As “the most serious events that have occurred in this unit since the escape of Hernández Norambuena,” a Gendarmerie lawyer defined the riot that occurred inside the Special High Security Penitentiary Facility (Repas) of Santiago, comparing it to the escape by helicopter. (in December 1996) of four militants of the Manuel Rodríguez-Autónomo Patriotic Front, among them one of its top leaders, Mauricio Hernández Norambuena, convicted of the crime of Senator Jaime Guzmán and the kidnapping of Cristián Edwards.
The prison revolt – as reported The counter–, led by Venezuelan members of different arms of the Aragua Train, was started due to alleged mistreatment by the penitentiary institution and lack of drinking water and energy in the cells and – until now – has caused serious damage to the recently inaugurated special module.
This statement was made by the lawyer of the penitentiary institution, Marcelo Carrasco Sepúlveda, when challenging in Arica the request of public and private criminal defenders of five defendants in the trial against the criminal gang of “Los Gallegos”, regarding transferring the defendants to other prisons in the country or suspend hearings until the prison revolt is completely controlled.
Just yesterday the Oral Court (TOP) of Arica held a precautionary hearing on guarantees and protection for five of the accused who are in the Repas, a situation that, in the opinion of the defenders, prevented them from having full knowledge of the trial, as a result of alleged violations that the Gendarmerie would be committing, such as the failure to provide water 24 hours a day for drinking and washing, total suspension of visits and non-delivery of parcels and correspondence.
The claims were completely rejected by the Chamber made up of presiding judge Sara Pizarro Grandón and judges Óscar Huenchual Pizarro and Sergio Álvarez Cáceres.
Total destruction
At the hearing of the TOP of Arica, the report of the Guarantee Judge Fernando Guzmán Fuenzalida was announced, who visited the Repas on June 14, accepting the request from the courts of Arica, Rancagua, Melipilla and Santiago to know about the status of the accused in that facility.
The journey was not easy, since the document recognizes the conflictive situation that the penal unit is going through, stating that “With the necessary security measures (helmet, bulletproof vest and shields) and armored by Chilean Gendarmerie personnel, the premises were toured, even entering the individual cells where the riots took place.”.
The inspection detected “the destruction of the infrastructure of the cells, the throwing of blunt objects towards the gendarmes, patios and corridors of the facility. Damage to water pipes and windows was verified. One defendant had half of his body hanging out of the window of his cell. They shouted instructions to each other.”.
The document details that “the cells, hallways, patios, security camera operations center and other facilities in the facility were inspected. Upon arriving at the establishment, water was immediately seen running profusely across the floors, and a deafening noise was heard from the upper floors.”
The story states that, according to the Gendarmerie authorities, “The settled liquid was not rainwater but coming from the pipes and ducts (shafts) broken by the inmates, and that the strident sound was being caused by the constant blows made with blunt objects by the inmates themselves from their individual cells.”.
The incidents, according to the penitentiary institution, would have started on the night of June 5, following a power outage caused by the intense rains recorded in Santiago, a situation that would have left the existing televisions in the cells without supply. .
“There was a widespread power outage in the Pedro Montt sector of the commune of Santiago, apparently due to the volume of rain that fell that affected the exterior wiring, which caused the plugs of the individual cells of those deprived of power to be disabled. freedom. Although the emergency equipment worked normally, illuminating the prison, the televisions and other devices were turned off, which bothered the prisoners, and the staff had to give them explanations of the case,” the report states.
The explanations were not convincing for the accused Francisco Valero Castillo, Hernán Landaeta Garlotti – alias “Satanás” and hitman of the Tren de Aragua – and Néstor Mojica Moreno.
According to Judge Guzmán’s report, the three “were locked up on the first floor in the west wing, they did not comply, insulting and threatening to kill some gendarmes, an illegal act that was reported to the Public Ministry (North Central Metropolitan Regional Prosecutor’s Office). At approximately 9:40 a.m. on Thursday, June 6, the three aforementioned defendants were taken to the patio where they met with the defendants José Candurin Meléndez, Bryan Sánchez Muñoz and Leonardo Vásquez Yzaguirre, all of whom began to shout and encourage the other inmates. “They were in other annexed patios, separated by walls two and a half meters high and wire.”
The document adds that the inmates began to climb the walls to gather in Patio No. 3, “carrying out collective disorders and destroying all the existing furniture (wooden and iron ping pong table), making weapons and blunt objects, while they tried to gain access. to the sectors of the Gendarmerie personnel, personnel who had to intervene to reduce the riot, using the required deterrent elements (shields, tear gas and shotgun with shots in the air), resulting in injuries to three defendants (referred to the Infirmary) and 12 officials (referred to the Carabineros Hospital). Once the original rebellion was quelled, the accused were transferred to their respective cells, beginning the destruction of the movable objects attached and not attached to their interior.
In this way, the sinks and toilet bowls, water pipes and ducts, tiles, glass and window frames, as well as mattresses, were left unusable. The damage forced the Gendarmerie to carry out the transfer of some inmates not participating in the riot to other prisons and the redistribution of another group within the prison in non-destroyed sectors.
31 mutineers
The Gendarmerie explained to the visiting judge that 31 inmates are participating in the prison revolt, most of them of Venezuelan nationality, “linked to criminal organizations, with the majority of Chileans remaining on the sidelines.”
Regarding control of the situation, the report adds that “disorders still persist; They have been going for 9 continuous days and nights. 18 defendants who did not participate had to be transferred to other penal establishments. 42 defendants are still imprisoned in the unit.”
Of the participants in the riot, six correspond to the “Los Gallegos” gang. This is Yoneiker Paredes Fagúndez, alias “El Enano”; Mervin Fagúndez Garrido, alias “El Flaco”; Emilio Jones Alvarado, alias “Culón”; Jorve Galavis García, alias “El Culito”; Daniel Márquez Meléndez, alias “El Ruso”; Leafar Arvelaes Torres, alias “El Peluca”.
The visiting judge recounts in his report that he interviewed two of the Repas inmates. One of them was the accused Néstor José Mojica Morena, in preventive detention by the Rancagua Guarantee Court (charged with the kidnapping of a businessman).
Upon entering his cell, the document indicates, “it was seen how he had destroyed all the objects in his cell, stating that he had done so as a complaint to the prison regime: basically few visiting hours, restriction on visits by undocumented immigrants, isolation, no physical contact with relatives and partner. He complained of having been beaten, the undersigned observing a slight bruise on his back.
The magistrate also recorded the interrogation of the Chilean Sergio Antonio Aguayo Sáez, in preventive detention ordered by the 15th Guarantee Court of Santiago (accused of being the leader of a group of Colombian drug traffickers), “who ratified the version given by the officials of the penal unit, adding that the current ongoing rebellion was started by Venezuelan defendants, without any provocation from the gendarmes.”
The report raises a counterpoint: “That the cells of those who have not participated in the conflict are intact, they have access to water and food, electricity and hygiene items,” while those of the participants in the riot “do not meet the minimum standards.” of subsistence, having completely destroyed them. They receive periodic feeding, throwing the empty trays out the windows into the patio.”
As long as the situation is not normalized, the judge warns that visits from family members and access to the patio remain restricted, “without prejudice to the infernal noise that prevents proper rest.”
Transfers or suspension of trial
The hearing held yesterday in the Oral Court of Arica allowed us to know firsthand the true impact of the riot that began on June 6 in Repas.
Public and private criminal defenders sought to transfer the participants in the prison revolt to other units in the country, such as Arica, La Serena or Rancagua. If they did not obtain this measure, they had requested the suspension of the trial as a subsidy, given that, from their point of view, the accused did not have the minimum living conditions that would guarantee an environment conducive to the full understanding of the trial. One by one they repeated that their clients did not have water for drinking and personal hygiene, in addition to claiming that “tear gas bombs” were thrown at them daily in their cells, a chemical that was impregnated in their clothing, sheets and mattresses.
The Public Ministry, the Ministry of the Interior and the Chilean Gendarmerie opposed the requests.
It was the report of a doctor from the Human Rights Commission of the Medical College – and which was presented by the criminal defender Diego Álvarez Trigo, to accredit harassment and abuse by the Gendarmerie to the accused Jorvis Parra Villoria, alias “El Pichi” – the shot of grace for both claims.
In ruling, the court finally considered the defender’s argument regarding the medical report to be contradictory, since it ruled out impairment of conscience or attacks by third parties on Parra Villoria in the midst of the riot, conditions that would enable him to participate in the judicial hearings.
On the contrary, the report said that Parra had “normal psychomotor skills, normal volition, lucid consciousness oriented in time, space, and people, without perceptual disorders, does not present hallucinations, preserved cognitive functions, intellectual level within the normal range, and judgment.” of reality preserved, with awareness of what it means to carry out the strike.”
Likewise, the TOP sent the accused Emilio Jones Alvarado to undergo a complete medical examination at the El Salvador Hospital, given that he had obvious bruises on his face, as a result of his participation in the riot.
Finally, the court accepted the Gendarmerie’s thesis that the impact on basic services in the unit is “attributable to the conduct of the inmates, which results in the limitation of the water supply, but not the impossibility of access the vital liquid as the defenses have indicated. The inmates are on the fourth floor, with a dry floor… without any violation of rights as the defense claims.”
Read the report of the judge who visited the Repas