The Government took note of the bad mood in the home prisons and sought to lower the tone of the speech

Guido Carelli Lynch

04/30/2020 - 20:43

• Clarín.com
• Politics

The second day of negotiation between the inmates in the Federal Devotee complex and the authorities of the Executive Power and the Judiciary had significant absences. The Secretary of Justice Juan Martín Mena , who responds directly to Cristina Kirchner, was not part of the game. Neither was the federal judge of Criminal Cassation Gustavo Hornos , nor the prison attorney Ariel Cejas Meliare . "They were the ones who had made the promises to them and they were erased," said sources linked to the conversations between the inmates and the officials.

The benchmarks of the pavilions were not overlooked. Neither did the explanations of President Alberto Fernández, who on Wednesday rejected the existence of a plan to release prisoners, much less those of this Thursday, by the Minister of Justice Marcela Losardo . “I don't like the assassins and rapists going out on the street. And neither to the President. We are people of judgment, we are people who know the law and understand what happens to victims, "said the minister and chief of Mena, in the papers.

The Buenos Aires Minister of Justice Julio Alak , had been issued in the same direction. "I categorically deny that in the Province of Buenos Aires there is a plan to release detainees," he said. Since the pandemic began, nearly 1,400 prisoners in the Buenos Aires prison system have been in house arrest. From the Federal, about 340. 

In this context and with criticism from the opposition, they explicitly asked for the former number 2 of the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) and virtual vice-minister of Justice. The judge and president of the Criminal Cassation, Daniel Morín, Emilio Blanco , director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, and Pablo Barbuto, the undersecretary of Criminal Policy, the only envoy of the Losardo Portfolio, listened carefully.

One of the points of the act that reflects the extensive meeting between the leaders of the prison pavilions and the officials is precisely that Mena returns to the negotiating table as "ministerial interlocutor". "They request to reestablish the interlocutors that at the ministerial level (Dr Mena) who joined the dialogue tables on the 24th and 25th due to the fundamental role they played in said dialogue," states the first point of the act, in which it also sets out the request for the inmates so that the judges of criminal execution are summoned. It was further agreed that no prisoner will be transferred during the negotiations and the Penitentiary Service undertook to expedite reports on the conduct of prisoners .

Blanco made known the result of the first meeting: 805 reports of those sentenced to less than 3 years and the start of work in 405 cases, which could lead to assisted and conditional release; in addition to the 1,280 inmates who are part of the coronavirus risk groups. That ongoing negotiation gave air to the inmates to extend the validity of the talks for a few more days.

So far, only one positive case of coronavirus has been confirmed among the inmates - the same who had to be hospitalized due to the fall in Devoto - and four agents of the penitentiary system. At the moment, mass tests will not be carried out on the prison population, only those inmates with symptoms will be tested.

From the opposition they suggested to the national Ministry of Justice that all officers be periodically tested and that the protocol in prisons be expanded and deepened. 

Mena's absence coincided with the Executive's decision to silence the internal discussion and to emphasize the fact that the releases depend exclusively on the Judiciary. “They were trying different things. They are playing the game off the field, ”complained in the Government.

Marcela Losardo. The Minister of Justice was categorical.

In the Executive they do not believe in coincidences. They insist that there is an orchestrated plan to erode the government. In Olivos they believe that the media, economic and political sectors seek to pierce him. The statements of the actor and anti-Kirchner militant Alfredo Casero generated a bad mood . "I cannot understand that a President releases the number of prisoners he released," the actor said in remarks to TN. “Those statements are false and were later expanded by different means; You have to have more responsibility in this context, "said officials who did not hide their outrage, a while before the pan of protest that made itself felt strongly in the Federal Capital, the Buenos Aires metropolitan area and other cities in the country.

In this context, of his own accord, and with a quarantine and an economic crisis that undermines social humor, the President decided to tweet his position on the matter. The word of the highest executive authority in the country failed to drive away the level of conversation on social networks . Among the main trends, it was repeated that the Government authorized the departure of rapists and the call for a cacerolazo against impunity and against "liberations", which was heard this Thursday in many neighborhoods of the Capital.

The government does not pay attention to the inmates who refloated this fight within the ruling party. Nor to the crossings that go from Eugenio Zaffaroni to Sergio Berni ; nor to the hard position of Sergio Massa . Despite the crisis and the prison emergency that Mauricio Macri declared in 2019, there is no one responsible for the first political ranking on prisons; Losardo has not yet named his Deputy Secretary for Penitentiary Policies . Some remember that for that position he had thought of Blanco (Cristina Kirchner) but that it was Mena who kicked out the director of the SPF appointed in 2014.