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News > Latin America

Chilean Prison Guard Charged: Enabling Torture of Ecuadoreans

  • Inmates are seen inside the Topo Chico prison during a media tour in Monterrey, Mexico, February 17, 2016.

    Inmates are seen inside the Topo Chico prison during a media tour in Monterrey, Mexico, February 17, 2016. | Photo: Reuters

Published 27 June 2018
Opinion

Investigators say Sergeant Hector Palma enabled the torture of two imprisoned Ecuadoreans, Jhonatan Chavez and Cristina Romero - they disagree.

Chilean authorities revealed that the torture of two imprisoned Ecuadoreans in a Santiago prison last week was likely planned by jail officials.

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Chile's North Central Prosecutor's Office revealed on Wednesday that Sergeant Hector Palma, in charge of the ward where the beatings took place, did not inform the person in charge of security cameras of the incident, per protocol, until long after it had occurred. Because of this, say prosecutors, the event went unrecorded by the prison’s camera system.

Their information is per a report conducted by the Chilean Investigatory Police (PDI).

Sergeant Palma is now in preventative detention for allegedly enabling and turning a "blind eye" to the torture that took place under his charge. Palma claims he is innocent and in fact, helped save the two Ecuadorean inmates - Jhonatan Chavez and Cristian Romero, detained on charges for robbing and beating to death Margarita Ancacoy - from the reportedly more than 50 inmates he found torturing the two with electrical shocks on June 20.

Officer Miranda Bustamante, in charge of the security surveillance system in the ward where the beatings happened, disagrees.

In his statement to the PDI Bustamante said Palma never told him of the beatings as they were taking place in order to record them: "When this type of incident occurs, the official in charge of the cell ward should immediately tell the security surveillance room in order to have visual support and record what is happening," says Bustamante.

The officer asserts that Sergeant Palma, in charge of the cells where the beatings happened, never contacted the surveillance room. The prosecutors' office is saying Palma allowed the beatings to occur.

The officer says on the day of the tortures, the cameras were focused on the inmate visitors’ room between 9:00 AM and 2:00 PM. According to the PDI report the beatings took place between 12:00 PM and 1:30 PM in the cell area.

Bustamante says he wasn’t informed that the tortures took place until 4:30 PM.  

"Based on the analysis of … police statements, work on site, verification of injuries sustained by the victims, and the video circulating on social networks, it was possible to prove … that the inmates Cristian Romero and Jonathan Chavez were victims of physical and psychological attacks within ward 11," the PDI document says.

The two were reportedly beaten, shaved and electrocuted by up to 50 inmates according to national media. Four inmates are facing charges for the event.

Palma released a letter from his jail cell saying that "instead of being given a medal to save the lives of two inmates, I am deprived of my freedom," claiming he saved the two Ecuadoreans from further torture.

And the two agree. Romero and Chavez both gave statements that Palma had saved them. According to La Tercera, Romero told the PDI: "I tried to run, but all I felt were more punches, feet, objects falling to the floor until an officer appeared and helped me stand up and took us to a safety. Thanks to his help, I managed to get out of this situation alive."

Chavez declared that "after several minutes of assaults, an inmate told us to stop and run to the exit, so we tried to run, but almost all the inmates followed us and continued to attack us. Just at that moment, an officer came who took us out of the yard, managing to end the beating we were getting."

In his letter, Palma says Chavez and Romero thanked him for saving their lives.

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