The third detainee for the murder of the second sergeant of the Carabineros Rita Olivares, identified as Luis Vicente Martínez-Conde Riesco, received a commutative general pardon due to Covid-19 in the country thanks to Law No. 21,228, approved in 2020 by the National Congress.
Specifically, Martínez-Conde Riesco had received a commutative pardon for the health emergency in April 2020 during the government of Sebastián Piñera, which resulted in serving his 5-year and one-day sentence for the crime of robbery. with intimidation and violence in the modality of nocturnal house arrest.
In this regard, the Minister of the Interior and Public Security, Carolina Tohá, told TVN that “as regards the person benefiting from a pardon, many times in our security debates, with great ease, we put ourselves on the sidewalk in front to shoot. And I believe that this time is not the time to do that.”
“If we want to discuss pardons, the consequences they may have, the cases in which people reoffend, let’s have a serious discussion, because today it would not contribute anything for us from La Moneda to turn the discussion around and start the other way. Let’s do a more in-depth discussion on pardons and let’s focus today on what lies ahead, which is to prosecute those responsible for this crime and agree on an agenda that strengthens our instruments to prosecute organized crime in general,” added the Secretary of State.
The benefit that Luis Vicente Martínez agreed to was a general pardon for Covid-19, which allowed the release of all those low-risk inmates who were close to serving their sentence. On that occasion, the law, approved by Congress, was endorsed with 92 votes in favor, 14 against and 3 abstentions, and its purpose was to decongest prisons to prevent them from becoming sources of contagion.
