Yanira Maldonaldo: Do you believe her?

Do you believe Yanira Maldonaldo?

She has been released because a video showed her and her husband getting on the bus with only two small blankets and bottles of water, which police believe could not hide 12 pounds of drugs.

I find this video fascinating because if you don’t understand the nuances of head shakes and shoulder shrugs, you would likely conclude this woman is being deceptive. 

I truly believe she is being honest.

16 replies
    • guesswork
      guesswork says:

      she just seems really scared i think that’s why i believe her. i find some of what she says just irrelevant: i am a lds? just doesn’t seem very relevant to me.

      • Julie Moon
        Julie Moon says:

        I’m thinking that whether someone was guilty or not, they would be scared quite $#itless being in a prison out of the country. In fact, wouldn’t a guilty person be even more frightened than an innocent person? Being as an innocent person just might have faith in the system to set them free.

  1. Julie Moon
    Julie Moon says:

    I see her shake her head yes & no at the same time. I see her shrug her shoulders quite a bit. These two things I am used to hearing body language/facial expression people say are signs of lying, being unsure, or not having faith in what they just said.
    I hear her say she is a good mom and that she is an honest person. I’m used to seeing statement analysis people say that truly good moms and truly honest people don’t need to say those things.
    Do I think she’s lying? I can only put it this way: I think she is telling the truth when she says she did not do this herself and that her fingerprints won’t be there, etc. One thing I do know is that I doubt she could carry on that much marijuana right under the ‘nose’ of the bus terminal cameras without something being seen. On the other hand, I doubt that those police framed her because they wouldn’t be carrying around 12 lbs of pot in their back pocket to frame people with, a much smaller amount would do, right?
    Someone else could have been using that bus to smuggle drugs for who knows how long, and she just ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time….I read in one news report that the police were going to arrest her husband at first, but she stepped in to translate and they ended up arresting her. Anyone see tapes of the husband?
    I don’t take anything at just face value any more, people of all faiths and religions and social status do all sorts of things that can be quite shocking. I do feel bad for this lady, and I can see that she’s scared and miserable and for her sake and her kids’ sake I hope she’s home with her family soon.

    • Russ Conte
      Russ Conte says:

      In my experience, there is no definitive sign of lying, nor is there a single sign that always indicates a person is telling the truth. The closest signal I’m aware of to someone telling the truth is consistency, and I believe this woman shows consistency. However, consistency is not definitive in determining if someone is telling the truth or lying.

      One point that is extremely useful for me is to recognize that head shakes and shoulder shrugs (and much more) are not absolute proof of lying. At my skill level (I’m not at Eyes’ ability in detecting deception) they simply mean that I would do well to learn more, and go in with an open mind. Since I can not decipher this as well as Eyes can, to me this is a hot spot, not absolute proof of anything. Might be innocent, might be guilty, but shoulder shrugs and head nods are not enough on their own for me to draw that conclusion. I personally need more than those body language signs before I can draw a good conclusion. That’s OK, and it’s a starting point for me in understanding people.

      My heart really goes out to this lady, and all those who are falsely accused but don’t receive the publicity that this woman receives.

  2. Vivien Leigh
    Vivien Leigh says:

    Sheseems genuine to me, but if I was an expert on this stuff I wouldnt read you blog all the time!Please do an analysis of Anglina Jolie when she finally lets someone do an interview face to face about the supposed preventive double mastectomy she alleged to have had in of all places the NY Times Op Ed section. Dont you think thats suspect that she would come out with doingsomething so private likethat in an op ed piece?And now she wont be interviewed in person??

  3. WhereTheTruthLies
    WhereTheTruthLies says:

    All I can say is those guards on the take picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.

  4. Mark
    Mark says:

    That’s one of the values of surveilance footage. It proves your innocence so you’re not wrongfully convicted. Glad she was vindicated.

    Mark.

  5. Mark H
    Mark H says:

    When I saw the video I was aware of the eye movement and shoulder shrugs. I did think she was probably innocent but wasn’t confident of it.

    The thing I was sure of is that she is desperate.

  6. Karon
    Karon says:

    I believe she is innocent, but I wonder, if she really believes all of the good things she is saying
    about herself and her husband. The all over the place head nods and shakes may come from her own lack of self-worth and doubts about how honest and helpful they really are to other people.She has, most- likely been doing some soul searching, while going thru this ordeal. I, also, notice that she speaks of reading the gospel, praying,fasting, and almost as an after-thought, she mentions the LDS. She, also,, mentions her family reaching out to her, first and the husband and children are last.

    I think any of us would have second thoughts about how we need to be better, if we were in a situation that would require us to brag about our own self-worth. We all know of things that we could be doing better.

  7. Karon
    Karon says:

    Angelina Jolie is really into helping people, and she may have wanted this surgery public in the hope that she might help other women to be aware of this health risk. She watched her mother die of breast cancer, and she doesn’t want her family to go thru what she had to go thru. So, she may have given only one statement, because this may be a very painful subject for her.

  8. Liza
    Liza says:

    Her comments seem a little random, but I totally believe her. Her absolute disbelief and humility really come through to me, even though she seems to struggle with what she should say. Also, English is obviously her second language, so that could be a factor in her language choices.

    I also got the impression that the reporter interviewing her was also LDS, hence all her references to her faith — like they’d had a little chat about that connection prior to taping. Or perhaps she was aware of the support come from her church community and wanted to validate that? Or maybe she just thinks saying she is a faithful Mormon proves her innocence? (A little naive, but maybe her equivalent of “I’m the last person on Earth who would do this.”)

    Whatever the case, I’m very glad the security footage helped release her.

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