I went with my girlfriend to Aruba, the biggest nightmare of my life.
Why?
On our way back to the Airport, we went there in a rush, my girlfriend and I and we got there 2 hours before our flight, my girlfriend went to the airline called Avianca, where we had our tickets going back to my country. The Girl in the airport did not answer to our question and then told us that we missed the flight and my girlfriend got upset and she touched the keyboard of the airline company to get her attention but nothing happened until a guy wearing a white uniform appears and I thought he was a part of the airline company and told him that if I missed the flight I would sue him.
He told me to come with him, and that he was a police officer named Mark Gonzales.
We went to the upstairs room where we left our luggage and then he took us to a different office without cameras. We had only our passports, bags, wallet then he told us to get ready to give our belongings inside our pockets. Before giving our personal belongings I counted the money in my wallet and it totaled $2,400 and my girlfriend had $1,500. Next the officer Mark Gonzales said a prosecutor was coming. The prosecutor was wearing normal clothes and confirmed himself as a prosecutor without showing identification. Later we found out that his name is Mario C Werleman and that he was not a prosecutor but a regular cop. Mario asked us if we were drunk and I replied with no, I said we had 2 drinks at Niki bar but I am not drunk.
Afterwards we saw Mark Gonzales counting the money from my wallet while he was laughing at it.
Then Mario C Werleman said that we were going to jail and brought us a paper saying I had to sign it but first I needed to count my money, which I did and only $1,300 was there.
I told him the money was missing and that Mark Gonzales probably took it. I told him that I count my money before and that it was not nice to steal and they should be ashamed for taking my money then he punched me hard in the face while I was still handcuffed which made me fall on the floor.
I told Mark that I didn’t want the money and that he could enjoy the money with his family, then he said not to talk about his family and started to hit me very hard with his fist and legs, which broke my teeth and also left me with a lot of bruises and bleeding. At 270 pounds of muscle beating a 180 pound man that is handcuffed.
I am willing to take a full test of myself for everything I said here
So my girlfriend and I got arrested for nothing, we did not curse, push insult nor showed and type of aggression.
Later when we got out of jail, days later we had to pay the government $856.00 for both of us for the time in jail, which I can prove with a receipt. Later I found out that they used my AMEX credit card so they took half of my money in the beginning and then when I got out of the hole after 10 days they took the other half of my money paid to the Aruban government. 23hrs inside a dark hole with 1 cup of water per day.
It doesn’t matter if you are an innocent person that never got arrested and didn’t do anything, if you have money the Aruban police can make you disappear for 10 days minimum inside the solitary without water, enough air and light.
Definitely this place is against human rights of mistreat with not enough food which was roughened, air, water, blood on the walls, not sanitized at all. Also no one allowed phone calls, see a lawyer or even pray. Treating us as heavy criminals or terrorist.
Only 1 min of shower and that was controlled by them also 1 hour of fresh air inside a room with open ceiling.
When I asked for a doctor to look at my bruises and clean my wounds it took days for him to arrive, so you can die from heart attack or broken bones and the doctor will not help you.
The heat inside these rooms was 85 degrees at least with not enough water to drink or clean my wounds or body
This place was filled with roaches and rats, but the worst part was thirst and a lost sense of time.
The next morning the same cop that beat me the night before Mark Gonzales told me to come with him to a room with air conditioning and gave me 1 cup of water, told me I had to answer the question and I said ok because I feared he would hit me again.
I answered all the questions and he told me he found the rest of my money in my girlfriends’ bag with a picture showing the money inside her bag, which I remember our bags were in a different room from us at the time I had my wallet, but I did not say anything to him I only agreed with him because I was again scared that he would beat me once more.
The paper he wanted me to sign said that everything I answered to him was true and he did not steal my money, and that my girlfriend had stolen from me. He also promised me that if I sign the paper he would let me go out of jail the same day. Of course I signed the paper because I didn’t want to stay in jail anymore. After 2 hours he comes back with another paper to sign saying I don’t need to see a lawyer because I was going to leave tonight, I believed him and signed the paper but I did not get released from jail and stayed another 3 days, then got to see my lawyer for 5 minutes.
The lawyer said to me that if I wanted to leave this island I should not talk about suing them or them stealing my money nor beating me there.
Next day the prosecutor said that Mark Gonzales said he arrested me for cursing him and kicking him which was not true. But he was willing to settle for $856.00 for me and my girlfriend to be released on the same day.
A local guy was on the way to court with me and said that Mark Gonzales was knows as a violent guy in Aruba and storied about him being violent over 30 times with other people and that he was a hot tempered officer that likes to beat people while handcuffed.
Also on the way to court inside their special police vehicle on the windows was a Nazi sign and white power group Holland written.
Some guy inside the bus with me said 2 American girls disappeared inside this island a few years ago and the Aruban police did not let the FBI investigate this case. One of the girls name is Natalle Hollaway. Also he said that at this time of the year the police needs money so they do wrong things to tourists so I was very scared they would make me disappear together with my girlfriend because they did not take pictures of me or fingerprints.
Thanks a lot to the news guys that took pictures of me that would probably save me.
It was not a vacation but a nightmare. It damaged my life forever by causing trauma to my body and soul.
They never contacted or notified the American embassy and on their newspaper they wrote that they arrested an Israeli even though I came with an American passport.
When we got out of jail the police dropped us off at the airport but we could not find a ticket for that day so we had to stay in a hotel until we could get a ticket to leave the next day. We noticed that we were being followed by people who recognized us from the news.
On the next day we went to the airport, we felt as if we wer4e being followed again and we found out that was true because an hour before the flight the same 2 police officers Mark Gonzales and Mario C Werleman approached me this time wearing their white uniform and I saw their names, they then asked me if I had paid the prosecutor the $856.00 and I said “yes and I am sorry” because again I was scared they would take me once more for nothing.
Also some guy at the airport came to us in regular clothes 4 hours before the flight asked if we remember him, we said no and he replied saying he was one of the drivers of the bus that took us to jail and that he had just sent his mother to New York and he will be visiting New York very often. He was a big built guy with a scary look which made me afraid, giving the impression that he would do something to me in New York.
Once already in New York I remembered that when I was in Niki bar 2 hours before the airport I asked for the owner of the bar to call a cab driver but the owner said he would take us because I had already spent $400 with my girlfriend inside his bar on food and table, where he noticed how much money I had inside my wallet when I had to pay for the bar bill. (Maybe they had been already following us since the casino), while inside the car with the owner I also noticed that he was on the phone with 2 or 3 different people speaking their language, so I believe it was a setup since the beginning starting with the bar owner and the police officers.
Never forget and never forgive
In the middle of the night I was screaming for water and the next day during morning time an officer came to me and said that they would be really tough with me if I continues to scream and they would make the report worse by planting drugs in my luggage and said he was the commander of that location.
NYPD tried to get in contact with the Aruban Council but we have not gotten a response.
I’ve been in the emergency room in New York and I’m in contact with my doctor and lawyer