The relatives of the three metropolitan police officers sentenced to 30 years in prison, although they insist that the officers are innocent, are only asking that they be granted substitute measures of liberty provided for in the Organic Code of Criminal Procedure
They are innocent and have been in prison for almost 20 years, two of which they have had to spend in a common jail. Héctor Rovaín, Erasmo Bolívar and Luis Molina, the metropolitan police officers sentenced to 30 years in prison for the events of April 11, 2002, have no truce.
It is the same request that the aunt of agent Erasmo Bolívar has been making for 11 years. She believes that the time has come to do justice in this case, since they have already spent another Christmas, number 20, between the bars.
“None of them was found to be involved in two of the 19 deaths that occurred in Puente Llaguno, the only ones for which they were tried. We demand that the law be complied with and that they be granted alternative measures to serving the sentence, to which they have been entitled since 2011,” cried María Bolívar, aunt of agent Erasmo Bolívar.
The three officers served most of their sentences at the Ramo Verde National Center for Military Prosecutors, in Los Teques. Since October 22, 2021, they were transferred to the Fénix Penitentiary Center, in Barquisimeto, where they hardly have access to the food that their relatives send them.
“Most of the time they go hungry, because it is very difficult for us to travel from La Guaira or from Miranda to Barquisimeto,” Bolívar claimed.
Since they have been in Fénix they have not received frequent visits from relatives. The distance from their homes prevents their wives, children, siblings or uncles from visiting them frequently, nor can they bring them the food and medicine they require, since costs do not allow it. This is how they remain, incommunicado, with no more food than the rice with water that they serve in the prison.
The insecurity in that detention center is another of the problems they face. The fear for his life remains latent and the relatives pray every day that nothing happens to them.
This could be avoided if the government allowed officials to be granted alternative measures to serving their sentences, which would return them to their homes with their families during these festivities.
*Read also: Provea calls for the release of political prisoners: “We are in time for a Christmas miracle”
the sentences
Agent Erasmo Bolívar was sentenced to 30 years in prison for a photo. He never fired his weapon and this was determined by the officials of the Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigation Corps (Cicpc) during the trial, who exonerated him of responsibilities.
Inspector Héctor Rovaín was also sentenced to 30 years in prison. But the bullets from his service weapon did not match those found in the bodies. The Cicpc exonerated him, Judge Maryorie Calderón sent him to jail. First Corporal Luis Enrique Molina did not fire either, but today he faces a sentence of 30 years in prison.
In the trial that sentenced nine officers of the Metropolitan Police there were many inconsistencies. One of the worst was the one that ignored the conclusions of the investigations of the multidisciplinary commission created for this case and chaired by the chief commissioner of the Cicpc, Marcos Chávez, appointed by the Public ministry.
This body concluded that all the weapons belonging to the general park of the PM submitted to experts and the officials who acted on April 11 were not related to any of the deaths that occurred on April 11. This is how Commissioner Chávez testified at the trial.
Arrested in April 2003, the officials have spent 20 Christmases behind bars. The request of the next of kin is the same: The granting of alternative measures to serving the sentence, which is granted by the Organic Code of Criminal Procedure.
“There are several alternatives, from work detachments to probation. Anyone can grant them because they are all expired, the first since 2011,” Bolívar insisted.
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