The Michigan Lake freezes in winter. The ice covers the surface and the boats are stranded on the shore as sleeping animals. In Skokie, north of Chicago, there is a man who says he talk to God. He also says to talk to Daniel Sancho. His name is Iván Velasco. It is presented as a psychotherapist, presbyterian shepherd and man of faith. But faith is not a proof, and in this matter what is missing are evidence.
Iván Velasco was born in Peru 58 years ago and ended in the United States, where the cold of the lake must have taught him something about resistance and patience. Now, his name resonates in a case that smells like rot from the beginning. A brutal murder in Thailand. A media judgment. A circus without tamer. And in the midst of all that, this man.
In the Criminal Court of Koh Samui, the judge did not want to know anything about him. He did not let him in, he did not allow him to speak. What Velasco had to say was too murky, even for a case where the dirt had already reached his neck. Pedophilia accusations, white trafficking, extortion. Barbarities: Edwin Arrieta Become a monster without evidence, without documents, without more than the word of a man who was not there.
But the words, when they are thrown into the air, do not disappear. They are floating like the echo of a shot in the forest. In Colombia and in the United States they took note. They investigate whether behind their statements there is more than hot air. In Spain, however, nobody wanted to touch the subject. Maybe because there is no subject. Maybe because the lie, repeated enough times, is just that: a lie.
The new confidant
Velasco found his way to the Sancho family as the water finds the crack in the rock. It is not known how the relationship began, but when the trial was already a show of shadows and rumors, he was there. Near Rodolfo Sancho, sharing meetings in Thailand, traveling through Southeast Asia. Suddenly, his presence was constant. A new man in an old case.
On August 29, when the sentence fell like an ax, the reporters in Koh Samui noticed a scene that was repeated: Rodolfo Sanchohis lawyers and the Presbyterian shepherd in corros of conversation. García Montes had already fleeing the ancient kingdom of Siam. There were those who still had something to win or lose.
Velasco not only spoke. It also mediated. His name appeared in the negotiation of the debt that Alice Tassanapaforn demanded that the Sancho family. In September 2023, the figure was 160,000 euros. No one knows well why this supposed man of God was interested in that transaction. Nor is it known if his motivation was spiritual or financial.
What is known is that it is one of the few people who have access to Daniel Sancho in prison. Video calls, direct contact. Only Velasco, his father and Marcos García Montes can talk to him through that way. In Surat Thani prison, where walls sweat in heat and routine is a conviction in itself, those calls can be the only window abroad.
Visits in person, however, are even more restricted. Alice, the Thai lawyer, is still her main contact. Also the journalist Ramón Abarca, a face that continues to appear in the case without anyone understanding why.
Pastor or mercenary?
In Skokie, next to the icy lake, some acquaintances of Velasco say that Daniel Sancho Sancho is offering the therapy at a distance. That helps him, he listens to him. Others tell a different version: that tries to convince him that money can be his passport to freedom. If you pay what they ask for, the jail could open its doors.
And then there is the darkest possibility: that the pastor is also charging. Laura Rodríguez, a youtuber who follows the case closely, suggested that Velasco has received money from Rodolfo Sancho and her lawyers. There is no evidence. Only the rumor, the suspicion, the elongated shadow of a man who appears where there is something to win.
The Sancho case has been stagnant for months in a kind of legal swamp. The appeal does not arrive. The defense continues to request postponements, as if time were to change the fate of Daniel Sancho. Meanwhile, his parents have stopped traveling to Thailand. The son is still in prison. And the visits they receive are no longer those of his family, but those of characters that have appeared in history without prior invitation.
The lawyer and cell key
Alice Tassanapaporn has been a constant name in the process. The lawyer who knows the Thai system better than anyone. The one that has been next to Daniel Sancho from the beginning. And now, suddenly, he has stopped visiting him.
They say it is a strategy. Who is pressing Rodolfo Sancho and his lawyers. That she is the only one that can make life in Surat Thani prison less hard. That he has the key so that his client does not sink into oblivion.
Meanwhile, Daniel Sancho is still waiting. Heat, routine, uncertainty. The feeling that every day is equal to the previous one. The conviction weighs on his shoulders and time advances like a slow and heavy animal.
The end of the game
Iván Velasco is still there. A man who preaches faith and moves money. A shepherd who claims to listen to God and also lawyers. A character who entered the story discreetly and is now in the center of the scene.
Maybe in Chicago, when the lake freezes again, he will have time to think about what he has done. In the words he threw in the air. In the promises he made. In the lies – if they were – that it became momentary truths.
The Sancho case continues its course. A crime in Thailand. A chaotic trial. A group of people who orbit around the tragedy, looking for their own advantage.
And in the midst of everything, the Presbyterian pastor. Talking to Daniel Sancho through a screen. Waiting for something. Maybe money. Perhaps redemption. Perhaps simply more time in the center of a story that, like all the stories, will sooner or later come to an end.
(Tagstotranslate) People
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