The First Control Court of Apure, Guasdualito extension, issued an arrest warrant against two of the alleged murderers of the agricultural producer Fernando Hernández Merchán, sources from the justice system reported.
In this case, the arrest warrants are issued against Magaly Darcy Arellano, the victim’s partner, and Javier Enrique Guevara, veterinarian of the Los Ramírez farm, property of the agroproducer, located in the Las Topocheras sector, José Antonio Páez municipality (Guasdualito), Apure state.
These people are charged with the crime of pre-intentional homicide in a degree of joint responsibility, which carries a penalty of 6 to 8 years in prison.
The arrest warrants are issued when two and a half years have passed since the death of Fernando Hernández Merchán, which occurred at 7 am on April 30, 2023 at the San Lorenzo hospital, Arauquita department, Colombia where he was admitted by his partner Magaly Darcy Arellano.
At the aforementioned health center they issued a document stating that Fernando Hernández Merchán died of natural causes. This version raised doubts in his daughter, Lisbeth Hernández Mendoza, who located a bloody sheet on her father’s farm. Hernández Mendoza was president of the Criminal Judicial Circuit of the Caracas Metropolitan Area between 2022 and 2023.
In addition to the bloody savannah, Hernández Mendoza collected testimonies, one of which states that on April 30, 2023, the farm’s veterinarian, Javier Guevara, told a worker on that rural property that Mr. Fernando was being nebulized. This information was provided by the veterinarian at 10:30 am on April 30, 2023, when three hours had passed since the death of Fernando Hernández Merchán, according to the document issued by the Colombian hospital.
With these and other elements, relatives of Fernando Hernández processed the exhumation of the body, which took place on December 6, 2023 at the Metropolitan Cemetery of San Cristóbal (Táchira).
At the conclusion of the exhumation, pathologist Diosmaris Velásquez certified fractures in seven ribs of the body, which suggests that it was a violent death, according to the interview given by the aforementioned expert before the Fifth Prosecutor’s Office of the Public Ministry of the Táchira Criminal Judicial District.
But even with these elements collected, the Public Ministry did not finish issuing the arrest warrants, which is why Lisbeth Hernández asked the First Control Court of Apure to set a reasonable period for the Third Prosecutor’s Office of the Public Ministry, Guasdualito headquarters, in charge of Elsys Yaney Guerrero, to conclude the investigation that began more than two years ago.
In response to said request, on January 22, the aforementioned court issued arrest warrants against Magaly Darcy Arellano and Javier Enrique Guevara.
Due to this delay reported by Lisbeth Hernández, daughter of the victim farmer, she asks the attorney general, Tarek William Saab, to investigate the actions of the Third Prosecutor’s Office of Guasdualito, from where “it is about protecting the alleged murderers.” Hernández Mendoza says that it is not explained why the Third Prosecutor’s Office of Guasdualito charges only two of the alleged murderers of her father with the crime of homicide. “This homicide implies that I hit you with the intention of scaring you, but you fell, hit your head on the pavement and died. But here they injured my father with the intention of killing him, to keep his property,” commented Hernández Mendoza.
”Here we are in the presence of a qualified intentional homicide, with two qualifiers, such as treachery and futile motive (represented in an economic interest), by Magaly Darcy
Arellano Rodríguez, Javier Guevara, Fernando José Hernández Arellano (son of the deceased) with the complicity of Florencio Antonio Chacón, and Sandra Lisbeth Chacón, who were in charge of the farm,” maintains Hernández Mendoza.
”The victim, who is my father, was violently attacked, causing seven lateral intercostal fractures as a result of the strong and continuous blows he received in a state of defenselessness, being a vulnerable person due to his condition as an elderly adult and state of health, argued Hernández Mendoza, who noted that the arrest warrants against Arellano and Guevara ”constitute a great step to achieve justice.”
