RN deputies threatened with an accusation (AC) against the Minister of Justice, Marcela Ríos, if prison benefits are not revoked for those Mapuche prisoners who received prison benefits after being on hunger strike. This, after a Comptroller’s opinion questioned that sanctions were not applied to those inmates who incur in a measure of this type.
The Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR) objected to a provision of exempt resolution No. 3,925 of 2020, issued by the National Directorate of Gendarmerie regarding prisoners of indigenous ethnicity.
The regulation establishes that inmates cannot be deprived of prison benefits -such as exit permits, application to education and work centers (CET) or probation- for not attending educational programs.
This, since there are no intercultural activities, so their participation is not a necessary condition to apply for the aforementioned benefits.
This point was not refuted by the CGR. However, what was questioned was that no sanctions were applied -such as preventing access to benefits- to inmates who began a hunger strike.
According to a Comptroller’s opinion, to which CHV Noticias had access, this is a “serious disciplinary offense” to the internal regime of a penal facility, therefore it is not appropriate for exempt resolution No. 3,925 to alter the provisions of the regulations.
“It was not appropriate for such instructions will alter the nature and consequences of a conduct expressly regulated in the current regulations, and GENCHI must, as of this pronouncement, refrain from continuing to apply said instructions in this regard”, states the opinion signed by Jorge Bermúdez.
RN deputies threaten AC against minister Ríos
The document from the comptroller body was a response to a letter from deputies Camila Flores, Andrés Longton, Miguel Mellado and Diego Schalper, from Renovación Nacional.
After learning the result, the congressmen asked the Minister of Justice, Marcela Ríos, to revoke prison benefits for inmates who have started a hunger strike.
Longton, RN bench chief, pointed out that “the Comptroller has just found us right. The resolution based on the prison benefits against convicted inmates in Angol, and other benefits given to Mapuche inmates, is illegal”.
“We hope that the Minister of Justice, who gave the penitentiary benefits to transfer these inmates to an education and work center, annuls them because they were issued against the law, under a resolution that is not covered by current regulations”, he added.
For his part, Mellado assured that “Celestino Córdova, his cousins (José and Luis) Tralcal and other Angol prisoners who have actually been sentenced by the courts and who for being Mapuche they are giving them a way out through an exempt resolution that is totally and absolutely at odds with the law”.
Finally, it was indicated that they will proceed with a constitutional accusation< /strong> against Minister Ríos if he does not agree to their requests.