Diego Echevarría (18), young university student from the Faculty of Letters of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), was released on the night of Friday, October 17 after being arbitrarily detained by the Social Affairs Division of the National Police of Peru. Echevarría had been intervened by the authorities during the police repression of the mobilizations of October 15.
In accordance with the authorities’ proceedings, at 11 am on Friday the National Police appeared at the home of Diego Echevarria and entered his room for approximately 15 minutes. The young man’s families were outraged by the actions of the authorities.
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Circumstances of the arbitrary detention of Diego Echevarría
During the national march on Wednesday, October 15, the National Police He arrested 10 people, including Diego Echevarría. Those intervened were transferred to the PNP Social Affairs Division for the necessary investigations. However, the students who accompanied Diego in the mobilizations maintained that he was subdued by the authorities in the midst of the police repression on Abancay Avenue.
After his arrest, Diego’s parents reported that the National Police acted unfairly. In addition, they stated that it was the first time that their son attended a mobilization. “He is an upright, exemplary person, he has always dedicated himself to studying and stood out for his social work. This was his first march,” said the father.
Likewise, family members questioned that the authorities have detained Diego without any evidence. “A technician (police) calls me and intervenes and tells me that my son was violating, throwing blunt objects (…) then he begins to speak conditionally. The same police are changing their complaint,” they maintained.
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Diego Echevarría’s message after his release
Family and friends received Diego Echevarria outside the PNP Social Affairs Division. In the midst of tears, the young man hugged his parents, who were fighting at all times for their son to be released after the arbitrary arrest. “I want to thank you all for having collaborated. This matter was a great injustice. I cannot be calm because my colleagues are still locked up (…) We have to continue fighting,” he said in the middle of the public while he burst into tears upon learning of the death of Eduardo Mauricio Ruiz Sanzwho was shot by non-commissioned officer Luis Magallanes during the march on October 15.
Abuses by the National Police
The arrest of Diego Echevarría has once again put the image of the police institution into question. According to the complaints of the relatives, the young man was not only unjustly detained, but also received mistreatment and pressure to incriminate himself. For this reason, those close to the university student said that officers had forced Diego to sign an act where he acknowledged being responsible for the acts he is accused of. All this without the presence of his lawyer.
“He was only allowed to eat at 5 in the morning and his family was only able to see him at 6. We have spent hours without hearing anything from him,” friends of Diego said when he was undergoing surgery. After the sit-in carried out by various student groups, the young PUCP university student was released. However, other young people who participated in the protests are still in detention in the Social Affairs Division of the PNP.
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