The president of the Court Martial and minister of the Court of Appeals of Santiago, Jenny Book, ordered the exhumation of the body of conscript soldier Franco Vargas, who died on April 27 while performing his military service.
The minister maintained that the diligence will be carried out invoking the Minnesota Protocol, which seeks to promote justice and the conduct of an investigation to know with certainty the causes that caused the death of the young soldier after the controversial training of the Huamachuco Motorized Brigade No. 24.
“The idea is to coordinate with the PDI the date on which the exhumation will take place and that it will take place in the coming days,” commented the minister who added that the mother and family of the young man, officials of the Legal Medical Service, will be present in this procedure. and the National Institute of Human Rights.
As stated BiobioRomy Vargas, Franco’s mother, expressed her rejection of the exhumation of her son’s body. She declared that “if they ask me, I am going to say no to the exhumation. First, I don’t trust Minister Book because she is a military wife. Second, she is in favor of the investigation remaining in the Military Prosecutor’s Office.” Along these lines, Romy Vargas expressed her preference for a civil investigation. “Military justice can have progress and civil justice, which is the one I trust, is prevented (…) I want it to be civil justice, because there are no influences there.”
Continue the investigation
Minister Book maintained that the investigation of this case has been developed without setbacks since she was appointed by the plenary session of ministers of the Supreme Court, after a request made by the Ministry of Defense and the Military Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the death of the conscript .
Hence, she stressed, the judicial investigation has not been paralyzed and explained that for a few days the case was followed by Minister Jorge Cepeda while she was on leave; proceedings that she herself took up, among which are the exhumation order that the minister signed this morning and the series of proceedings that she will lead next week in the region of Arica and Parinacota.
One month after this appointment, the minister continues with this judicial investigation. After the Supreme Court granted the requested order not to innovate on May 24 and ordered the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Guarantee Court of Arica to refrain from continuing to hear and decree proceedings, as long as the dispute of locked jurisdiction is not resolved. in the investigation in this case. In fact, the minister arrives this Sunday in Arica and the next day she will travel to Putre to lead the reconstruction of the scene in the Pacollo sector and the surrounding area, in addition to efforts in other parts of the pre-mountain commune.