had no criminal record.
"They didn't prove that I was disguised, I didn't take anything and I wasn't wielding the knife," says this woman, who lives her last days of freedom "with anguish" for her children. "I don't take away the blame that at that time I was a little lost, I don't take away the blame, but I didn't touch anyone or steal anything," she says. "I never thought my uncle would do that madness," she says.
Four years without her children
But her problem is not spending four years in prison, it is knowing what will happen to her children. "I'll die without them. My reason for living, my reason for standing are my children. I am a normal mother," says Yolanda, who currently lives in a shelter for being a victim of gender violence. "I have a technical team behind me that has issued reports in my favor," says this woman crying, who assures that the psychologists at the center "know perfectly well what kind of person I am."
"I'm not harming society, there are many criminals on the street. I haven't hurt anyone, why is this happening to me?" she asks, while asking the judge to let her wait for the pardon she has requested from the Ministry of Justice on the street and not in prison.
Yolanda Rodríguez affirms that she is not to blame for the fact that the Lanzarote penitentiary is not equipped for young children. She assures that "she already has enough" with having to separate from her eldest son and, in turn, separate him from his siblings. For this reason, she asks the judge for "humanity" so that she can wait for the pardon on the street and, if not, at least let her enter prison with her children.
"They are destroying my life bit by bit. How am I going to raise my head if now when I have raised it and I am well, everything comes upon me? I didn't do anything," she implores. On Tuesday she will have to enter Tahíche and she still does not know if she will be able to do it with her children, Gloria and Airán.
