{"code":"24365","sect":"El Salvador","sect_slug":"el-salvador","hits":"3207","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/en\/202004\/el_salvador\/24365","link_edit":"","name":"Life and Death in a Government Quarantine Facility in El Salvador","slug":"life-and-death-in-a-government-quarantine-facility-in-el-salvador","info":"Carlos Henr\u00edquez Cortez, a 67-year-old engineer, returned to El Salvador on March 12 after a two-day trip to Guatemala. Five weeks later, he became the eighth person to die from Covid-19 in El Salvador. In the interlude, the quarantine authorities served him a lethal dose of chaos, negligence, and misinformation. His son shares the story of those five weeks.","mtag":"Transparency","noun":{"html":"\u003Cspan class='tint-text--dark' data_href='\/user\/profile\/cdada'\u003E Carlos Dada\u003C\/span\u003E","data":{"carlos-dada":{"sort":"cdada","slug":"carlos-dada","path":"carlos_dada","name":"Carlos Dada","edge":"0","init":"0"}}},"view":"3207","pict":{"cms-image-000033554-jpg":{"feat":"1","sort":"33554","name":"cms-image-000033554.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000033554.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000033554.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000033554-jpg","text":"<p>Father and son, both named Carlos. They are U.S. residents. Photo courtesy of the family.<\/p>","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EFather and son, both named Carlos. They are U.S. residents. Photo courtesy of the family.\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000033553-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"33553","name":"cms-image-000033553.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000033553.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000033553.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000033553-jpg","text":"<p>Upon arrival to Villa Ol\u00edmpica, Carlos Henr\u00edquez Cortez, a 67-year-old engineer, revealed the confinement conditions to his family. They shared this photo with El Faro.\u00a0<\/p>","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EUpon arrival to Villa Ol\u00edmpica, Carlos Henr\u00edquez Cortez, a 67-year-old engineer, revealed the confinement conditions to his family. They shared this photo with El Faro.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000033552-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"33552","name":"cms-image-000033552.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000033552.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000033552.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000033552-jpg","text":"<p>At the designated space for medical consultations in Villa Ol\u00edmpica, there was no respect for the social distancing that the government was touting.<\/p>","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EAt the designated space for medical consultations in Villa Ol\u00edmpica, there was no respect for the social distancing that the government was touting.\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000033551-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"33551","name":"cms-image-000033551.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000033551.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000033551.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000033551-jpg","text":"<p>Signs read: \u201cOut of order;\u201d and \u201cShit Only.\u201d The restroom in Villa Ol\u00edmpica, a site lacking the appropriate amenities to shelter people. This facility continues to house detained Salvadorans accused of violating domestic quarantine. Image courtesy of the family.<\/p>","capt":"\u003Cp\u003ESigns read: \u201cOut of order;\u201d and \u201cShit Only.\u201d The restroom in Villa Ol\u00edmpica, a site lacking the appropriate amenities to shelter people. This facility continues to house detained Salvadorans accused of violating domestic quarantine. Image courtesy of the family.\u003C\/p\u003E"}},"pict_main__sort":33554,"date":{"live":"2020\/05\/01"},"data_post_dateLive_YY":"2020","data_post_dateLive_MM":"05","data_post_dateLive_DD":"01","text":"\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn the evening of April 22, Minister of Health Francisco Alab\u00ed took to Twitter to announce a patient\u2019s death from Covid-19. \u201cThe eighth person to pass away in our country is a 62-year-old patient from the United States, who received the undivided medical attention and effort of our frontline responders. We grieve with his family.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EPresident Nayib Bukele then chimed in with his own tweet: \u201cWe kept an eye on his evolving condition since he entered intensive care. He arrived in bad condition, but we were all excited to see him improve for a few days.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EFour hours later, a certain Carlos Henr\u00edquez responded to Alab\u00ed: \u201cIf you are grieving with his family, why don\u2019t you reach out to get correct information. My dad didn\u2019t come from the United States, is not 62, did not receive all the medical care he needed, and was infected in the Villa Deportiva [quarantine facility], where he shouldn\u2019t even have been allowed due to his age.\u201d Then, he turned to Bukele: \u201cNOBODY looked out for him. Now my dad is gone.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn Alab\u00ed\u2019s apology the next day, he wrote off the blunder as an administrative error. Bukele kept quiet. We now know more about the victim: his name was Carlos Henr\u00edquez Cortez, he was 67, and was an engineer and owner of a steel manufacturing company who landed at the San Salvador airport after a two-day business trip to Guatemala.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EHis son\u2019s account confirms that neither Bukele, nor his ministers, nor any other healthcare worker saw to the man\u2019s wellbeing. Upon his return to El Salvador, the government forced him into a quarantine facility at Villa Ol\u00edmpica, a sporting complex on the outskirts of San Salvador in Mejicanos, where he then contracted the virus. The same day as his arrival, Alab\u00ed\u2014at the time, before his predecessor\u2019s precipitous and unexplained departure, he was vice minister\u2014declared that all people above the age of 60 would observe domestic quarantine.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EFive weeks after his return, Carlos Henr\u00edquez Cortez was unceremoniously buried.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EHis son, Carlos Henr\u00edquez, agreed to narrate his father\u2019s story since his return in first-person. His sister, Karen Henr\u00edquez, also contributed to this account.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=2000&ImageHeight=1333&ImageId=33554 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"Father and son, both named Carlos. They are U.S. residents. Photo courtesy of the family.\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E Father and son, both named Carlos. They are U.S. residents. Photo courtesy of the family. \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EMy father flew from San Salvador to Guatemala on March 11, the same day that Bukele imposed the quarantine. The next day, he cancelled his meetings and travelled to the embassy to ask if his age, 67, and his hypertension, exempted him from going to a quarantine facility upon return. The embassy gave him copies of the official policies, which stated that all people above 60 or with preexisting medical conditions would enter domestic quarantine. Information in hand, he traveled back to San Salvador on March 13.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe airport greeted him with chaos. They had assembled a big group of detainees. There was nobody in charge of giving information; there were only police officers making sure nobody left.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EDespite what [other officials] had told him, they refused to let him leave for domestic quarantine. They moved him to a quarantine facility in Villa Ol\u00edmpica, where he was exposed to people arriving from different places. There were people saying they came from Panama, but in reality they were coming from Europe via Panama. They grouped everyone together at a time when there was not a single case in Guatemala or El Salvador.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E[The Ministry of] Foreign Affairs gave special treatment to some, like Cardinal [Gregorio] Rosa Ch\u00e1vez, who was coming from Italy, and sent them to domestic quarantine. But they didn\u2019t give my dad the same chance.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWhen he arrived at Villa Ol\u00edmpica, he told us that they were all mixed together, warehoused. In those conditions, if one person had brought along the virus, they were all likely to get sick.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EA few days before, the government had taken a video of a quarantine facility that looked like a fancy hotel. But Villa Ol\u00edmpica was nothing like that.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=2000&ImageHeight=1333&ImageId=33553 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"Upon arrival to Villa Ol\u00edmpica, Carlos Henr\u00edquez Cortez, a 67-year-old engineer, revealed the confinement conditions to his family. They shared this photo with El Faro.\u00a0\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E Upon arrival to Villa Ol\u00edmpica, Carlos Henr\u00edquez Cortez, a 67-year-old engineer, revealed the confinement conditions to his family. They shared this photo with El Faro.\u00a0 \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EConditions were awful: broken showers, clogged toilets with no toilet paper; everyone stacked on top of one another, with no respect for social-distancing or protection. It was a form of torture. That affected the morale of my dad and everyone else there with him.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EHe sent us videos and photos of the conditions inside, and also sent them to the minister of tourism, because she was in charge of obtaining hotels for the quarantine. But despite his age and hypertension, they refused to release him.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EOn Wednesday the 18th, five days after returning from Guatemala, my dad developed a severe cough and temperature. He went for a check-up at the facility, where he had to wait in a long line, because many people were sick. When they saw him, they told him he had laryngitis and gave him some medicine to lower his temperature. The next day, on top of the cough and fever, he got diarrhea. Even with all those symptoms, they didn\u2019t give him the test [for Covid-19] or put him in isolation. He stayed there, with everyone else. By that time, I think everyone was getting sick like my dad.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EBy March 22, he was sicker. Even then, they didn\u2019t send him to a hospital. That same day, the minister of health sent him to the La Armon\u00eda Hotel in San Salvador. Their reasoning made no sense: they said they couldn\u2019t take him to a hospital because he was coming from Guatemala, yet Guatemala had no cases. But my dad was already showing all the symptoms and getting steadily worse.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EOn Monday, March 23, he felt so weak that he couldn\u2019t even open his eyes. They called a doctor, who examined him and said he had colitis, that he had come dehydrated from Villa Ol\u00edmpica. We managed to contact someone who reached out directly to the authorities at the ministry of health, and they sent him a pulmonologist. That was on Tuesday. The pulmonologist sent him straight to \u003Ca href=\"\/en\/202003\/el_salvador\/24132\/Preparing-for-Coranavirus-but-with-Hardly-a-Drop-of-Water.htm\"\u003ESalda\u00f1a Hospital\u003C\/a\u003E. By then, my dad had spent a week on thin ice.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=2000&ImageHeight=1333&ImageId=33552 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"At the designated space for medical consultations in Villa Ol\u00edmpica, there was no respect for the social distancing that the government was touting.\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E At the designated space for medical consultations in Villa Ol\u00edmpica, there was no respect for the social distancing that the government was touting. \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThey never gave us proper information. We found out about his transfer informally from a doctor at the hotel. I called Salda\u00f1a. I told them I was the son of Carlos Henr\u00edquez Cortez and they told me they had no patients registered under that name. I called back later and the hospital manager answered. He went room by room, and later confirmed to me that my dad was there.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWhen he got to Salda\u00f1a, they put him in a wing with other people who had tested positive. He still held out hope that he had avoided contracting the virus, because they hadn\u2019t even tested him. That same day, he sent us a message, saying: \u201cGet me out of here.\u201d He sent a picture of the hospital, of the sick peopel. He sent a message saying: \u201cThey\u2019re scaring me,\u201d because people next to him were very sick.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EHe soon started to lose oxygen. \u201cI\u2019m scared,\u201d he wrote to us. Another day, he wrote, \u201cSOS.\u201d Due to lack of oxygen, he was no longer coherent or answering our calls. They gave him oxygen and an inhaler. We thought the doctors weren\u2019t prepared to treat the virus because they reduced his oxygen and he almost died.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThere, someone from the medical staff asked him when he had returned sick from the United States. He managed to tell them that he hadn\u2019t come from the United States, but rather Guatemala, and that he was there only two days and had returned healthy. They then called my mom to ask her the same questions. They kept marking him down as having come from the United States.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=2000&ImageHeight=1333&ImageId=33551 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"Signs read: \u201cOut of order;\u201d and \u201cShit Only.\u201d The restroom in Villa Ol\u00edmpica, a site lacking the appropriate amenities to shelter people. This facility continues to house detained Salvadorans accused of violating domestic quarantine. Image courtesy of the family.\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E Signs read: \u201cOut of order;\u201d and \u201cShit Only.\u201d The restroom in Villa Ol\u00edmpica, a site lacking the appropriate amenities to shelter people. This facility continues to house detained Salvadorans accused of violating domestic quarantine. Image courtesy of the family. \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EOn Friday, March 27, they finally administered the test. Two days later, the results came back positive. By then, he couldn\u2019t even type messages. On April 1, he spoke with my mom and told her he felt a little better. He had eaten. He told her he hoped to recover. That same day, a nurse told my mom that they were moving patients in critical condition to the intensive care units at the Amatepec Hospital [in Soyapango], but that my father wasn\u2019t in critical condition.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EOn April 3, they moved him to Amatepec and took his phone. It was a very difficult moment for the whole family because we didn\u2019t have any contacts in that hospital to tell us how he was doing. They didn\u2019t call patients by name anymore, but by age.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAfter searching everywhere, we obtained a contact at Amatepec and managed to speak to his doctor. He only said that he was stable. Nothing more.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWe later learned that on April 7 they attached him to a breathing tube in the ICU and the next day his lung collapsed. A pneumothorax. The doctor told us to brace ourselves because he was in bad shape. On April 9, they punctured his lung.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAccording to a few of the nurses, there were seven people in the Amatepec ICU with the coronavirus. Of them, only my father survived. But he remained in poor condition, breathing through a tube. On April 10, in such a delicate state, they moved him to San Rafael. We don\u2019t know why.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWe searched for contacts in the hospitals, and they, at risk to their own jobs, helped us. The nurses and doctors we spoke to asked for absolute confidentiality because they had signed non-disclosure agreements with the government. They can\u2019t even share information with the families of the sick.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWe now suspect there was malpractice at Amatepec when they punctured his lung, but how would we prove it? It\u2019s impossible.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EOn April 10, by now in San Rafael, they tried to stabilize him. He arrived with his left lung collapsed, and they gave him medicine and steroids. On the 18th, they told us they had done X-rays and found something in his right lung. They saw lots of white blood cells\u2014a sign of an infection\u2014likely responding to bacteria that had entered the lung. He was also low on creatinine, a sign that his kidney was failing. They told us they would have put him on dialysis, but they had no machine to do it, which is unbelievable because we\u2019ve seen that in all of the hospitals treating coronavirus in the United States, they know that kidneys can fail and have machines nearby to run dialysis. In El Salvador there was no machine and they never ran dialysis.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EMy dad died on April 22. Alone.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe doctor tending to him in San Rafael sent me a text, only saying: \u201cYour father just passed away. I\u2019m really sorry.\u201d It bothered me that he didn\u2019t even call me to tell me personally. I called him, but I couldn\u2019t speak anymore. My girlfriend spoke with him. The doctor told her that his lungs had been improving, but that the other organs had not been monitored from the beginning, as they should have been.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ENext came the tweet from the minister [of health, Francisco Alab\u00ed], who lamented the passing of a 62-year-old man returning from the United States despite \u201cthe undivided medical attention and effort of our frontline responders.\u201d I called him out on the lie over Twitter and he had to walk back his statement and apologize for the mistake due to administrative errors. But the whole thing has been a disaster. Even the death certificate was wrong.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EI hope to God nobody else has to go through this.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EMy dad returned to El Salvador because the Salvadoran embassy told him that he would be able to return home. But he never arrived. My dad was always unshakeable, so for him to say he was scared, what he saw must have been terrifying.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWe never spoke out before now out of fear that they would retaliate against my dad. We, his children, are in the United States, but my mom is in El Salvador, alone. She is distraught. We buy food to send to her over the internet. She\u2019s filled with rage, just like us, because more could have been done to ensure this didn\u2019t happen to my dad.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThey let my mom attend his funeral on April 23 in the Gardens of Remembrance. They let her bring along one guest and watch from afar. Nothing more. But they did have room for government photographers. They even set up a drone to film the burial.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E*Translated by Roman Gressier\u003C\/p\u003E"}