May 17, 2024, 8:59 PM
May 17, 2024, 8:59 PM
The director of the La Modelo prison, retired colonel Élmer Fernandez, 57, was murdered this Thursday in Bogotá while he was traveling home in the afternoon.
The news was confirmed by the Colombian Minister of Justice, Néstor Osuna, who announced an operation to find those responsible for the homicide and assured that the security of the National Penitentiary Institute (Inpec) will be reinforced.
The images of the attack show a dark-colored car with the mark of a shot in one of the windows that apparently was carried out by people on board a motorcycle.
Until now, further details of what happened are unknown. The identity of those responsible is also unknown.
Colonel Fernández, who retired from the police in 2017 and had held the position in La Modelo for six weekshad received threats for his attempts to reform and control the prison, which included constant searches of inmates, according to local press.
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, condemned the murder and sent a message of solidarity to Fernández’s family.
The colonel “had taken office on April 4, he was carrying out orders to impart discipline and carrying out random searches. Today he is vilely murdered,” Petro wrote in his X account.
His government is expected to announce a contingency plan for the country’s prisons.
Daniel Gutiérrez, director of Inpec, said that Fernández’s murder is the most serious incident, that they have received 550 threats in two years and that the institution “does not have the capabilities to safeguard the lives of penitentiary officials”.
Hard memory of dark times
Analysis by José Carlos Cueto, BBC News Mundo correspondent in Colombia
Shot in the middle of the afternoon and in the middle of a public road.
The conditions of the murder of Élmer Fernández, director of the La Modelo prison in Bogotá, are a harsh reminder of darker times for Bogota residents.
A few kilometers from NQS Avenue and 80th Street, where the homicide occurred, hitmen ended the life of Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla 40 years ago, who was waging an open war against drug trafficking and organized crime that was then headed by the Pablo Escobar’s Medellín poster.
Like Bonilla and other officials who died during that turbulent time, Fernández also faced death threats for his work against crime.
The homicide scene was soon filled with police, ambulances, journalists and onlookers.
The media and official channels asked for patience from all drivers who had to pass through police checkpoints in a time-trial operation to catch those involved.
As the hours pass, the initial shock of Colombians gives way to indignation.
Many wonder how, if Fernández was threatened with death, he did not have sufficient security arrangements.
They also question the state of the country’s prisons, looking with fear towards other Latin American countries where they have become de facto centers of operations for criminal organizations.
There was also no shortage of criticism of Petro’s management, who promised security improvements and prison reforms during his ambitious electoral campaign.
There are many questions to be resolved, but today is one of those days when we remember a reality that is difficult to digest: in Colombia there are still criminals who dare to challenge the State.
prison emergency
Fernández’s murder occurs in the midst of a prison emergency in Colombia.
This was declared at the beginning of February in “response to recent cases of homicides, attacks and threats against Inpec guard personnel in different prisons in the country,” the Ministry of Justice reported in a statement.
It is the fourth emergency of this type in the history of the country. The previous one was in 2020 during the covid-19 pandemic.
With the measure, the authorities seek to regulate in-person visits in prisons, have greater autonomy in the execution of budgets and request reinforcements from the public force to guarantee the security of the penitentiary centers and the personnel in charge.
According to Inpec, “among the antecedents that led to this determination, it also stands out a 41% increase in extortion cases“and” it is observed a 100% increase in security incidents involving prison staff compared to the previous year,” the statement says.
The La Modelo prison, which has capacity for 2,900 prisoners, was also in the news during the pandemic due to overcrowding, when there were strong riots in which 23 people died and 83 were injured.
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