The Minister of Justice, Marcela Riosaddressed the controversy generated by the transfer of Mapuche prisoners from the Preventive Detention Center of Angol -La Araucanía region- to the Education and Labor Center of the same locality, added to one who was directed to a hospital, this after meeting on a hunger strike and threats against the prison warden, louis poveda.
This decision made by the Chilean Gendarmerie provoked criticism from the opposition who began to analyze the option of taking the head of Justice to a constitutional accusation, since her portfolio is in control of the uniformed institution and they pointed out that said transfers did not are under the legal norm. In turn, they also requested the resignation of Ríos from her position.
In this regard, the Secretary of State clarified that “we have been participating and available to collaborate in all instances of Congress, yesterday we had a closed session in the Senate and there is an investigative commission in the House in which we have been collaborating” .
As stated Third, The minister indicated that a report on what happened was requested from the institution. “Chilean Gendarmerie does not operate based on pressure, there are rules, regulations, formal procedures that are authorized and legally constituted for the actions of the Gendarmerie. but the information that the Gendarmerie has delivered is that all the protocols and all the formal procedures on which the Gendarmerie must act have been followed,” he said.
Support to Gendarmerie
Despite the fact that organizations of penitentiary officials point out that the transfer was carried out “outside the law”, specifying that it did not have the full approval of the technical committee that evaluated the cases for the transfer; Ríos supported the actions of the Gendarmerie.
“For us it is very important to be respectful of the work of the Chilean Gendarmerie. The Chilean Gendarmerie is a body that has legal, formal administrative powers and that makes decisions based on its regulations. So, in that sense, we are going to continue supporting the actions of the Gendarmerie that follows all the rules, all the procedures and all the legal frameworks that support their work,” the minister stressed.
