20 years for two agents who killed 2 kidnapped people

The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice has left unpunished the 20-year prison sentence imposed on two former officials of the justice system accused of kidnapping and murdering two men.

This decision is contained in judgment No. 383, drafted by Judge Elsa Gómez and supported by her colleagues in the courtroom Carmen Marisela Castro and Maikel Moreno.

The defendants are: Franklin José Rivero Mundaraín (former public defender) and the sergeant of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) José Gregorio Hernández Palma.

The events for which Rivero Mundarain and Hernández Palma were investigated occurred in the Boquerón sector, Maturín municipality (Monagas) on July 30, 2019, when a group of hooded and armed men broke into the victims’ home, presenting themselves as police officers.

These alleged agents took Luis Miguel Macuarán and Carlos Durán. Rivero Mundarain then contacted the victims’ families to demand a certain amount in dollars in exchange for releasing Durán and Macuarán.

The subjects then proceeded to murder the kidnapped people and bury their bodies on the Yagumito farm, south of Monagas.

The arrests

Between September and October 2019, Rivero Mundaraín and Hernández Palma were captured and the Public Prosecutor’s Office requested a trial for aggravated kidnapping with death in captivity, among other crimes.

This approach by the Prosecutor’s Office was approved and consequently the trial began on May 12, 2021 before the 1st Trial Court of Monagas.

On the 26th of that same month, Ysbel Rafael González Campos, one of the three accused, admitted his participation in the events and consequently the judge sentenced him to 17 years in prison.

González revealed that he was hired to dig the grave where the two kidnapping victims were improvised, according to the sentence of the Criminal Court.

The trial of the two remaining defendants concluded one year and three months later, and they were sentenced to 20 years in prison, according to the sentence announced on August 12, 2022.

The aforementioned sentence was ratified by the Monagas Court of Appeals on February 7. For this reason, the lawyers of the accused went to the Criminal Court to denounce, among other things, what they consider a failure to take into account the testimony of seven witnesses during the trial of the accused.

When analyzing the complaint, the magistrates of the Criminal Court noted a lack of technical knowledge to file an appeal for cassation, a figure specifically contemplated to denounce “errors of law.”

Based on this and other arguments, the Criminal Court dismissed the appeal filed by the defense of Hernández Palma and Rivero Mundaraín, whose conviction consequently became final, says the ruling published on the TSJ website.