S.J. skater recovering after being shot at Peru retreat
Details of shooting hazy as inline pro Robert Guerrero is treated in the Bay Area
Robert Guerrero left his native San Jose for the remote jungles of Peru a few years ago to lead spiritual retreats that help people work through mental and emotional trauma. That passion took a tragic turn last month when a man shot Guerrero in the head during a retreat in the northern Amazon.
Guerrero — now retired after being a professional inline skater for more than 10 years — survived the attack and is showing signs of a miraculous recovery at a Bay Area hospital, according to his family. But details of the shooting remain unclear.
“He’s doing exceptionally well considering his circumstances,” said Guerrero’s sister Tina Dodds, who is acting as the family spokesperson. “We’re really just taking this day-by-day. We’re hopeful and encouraged by his progress. So far the doctors’ reports have been really positive.”
The family has declined to give specific details on what led to the shooting and what exactly Guerrero was doing when he was shot at point blank range. A GoFundMe page created for Guerrero said he was in a spiritual retreat in the Iquitos jungle in northeastern Peru when he was shot.
Police in Peru couldn’t be reached for comment. The Peruvian embassies in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. deferred questions to the U.S. Embassy in Lima, which deferred to the U.S. State Department. An official with the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs said Friday they’re “aware of reports
regarding a U.S. citizen injured in Peru” but refused to comment further, citing privacy issues.
The family was told an arrest was made in connection to the shooting. The suspect has been identified by the family as a 63-year-old man, but it is not known if he’s been charged.
Dodds said family received a call from the embassy in Peru on the day her brother was shot at the end of July, a moment she tearfully described as “knee-buckling.”
“When you receive something like that, it’s like your worst nightmare,” she said. “When it happens locally it’s devastating but you feel like you can do something about it. To have him be so far away was difficult.”
Doctors in a small rural hospital in Peru put Guerrero in a medically-induced coma to keep him stable as family scrambled to make arrangements to bring him to the U.S. for proper neurological care. He was conscious by the time he flew back home to the Bay Area.
He’s made remarkable progress, according to family, who said he’s talking, moving both sides of his body and beginning to take in liquids. The prognosis is typically much worse, according to neurosurgeons treating Guerrero.
This week, he began his first rounds of therapy — physical, speech and occupational, wrote Dodds on the family’s GoFundMe page.
“If I didn’t see it myself, I wouldn’t have believed it was true — he was sitting upright in a chair eating lunch,” she wrote. “I was floored. On top of that, he received assistance standing and walking a few steps. This was pretty incredible to take in. And, really exhausting for Rob.”
What’s also miraculous to the family is the outpouring of support they’ve received from all over the world — a testament to the many lives that Guerrero has touched, they said. In just a few days, the GoFundMe campaign amassed more than $100,000. As of Friday afternoon, it had $124,400 in donations, which the family plans to use for Guerrero’s medical care.
Spiritual healing retreats are common in Peru and have drawn a growing number of tourists to the Amazon in recent years. Of particular interest are ayahuasca retreats. Hailed by some as a transformative medicine with the power to heal a variety of emotional and mental traumas — from post-traumatic stress disorder to anxiety — ayahuasca is a potent, hallucinogenic brew made from the bark of the ayahuasca plant.
Used among indigenous people of the Amazon and throughout South America, ayahuasca is a sacred form of traditional medicine that has spread all over the Western world in the last two decades, according to an article in the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
People who drink the brew say it transports them to other dimensions, allowing them to work through their inner struggles to create a sense of peace and healing. But there have also been concerns from others who say the brew can have dangerous — and unpredictable — effects.
Aside from causing visions, it may also cause vomiting, diarrhea and psychological distress, according to a 2014 report by the Guardian.
The family confirmed Friday that Guerrero was at a retreat center where Ayahuasca ceremonies take place and said he has experience in supporting and participating in these types of ceremonies. They declined to provide further details.
To them, Guerrero’s desire to help others heal shows exactly the kind of person he is.
“He’s a beautiful ball of love and joy,” said Dodds. “You feel stuff with him that you don’t feel with a lot of other people. He resonates with so many different people. He’s just such a source of love and light.”