In February 2008, Diana María Ossa –who had been eight months of pregnancy- was attacked with acid by a man hired -apparently- by the ex-girlfriend of his sentimental partner of that time and biologic father of Diana’s son. The investigation carried by the prosecution closed in 2016, without any results.
Almost twelve years after the attack, in 2019 and 2020, Diana was threatened with death by anonymous voices, so she fleed from Colombia with his 12-year-old son, Andrés, to ask for asylum abroad.
You can read the story in El País newspaper, where originally where published in spanish.
Diana shows a photo from March 2008, when she was treated at the hospital and gave birth to her son, Andrés.Diana says goodbye to her stepfather Gustavo at the Alfonso Bonilla Aragón Airport in Cali, an hour before boarding a flight abroad (the destination is kept secret to guarantee the security of the woman).
In a spa located in Buga, Valle del Cauca department, Diana hugs her mother, Luz Marina, who in turn surrounds Gustavo, the stepfather of the 38 year-old woman. Both of them have been a great emotional support for Diana after the attack of which she was a victim.
Yolima Sánchez, 37, who was attacked with acid in 2014 for no apparent reason, look inside Diana’s house, where the Carita de Papel Foundation operates, which it helps people who have been attacked with a chemical agent or other dangerous substances.
Diana attends a review with oculoplastic at a clinic before undergoing an ophthalmological operation on the eyelids, because they obstruct her vision. Diana has had 33 escharotomies (removals of burned skin to replace them with grafts from other parts of the body).
Diana poses in front of a portrait from when she was around 23 years old.
During the first months that followed her attack in 2008, Diana was treated herself as “a pretty monster”, for despite the scars, she still she retained the features he prided herself on, especially her smile.
Andrés and Valentina, Diana’s niece, sleep in her lap on a bus intermunicipal destined for Buga, municipality where the founder of Carita de Papel is originally from and where she was attacked with acid.
Diana hugs Valentina during a mass celebrated in the south of Cali.
Diana combs her sister, Patricia, Valentina’s mother, who began to living together once the death threats arrived, in order to take care of each other in case of an emergency.
Although at first Diana wore cover-up garments, little by little she dared to wear lighter clothes, a sign that her vanity returned as the months passed.
Diana, her stepfather Gustavo, Andrés and María José, another niece of the woman, go to their home, located in Buga.
Diana shows the threatening message that came in February 2020 to the cell phone of her foundation, Carita de Papel, a fact that adds to an intimidating sentence that an armed motorcyclist said to her in September 2019.
Andrés kisses his mother in the waiting room of the Alfonso Bonilla Airport Aragon, minutes before taking their flight.
Despite the aerial uncertainty caused by coronavirus at an international level and the closing of borders in many countries around the world, Diana and Andrés managed leaving Colombia on the night of March 17, 2020.
