On June 26, the Ministry of Justice reported the transfer of 42 inmates -40 of foreign nationality and two Chileans- from the Santiago 1 prison to other prisons. The subjects were extorting first-time defendants, as verified by Judge Fernando Guzmán after a surprise visit to the Preventive Detention Center.
After Judge Guzmán reported that there are organizations in Santiago 1 that carry out extortion and other types of attacks against first-time prisoners, the statements of the Undersecretary of Justice show that this situation is part of the crimes that organized crime frequently commits in the penalties.
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consulted by ThirdJaime Gajardo Falcón (PC), head of the Undersecretariat of Justice, pointed out that “we have different types of crimes that these organized gangs, or these organized crime gangs, are committing. Among others, for example, extortion of the inmates themselves and the commission of crimes from penitentiary establishments abroad, which can be of multiple types”.
“Also the internment of drugs into prisons, the internment of other illicit devices, for example, cell phones and certain devices, mainly bladed weapons. For now we have not had a history of other types of weapons that are not bladed weapons, but we are fine-tuning coordination with intersectoral intelligence, that is, with Carabineros and the Investigative Police (PDI),” added Gajardo.
After what was discovered in Santiago 1 about the first-time prisoners, the official from the Ministry of Justice reported that he personally instructed the director of the Gendarmerie, Sebastián Urra, to initiate all the investigations, “because we also have to see if there is some type of collaboration or another type of consent on the part of the gendarmes themselves”. Undersecretary Gajardo explained that knowing what is allowing this type of situation to happen inside penitentiary establishments, “is something that we saw with the director of the Gendarmerie and we want to be very strict: we do not want this to happen.”
And he added: “We have discussed it with the unions as well, because we know that the people who work in the Gendarmerie carry out a very complex function, in very difficult conditions, and there we have also suggested that our plan includes working to improve their working conditions. “.
Finally, along with clarifying that they have to avoid the stigmatization of foreigners, since they continue to be fewer than those convicted or detained in Chile, the Undersecretary of Justice stated that the arrival of foreigners in Chilean prisons is something that they are pending and “It’s changing the way people live in penalties.” According to Gajardo, these “have more organization, they are much more uninhibited, much more cruel, more determined. They are quite different and we are studying that.”
