Free Jelber!

Jelber Botello Hernandez: "My name is Jelber and I am from El Salvador. At a very young age, the loss of my parents left me feeling alone and searching for a new sense of belonging. I migrated to the U.S. and on my journey, I was kidnapped by El Cartel de Golfo en Tamualipas, Mexico. Despite this, I made it to the U.S., where I worked hard and I was given the greatest blessings of life: my daughters. While I recognize I have made mistakes, I have also spent a lot of time reflecting on the person I was and am now. 

During my time at the NWDC, I have experienced firsthand attempts to undermine my worth as a human being. When I recently arrived, I was harassed by a unit-mate for a while. GEO saw everything yet failed to take action. After being reported, they failed to mention the correct name of the cellmate, and nothing was done to reprimand the situation until almost a month later when the person was taken away from my unit.

Surgeries and eye infections have left me in pain, facing neglect from GEO officers and nurses. Despite waking early to seek proper medication, I am dismissed, given expired medicine and eye drops, and met with conflicting excuses about unfulfilled prescriptions. It frustrates me that they play with my health. they don’t treat us like humans. Our health concerns are consistently ignored in here. No one, inside or outside a detention center, should endure such oppression."