On April 11, 2010, Enma Corte, a woman from Sigsag village on the south of Azuay province, decided to migrate to the United States, along with her 9 year old son, and they did it ilegally through a smuggler. However, on May 4th, 2010, the woman was separated from her son by the smugglers and was deported to Ecuador afterwards.
Then, when she tried to communicate with the smuggler, who was supposedly named Oscar Andrade, he told her that her son was already with his dad, but after confirming that was false, the smuggler threatened her by asking her $15,000 for rescue, and, if this didn’t happen, they’d kill her son to sell his organs and get the money.
When the woman found out about the recent massacre of Latin American immigrants in México, she decided to file the claim in Ecuador. Following the agents’ instructions, she called the smugglers and talked to them for 7 minutes, in which she asked to speak with her son to make sure he was alive. This call allowed authorities to track the location of the kidnappers, who had the boy captured in an apartment in Mesa. The boy was rescued this past Friday at 18h00 on Phoenix, Arizona.
The Migration Authorities from the US immediately called the boy’s mother telling him that her son had been rescued. The kidnappers, who asked the woman to deposit the money in a bank account in Guatemala, were arrested with charges of human traffic.
“My son called me yesterday, thank God I listened to his voice, I know he’s in good hands now, and I know he’s fine” the mother said in the press release. On Tuesday, the Ecuadorian Government announced to the Press that the boy had been rescued and would be soon besides his mother.
“It is absolutely positive, a matter of joy, that this boy is finally going to be with his family, and to put an end to this painful story his mother and his family have gone through” said Lorena Escudero, Minister of Migrants of Ecuador.
