Roberto Echavarria aka Echo
Towards the beginning of 2022, Echo raped a person they were living with. At that point, Echo had been in a relationship with the victim on and off for several months, during which the victim felt aggressively manipulated, pressured to isolate themselves, intimidated, and often unable to maintain any personal space. In the immediate aftermath of the assault, Echo cast doubt on the victim’s experience and attempted to convince them they’d wanted it.
The survivor told some trusted friends and hashed out next steps with regard to their personal safety. Some safety concerns stemmed from feeling a lack of support or trust in the community, intensified by the perpetrator’s insistence to the survivor that many people were "ops" and/or not to be trusted.
Once the survivor was no longer living in proximity to the perpetrator, they asked trusted advocates to facilitate a conversation with the perpetrator to acknowledge what they had done and to communicate specific requests. These asks included notifying those in Echo’s immediate circles (without sugarcoating) including and especially former, current, and potential partners.
Advocates monitored these conversations to ensure that people known to them were given accurate information. The survivor & friends shared the goal of mitigating safety risks by sharing information with anyone they knew was vulnerable to the patterns of behavior that led to the assault, hoping to ensure that it didn’t happen again. And if it did happen again, the victim wanted to ensure everybody felt safe and believed coming forward.
The victim had hoped accountability might be possible here, and their friends attempted to see that through via communicating the asks made, and keeping tabs on whether those processes were still occurring. The victim preferred not to air their harm and trauma publicly, as they were afraid of retaliation and needed time and space to process their trauma and reach a point of feeling safe again. This choice was meant to keep the victim safe from public scrutiny and potential backlash while taking steps to keep those in the perpetrator’s current relational proximity informed.
This choice was also always subject to change as time went on and trauma processing occurred. That was communicated repeatedly by advocates who were monitoring the process. As word spread about this situation in the last several weeks, there were attempts made to hush, preserve, and/or revise the story by Echo and their partners, all while invoking “the victim’s wishes”. When word of the assault was blasted online unexpectedly, the same folks again attempted to control the narrative in Echo’s defense.
This showed the victim and their friends that while certain asks were being met, their choice to seek accountability was being exploited to minimize what occurred, and Echo was not taking responsibility for their actions. At this point the victim no longer wants to engage in any process involving the perpetrator. While the trauma from this and fear of backlash still very much exist, this matter is now in the hands of the community.