Life happens between bars, dreams fade and helplessness becomes eternal. After 23 years of unjust imprisonment, the hope that justice will resume its course seems to be fading. Héctor Rovaín, Erasmo Bolìvar and Luis Molina They see the days go by with the only joy of receiving a visit from their relatives, which is now much more complicated due to the distance that separates the states of Miranda and La Guaira, where their families live; and Lara, where the prison for common prisoners is located to which they were sent a little over four years ago.
It is a reality that Alexis Rovaín suffers from. At home everyone misses Héctor, spending another Christmas without the chief inspector of the defunct Metropolitan Police at home is a very great pain, which has already become chronic due to years of waiting.
The brothers were separated by an unfair decision by trial judge Marjorie Calderón, promoted by magistrate Eladio Aponte Aponte. She was promoted as a result of her inexplicable decision and today she is a judge of the Supreme Court of Justice. He repented, confessed that that sentence was decided in Miraflores, and today he is in exile.
In October 2021, Rovaín, Bolívar and Molina were sent to the Fénix Penitentiary Center, the prison for common prisoners located in Barquisimeto, in the state of Lara. Until that moment they were in the National Center for Military Prosecutions, (Cenapromil), known as Ramo Verde, in the state of Miranda.
Since then, Alexis has not been able to visit her brother. Only women can access the detention center, where Héctor watches the hours pass in the hope of being able to reunite with his loved ones soon, at home, where he should not have left. His faith in Christ keeps him standing.
It is the same thing that happens with Luis Molina’s relatives, who live in Miranda; and those from Bolívar, who reside in La Guaira.
These three officials were sentenced by Marjorie Calderón to 30 years in prison, the maximum sentence in Venezuela, in the longest trial in Venezuelan history. He was the one who accumulated the greatest amount of evidence on the part of the defense, all ignored by the fourth trial judge.
Together with them, Marco Hurtado was sentenced to 16 years and 8 months in prison; Arube Pérez to 17 years and 10 months, both of whom have already served their full sentences. Commissioners Iván Simonovis, Lázaro Forero and Henry Vivas, and Sergeant Julio Rodríguez, all with sentences of 30 yearstoday they are out of jail for presenting severe health conditions.
Rovaín, Bolívar and Molina have been in prison since April 2003, when they voluntarily decided to appear in court, like their companions, aware that they had not committed a crime. To date, these three officials have all the procedural benefits contained in the Organic Code of Criminal Procedure (COOP) expired.
The work detail allows the inmate to go out to work and return to the detention center each night. You can receive this benefit when you have half of your sentence served.
In the open regime, the inmate is sent to a community treatment center, where he works and spends the night from Monday to Thursday. Friday, Saturday and Sunday he sleeps at home. It is awarded after two-thirds of the sentence imposed.
Conditional release establishes periodic appearance measures before the court and is enjoyed after three quarters of the sentence. Confinement allows the inmate to live 120 kilometers from the place where the events occurred. In the last reform of the COPP, confinement was eliminated, but the PMs were tried with the previous code, therefore, they preserve their rights.
Metropolitan police officers are covered by the Judicial Redemption Law, which commutes one day in prison for every two days studied or worked. The time thus redeemed will also be counted for the conditional suspension of the sentence and for the formulas for its compliance.
For these officials, the COOP is a dead letter. With just over seven years left to serve the entire sentence, it has not been possible for them to receive the benefits that the law provides them.
But there is one hope that they keep intact: That people do not forget them. They are the first political prisoners of this regime, many innocent people have been in prison since then and each case overshadows the previous one. Meanwhile they remain imprisoned, unjustly.
With information from a press release
