Earlier today we mentioned the latest developments in the case of slain immigrant Marcelo Lucero. In nearby New Jersey, another Latino immigrant suffered a brutal and ugly beating.Wilter Sánchez is recuperating at a New Jersey hospital after he was assaulted last week. Sánchez fled his native Colombia after receiving death threats yet never imagined that he would be targeted in the U.S. “God didn’t allow me to die” he said hours after undergoing intensive facial reconstruction surgery.
The assault on Sánchez has been condemned by the Colombian Consul in New York as well as the Latin American Consulate Alliance. Rubén Beltrán- Mexican consul in New York and Alliance coordinator- expressed his “worry and energetic rejection” of Sánchez’ beating and called on local authorities to investigate and “apply justice” to those responsible.
The crime itself is very tragic in that a Latino immigrant was targeted, and possibly more so in that the assaulters were people of color:
Authorities have detained five African-Americans, three of them minors, and have accused them of robbery and…added charges of assault…Image- Yahoo! Noticias
(Sánchez’ cousin Fernando) Quinchia claimed that after Sánchez was beat up the men returned to their car and tried to run him over.
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, El Diario/La Prensa, New American Media, lostiempos.com, El Espectador
