Margarita Salcedo Guevara is a titular judge of the Mixed Court of the Province of Yarowilca, Huánuco, in the central highlands of Peru. She was promoted as a judge of the Superior Court of National Criminal Justice, based in the capital of Peru, Lima.
Yaneth Navarro Flor (36) is a contracted teacher at the Andahuaylas elementary school, Apurímac region, and every 10 months she must fight for a contract in the teaching profession. She lives there with her two minor daughters. Navarro came to Lima, like thousands of other citizens, to protest against the government, except that months before he met with then-president Pedro Castillo Terrones, today in pretrial detention.
The third character in this story is another innocent. Cirilo Jara Mamani, father of a family, farmer and president of the peasant rounds of the town of Tinke, in the district of Ocongate, province of Quispicanchi, region of Cusco. Cirilo Jara is another of the thousands who, like Yaneth Navarro, came to Lima to protest against the Government.
Yaneth Navarro and Cirilo Jara were detained during a protest north of Lima that for the Police was a failed attempt to take over the Jorge Chávez airportthe most protected aeronautical center in Peru.
Police accused both of being part of a criminal organization, whose existence and scope are still unknown, which finances anti-government protests. These charges were supported in four hearings before Judge Margarita Salcedo.
In the penultimate hearing, the magistrate highlighted various gaps in the Prosecutor’s argument regarding the existence of the alleged criminal organization, its scope, objectives and members. The Prosecutor’s Office did not present indications or evidence of the existence of said organization. He said that will find out.
Grounds for prison
Until December 7, 2022, the judges of the National Criminal Court of Justice insisted that prosecutors must present concrete, clear, and doubtless evidence of the existence of a criminal organization in order to achieve pretrial detention. In a resolution issued before the protests, due to the lack of such proof, they released four police chiefs They were accused of corruption.
Judge Margarita Salcedo set aside that premise. Proving the existence of the crime is no longer necessary in the case of anti-government protests. But there is such a lack of evidence from the Public Prosecutor’s Office that this magistrate had to go beyond legal, legal, and criminal law absurdity..
For this reason, the magistrate tried to distance the defense of Yaneth Navarro, in charge of the lawyer Janet Marin, and that of Cirilo Jara, in charge of the lawyer Juan José Quispe of IDL. In order to obtain the support of one of the parties to the process, she issued preventive prison Navarro and granted restricted appearance to Jara.
He should have issued a simple appearance for both of them, since they had proven to have domiciliary and family roots and no intention or possibility of fleeing the investigations. This aspect is key to issuing preventive detention, in accordance with the jurisprudence and the judgments of the Supreme Court and the constitutional Court.
Also, they were both in the same condition. The charges are the same alleged illegal acts They are the same, and both live in the province, one in Andahuaylas and the other in Cusco, and they were arrested in Lima.
The only difference between the two, apart from their defense attorneys, is their gender. So, the judge concludes that Navarro lost his home roots when he came to Lima and left his daughters in Andahuaylas, for which he must serve 30 months in preventive detention..
About Jara, who also left his family in Cusco, he says nothing. he didn’t lose home rooting; Yaneth, a family mother, lost everything for fighting for his ideas.
Lawyer
Defending. In defense of Yaneth Navarro, his lawyer Janet Marin presented a police statement that he has a fixed address, next to his daughters in Andahuylasand that she is a contracted teacher.
Jara is released, but will remain under investigation
Cirilo Jara regained his freedom almost an hour after the judicial decision was read. He will continue under tax investigation with an impediment to leave the country, although he has never traveled abroad in his life. His mother, who came from Cusco to support him in Lima, was prevented from visiting him in the Police cell and from witnessing the judicial hearing, which, according to the Constitution of 1993must be developed with the assistance of the public.
Free. Cirilo Jara was released, but he must pay S/5,000. Photo: diffusion
Jara will comply with the appearance, upon payment of a security of S/5,000. A problem, because the Prosecutor’s Office considers money laundering if your community or family help you collect that figure. She must come out of his pocket.
