
Longing for Home: Peru Native’s Tenth Year Behind Bars in Armenia
Maria Flores has only spoken to friends and family in her native Peru by video in the ten years she’s been jailed in Armenia’s Abovyan correctional facility on a drug charge she flatly rejects.
Ms. Flores’ New Year’s wish for her elderly parents and two children, now in their twenties, is to be patient and to live long enough to finally see her once released.
She has five years left on her sentence, which many find to have been overly harsh.
Ms. Flores pins her hopes on being extradited back to Peru. This would cost $10,000, an amount the family can’t pay.
"Since 2019, I have been fighting for extradition, because Armenia and my country do not have an agreement. It’s a problem. We don’t have the money. That is why I stayed," Ms. Flores tells Hetq, holding back the tears.
She speaks Armenian and is also learning to write. She says the language is difficult, but she had no other choice. She had to learn. “When I first arrived, it was very difficult. I only spoke Spanish. I didn’t know Armenian or English. I communicated by gesturing” says Ms. Flores.
She tells Hetq about her daily life in the penitentiary and how she tries to break the daily tedium by attending drawing, embroidery and beadwork classes.
While she’s come to terms with her life behind bars, but her longing for home is killing her.
“I would like to stay in Armenia later, but I can’t, I have a lot of longing inside me, I miss my family a lot,” Ms. Flores says.
She wishes that people would be kinder and hopes for peace in Armenia.
When asked what her parents wished for her, she answers: “They say we pray every day, so that when the hearts of people in Armenia soften, they will open the door and let you out sooner.”
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