OPEN LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF CAPE VERDE AND THE AUTHORITIES OF THE REPUBLIC, 50 years of independence marked by injustice, pain and silence - the case of Mrs. Nela and institutional failure in Cape Verde

While the country prepares to celebrate 50 years of independence, with celebrations and ceremonies financed with thousands of escudos from the public purse, families like ours face the dark side of a democracy that still fails in its most basic principles: justice, dignity and respect for life - and death.

Our pain has a name: Nela, a Cape Verdean woman whose death is still mysterious.

Our pain has a name: In her, a Cape Verdean woman whose death, in circumstances that are still mysterious, has exposed not only the fragility of the health system, but also the indifference of a state that, in the middle of the 21st century, does not have a functional and swift medico-legal body, capable of responding with transparency and humanity to deaths that require investigation.

It is unacceptable that, in a country with just over 500,000 inhabitants, there are only two coroners for the entire national territory. Even more alarming is the fact that autopsies are being carried out in funeral homes - without adequate technical conditions, without independence, without prior notice to families, without legal or family presence. This is a serious violation of international protocols, including those of the World Health Organization (WHO) and international human rights treaties to which Cape Verde is a signatory.

Nela's case, however, takes on even more delicate and worrying contours. She was the ex-partner of Porto Novo's current Health Delegate and the mother of two children with him. Even in the face of this direct and sensitive connection, no measures were taken to ensure that the process was conducted outside his jurisdiction, independently and free from conflicts of interest. On the contrary, the family's formal request for the autopsy to take place on another island was ignored, and to this day there has been no response.

Where is the Ministry of Health in the face of this tragedy that has even affected members of its own technical staff?

How is it possible that, even in such obvious circumstances, the system has not acted with greater care, speed and respect?

For over a week, the family waited for clarification. Silence was the only answer. The autopsy was carried out without warning, without the family present, in a funeral home - a procedure incompatible with any principle of justice, legality or humanity.

We ask:

How can it be justified that, after 50 years of independence, the country still treats death with such disregard?

How can a state boast of its democracy when families are kept in the dark, ignored and silenced?

Where is the justice that is so proclaimed?

Why does Santo Antão still not have a decent central hospital or a functional airport?

Why is Brava still isolated, with no transportation to even take a body to a grave?

While the state prides itself on speeches about human rights, women's empowerment and social justice - the people live a reality marked by opacity, abandonment and institutional inequality.

There is no true democracy where justice does not reach everyone.

There is no honest independence where human dignity is trampled upon.

There is no equality when even in death there is first and second class treatment.

This is not the country Amílcar Cabral dreamed of. He fought for a fair, egalitarian Cape Verde, where women had a place and the people a voice. Today, we hypocritically celebrate what has yet to be fulfilled.

We ask only for what is rightfully ours: respect, truth, justice - and humanity.

Signed,

On behalf of the bereaved family and the Cape Verdean community in the diaspora and in the archipelago

Date: June 30, 2025