JUAREZ, Mexico – The man shot in the buttocks by two U.S. Border Patrol agents now in prison for the shooting and the coverup is breaking his silence, saying he is well aware that 'everybody hates me there (in America).'
Osvaldo Aldrete Davila was shot in February 2005 by Border Patrol Agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos as he tried to drive further into the United States with a van full of 700 pounds of marijuana. He was given immunity from prosecution in March 2005 for his cooperation in that investigation and subsequent trial, which culminated last year.
Ramos and Compean are now serving 11 and 12-year prison sentences.
In an interview with The El Paso Times, Aldrete Davila said while it was wrong for the agents to shoot him, he thinks the prison sentences are too excessive.
Click here to read The El Paso Times story
Aldrete Davila also said he only agreed to help smuggle the drugs in a moment of "desperation" because he needed the cash to get his commercial driver's license. He said he was promised $1,000 to walk across the Rio Grande on Feb. 17, 2005, and get into a gray Ford Econoline van waiting for him with the keys in the ignition.
"I didn't know exactly what was in the van. I didn't look. But, you know, I knew it was bad," he told The El Paso Times.
Aldrete Davila is suing the U.S. government for $5 million — money he says is needed to rebuild his urethra, which was shattered by the bullet. He lives with a rubber tube sticking out of his belly button that connects his bladder to a plastic bag.
"I know it was wrong what I did, but I'm paying for it with my health," he told the newspaper. "People don't know how it is for me to go to the bathroom, how painful it is."
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