International • • • 🌿 Progressive

Calle residencial tranquila de día con edificios de balcones y flores rosadas, coches aparcados, un pequeño comercio a la izquierda y una cafetería con toldo verde al fondo, sin personas visibles.
Imagen generada para EPM

Atelier de Nico: protecting an inclusive space after assault

Ramón Tolentino disclosed that the assault on Sunday, October 25, at Atelier de Nico, in Naco, targeted a regular customer followed beforehand and not the cash…

--- The context --- Atelier de Nico operates on Roberto Pastoriza street, in Naco, Santo Domingo, and according to Ramón Tolentino it is not an ordinary cafeteria. Tolentino described it as a social inclusion space that employs people with disabilities, founded by Tomás Sartori to open opportunities for young people with special conditions, including his son Nico. Because of that character, the assault on Sunday, October 25, at 3:00 in the afternoon struck a place designed to care. Tolentino placed the venue first, along with its staff and the regular customer who, according to his account, had been followed beforehand. --- The facts --- Tolentino said that at the time only the owner and one employee were in the venue, and he valued that the situation did not escalate. The target, he insisted, was not the cash register, but the belongings of a regular customer they had been following. According to that account, two participants followed the customer in a vehicle while two others moved on a motorcycle. Tolentino added that they handled intelligence information according to which the victim had been pointed out from Colombia to be intercepted at that hour. --- The positions --- Tolentino acted as the discloser and recognized the rapid intervention of the National Police, the Department of Criminal Investigations and the local prosecutor's office. His account showed how an inclusion space was left exposed to an action directed against a specific person. Hansel García, in the background, asked that the full weight of the law be applied without leniency for being foreigners. Read through due process, that demand requires full identification, clear charges and verified evidence, because García also maintained that they acted in studied niches and should face the same consequences as any accused person. --- What remains unknown --- The available account includes no independent official confirmation of the following, nor does it report which belongings were sought or the procedural status of those arrested. It also does not explain what support the targeted customer received, whether staff received follow-up or what measures will let the inclusive enterprise keep operating calmly. --- Unanswered questions --- How will inclusive workplaces be protected from now on so that workers with disabilities are not exposed to risks unrelated to the business? What concrete support did the followed victim receive and what due process guarantees will the four arrested men have during the investigation? Will the authorities publish a report confirming the prior following and clarifying the procedural status of each detainee? --- EPM analysis --- Viewed through inclusion, the harm is not measured only in objects. A venue that employs people with disabilities needs family trust and daily customers to sustain itself, and a violent act against a regular visitor breaks that trust even when the target was not the business. That is why the response cannot be limited to the arrests Tolentino mentioned, among them that of Diego Alexander Liberato. It also matters that the investigation distinguish individual responsibilities, avoid generalizations by nationality and preserve the inclusive employment of Sartori's project. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, the safety of inclusion spaces and due process are inseparable and must be protected at the same time, without shortcuts or collective stigma. If the Naco cafeteria employs people with disabilities, its labor continuity deserves active protection, just as the followed victim deserves support and official clarity. And if there are responsible parties, they must answer with evidence, precise charges and full guarantees, because caring for the most vulnerable without renouncing legality is the only solid way to restore calm to the neighborhood.
📤 Share on Telegram

¿Te gustó este artículo? Recibe cobertura global en tu correo.

Suscríbete gratis / Subscribe free