Family of Slain Soldier Vanessa Guillén Calls for Justice on ‘Red Table Talk: The Estefans’

Red Table Talk: The Estefans focused on the killing of soldier Vanessa Guillen. (Credit: Facebook Watch)

Gloria Estefan took up the fight for justice in the case of slain Army Specialist Vanessa Guillén, alongside Guillén’s mother and sisters, in the fourth installment of Red Table Talk: The Estefans.

“I’m asking everyone to watch this Red Table Talk. There’s a family that needs us and we are not going to let them down,” Estefan said on Wednesday’s episode. “With shattered hearts, her family has come to the Red Table for answers and to keep Vanessa’s voice alive.”

Estefan hugged a visibly shaken Gloria Guillén as she stepped out of the car to meet the music legend at her house before sitting down at the red table to tell her daughter’s story.

Related Story: ‘Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s’ Star Tim Norman Arrested in Murder-for-Hire Killing

Despite Vanessa’s determination and calling it her “mission” to enroll in the Army, Gloria Guillén spoke about her apprehension to having her daughter join the military.

“I said, ‘For the love of God, don’t enlist. Don’t enlist because my mother’s intuition tells me it won’t go well,” Guillén recalled.

After she noticed Vanessa looking thinner and seeming depressed, she asked her what was wrong. Vanessa told her she didn’t like Fort Hood and that she was disturbed by the 10 suicides that had occurred at the Texas base.

“‘It’s the worst base I have ever known and the most disgusting one’,” she recalled Vanessa telling her. “‘Why?’ I asked. ‘They harass girls and they don’t speak, out of fear.’”

Earlier this year when her daughter finally admitted she was being harassed and stalked, Gloria Guillén begged her daughter not to return to Fort Hood.

Related Story: Gloria Estefan Reveals on ‘Red Table Talk’ She Battled Suicidal Thoughts

Vanessa Guillén said she had to return because of the oath she took.

Tragically, 20-year-old Guillén was murdered and her body dismembered in April of this year, in a case that shocked and angered the nation. The alleged suspect was a fellow enlisted soldier at the base.

Guillén’s supporters believe the military was covering up the magnitude of 159 non-combat deaths at the base since 2016.

“It was all a coverup! I don’t believe anything they say. There are secrets that will be revealed,” Gloria Guillén said.

Later in the episode, Guillén was joined by her daughters and their family attorney Natalie Khawam, who discussed her fight to make sure no other family is affected by this type of situation again.

Watch the episode of the Facebook Watch series below.


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About Jacquelinne Mejia

Jacquelinne Mejia is a writer and social media producer in Los Angeles. She can be reached on Twitter @JackieMejia.