IN CAMERON COUNTY, USA, HELL IS FOR CHILDREN

By Juan Montoya
It seems like one can't hardly read the newspapers of watch the news on television without learning about yet another child dying an early death even though their parents were close at hand.
Whether it's the outrageous verdict in the Casey Anthony case where the child, Caylee, 2, was missing for more than a month before police were alerted, or the local story of little Francisco Avila, who died in a hot van after his mother found him missing from the family's living room, and 2-year-old Leonardo Silva of Brownsville, who reportedly died after he drank gasoline through a tube from the open gas tank of a lawn mower.
To be sure, having a son or daughter dying has to be the most heartbreaking thing that a parent could endure. Yet, these three cases present a discouraging picture of the fate awaiting children when parents either deliberately neglect them or accidentally place thm in situations where they can injure themselves, sometimes fatally.
In the case of Silva, who died after swallowing gasoline, the recriminations that followed spilled out into his funeral service, with relatives blaming each other for the failure to protect him from harm. City police officers had to quell relatives from assaulting each other as relatives blamed each other for his death.
Later, a constable and sheriff unit had to be sent out to Guillen Cemetery outside the city limits on Boca Chica Highway to keep the relatives from assaulting each other.
All these recriminations, however, don't change the fact that the toddler was dead and nothing else could be done about it. Was there negligence? Obviously. Was it criminal? Apparently, the authorities thought not and did not charge the parents with any offense.
That is not what happened in the Francisco Avila van-asphyxiation case, where sheriff department officials charged the mother, 33-year old Elena Isabel Rodriguez, with manslaughter.
Authorities said they believed she is responsible for Francisco’s death by not keeping track of the young boy, who authorities say wandered out of his Cameron Park home and locked himself in a van Tuesday. She was reported by witnesses to have been doing work in the kitchen and thought her six xhildren were all watching television in the living room.
She is being held in lieu of $40,000 bail, but had a ICE immigration hold placed on her after it was discovered she was a Mexican national here illegally.
In the Casey Anthony case, a judge determined that after spending nearly three years in jail on accusations she killed her 2-year-old daughter, she will be freed sometime next week.
This does not change the fact that the case captured the nation's attention and bitterly divided many over whether she got away with murder.
Her convictions was not that she killed her daughter even though prosecutors introduced convincing circumstantial evidence (such as the smell of human remains in the trunk of her impounded car), but rather that she lied to investigators.
Elena Isabel Rodriguez, the mother of the toddler who died in the van, also has her supporters.
They say that the single mother worked long hours at Charley's Bar on 14th Street as a waitress and that she was a good mother to her children. Her friends say the woman was heartbroken and decided not to attend her son's funeral even though the sheriff department was willing to give her 10 to 20 minutes to view the body alone at the funeral home.
"She couldn't bear to see her child dead. An accident can happen to anyone," they said. "We're taking up a collection to help her with some of the costs. Whatever is left will be deposited in her jail account to help her out with her personal needs. Nobody wins in cases like this."
Still, whether its' a national profile case like Casey Anthony's, or the two toddlers who died locally, it sends a message to the rest of us who have children to be ever vigilant for their welfare.
A split second sometimes can prevent a lifetime of recrimination.