In one of the first formal aftershocks of the riot at the Special High Security Penitentiary (Repas), which began on June 6 and lasted for at least 11 days, the first formal hearing regarding these incidents was set for August 8, specifically for the crimes of threats and attacks against the authority, following what happened in the early hours and morning of that day.
As reported The counterAfter midnight that day, there was a massive power outage in the Pedro Montt sector, after which incidents began to occur in the Repas, in the midst of which three inmates threatened to kill the gendarmes who were carrying out a patrol. nightly through the cells, telling them: “I am a murderer here (and) everywhere, we can murder you in the street, wherever.”
Later, the same individuals, plus other inmates, led by the hitman of the Tren de Aragua (TDA) Hernán Landaeta Garlotti, better known as “Satanás”, met in courtyard number three of the prison and made sharp weapons from the metal legs of a ping-pong table. When twenty gendarmes entered the place to subdue them, all the inmates automatically protected “Satanás”.
Once reduced, the subjects began to individually destroy their cells, generating damage that the Gendarmerie estimates at 197 million pesos.
In light of this, following the respective complaint, an investigation was initiated by Alika Sukni, prosecutor of the justice center, who requested the indictment of 17 subjects, most of them members of the TDA, but the list also includes members of other transnational criminal organizations, such as Los Gallegos and Los Pulpos, so this hearing, scheduled for 11 a.m. on August 8, in room 302 of building A of the Justice Center, will be the first in which members of the most dangerous groups in Chile will be indicted in a single case.
The resolution of Judge Carla Capello, of the Seventh Criminal Court of Santiago, indicates that in addition to notification to the accused, “their timely transfer through GENCHI (Special High Security Unit) must be requested with the necessary measures and safeguards, to the corresponding locutory or courtroom.” In this way, the judge left open the possibility that the inmates be taken to the room on the fourth floor of the Repas, where a space was set up in which the inmates belonging to Los Gallegos can connect electronically to the trial that is being followed against them in Arica.
It should be noted that among those formalized is, in addition to “Satanás”, one of the most important leaders of the TDA in Chile, Edwards Nava Navarro.
There are also the members of that group accused of the murder of non-commissioned officer Daniel Palma, namely, Ovicmarlixon Garcés Briceño, David Fuentes Escalona and Lermi Albarrán Angulo; as well as those accused of the kidnapping of a businessman in Rancagua: Danyerson Carreño Díaz, Angelo Cerdeño, Néstor Mojica, Brian Sánchez Muñoz, Leonardo Vásquez Yzaguirre and Jorkenidy Torres Marchan.
Another member of the TDA who will be formalized is Wuilberth Olivares Peña, one of those arrested for the crime of Major Emmanuel Sánchez, murdered in the commune of Independencia.
Another of the Aragua Train soldiers who will be charged that day is Francisco Valero Castillo, who is in preventive detention, due to his participation in the violent murder of two farmers who were assaulted at the entrance to Malloa, last February.
The leader of the TDA’s “Kidnapping Plaza”, Wilken Rondón Márquez, and his second-in-command, José Candurín Meléndez, will also be charged. Both are part of “Los Piratas de Aragua”, who participated in several kidnappings with homicides in Santiago and the Valparaíso Region.
Luis Daga Lozano, “Pacolo,” leader of “Los Pulpos Nueva Generación,” a group originating in Trujillo (Peru) that specializes in extorting merchants but also has several homicides to its name, will also be charged, as will Javier Valencia González, linked in his native country (Colombia) to the United Self-Defense Forces, the far-right paramilitaries now dedicated to drug trafficking.
Valencia, known as “Zeus”, has several homicides to his credit, as the leader of a criminal organization that had taken over an entire camp in Antofagasta, which was dismantled a couple of months ago by the Prosecutor’s Office of that city and the civil police. .
“We are going to hang you in the yard.”
In addition to this, last Thursday the Gendarmerie filed three complaints within the framework of the State Security Law, for a crime of threats, as well as for damages and injuries.
The first complaint is against the most important TDA leader ever detained in Chile, Carlos González Vaca, better known as “Estrella.” According to the libel, presented before the same court (Seventh Guarantee Court), on June 18, that is, one day after the riot ended, a gendarme took “Estrella” to the subway, “to arrange a family visit to through the booth.”
According to the document, “without any provocation on the part of the prison officer,” the inmate threatened him by calling him by his name, after which he told him “we are going to hang you in the yard, I have a knife in my cell,” an event that – the accusation states – was recorded on the gendarme’s GoPro camera.
In addition to this case, the institution complained about the threats and serious, less serious and minor injuries that 12 officers and non-commissioned officers suffered that day, accusing (in the second case) the crime of mistreatment of a member of the Gendarmerie in the exercise of their duties. functions.
Finally, the Gendarmerie filed a complaint for qualified damages, stating that the riot took place between June 6 and 17, causing “serious public commotion” and asserting that it was carried out by “inmates who are considered highly dangerous, linked to serious crimes and transnational gangs, who seek to impose their illegitimate authority within the High Security Penitentiary through these disorders.”
According to the lawsuit, during those 11 days there were at least “15 extraordinary events of various nature,” stating that the exact amount of damages is $197,071,440, “which includes the destruction of infrastructure, as well as damage to fiscal furniture.” and security, such as CCTV cameras and the drinking water network system.”
Read the formalization resolution
