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Gustavo Petro gambles with the release of those detained in the protests

2022-12-06T11:03:37.737Z


The president promises that he will release hundreds of young people who participated in the social outbreak from jail before Christmas


A group of protesters protest in Bogotá, in May 2022.IVÁN VALENCIA

Some prisons in Colombia are getting ready to open the door to young people who were detained for alleged crimes committed in the protests.

This weekend, Petro has responded to those who demanded that he fulfill his campaign promise and has given a deadline: before Christmas, the people who have been imprisoned for events that occurred within the framework of the social outbreak will return to their homes.

“The right to protest is a democratic right.

The right to express oneself, to mobilize, is a democratic right.

Governments that order their police to kill, imprison, torture and detain young people are not democratic governments.

And this is the government of change,” said the president on Saturday in Pasto, in a meeting with leaders of the Community Action Boards.

Petro spoke moved about the young people who stood up to the protests, in the so-called front lines.

"Here I announce that hundreds of young people arrested for participating in protests will be declared peace managers before Christmas Eve," he announced to an audience that did not stop applauding him.

"This government does not side with youth, social and activist leaders who simply expressed themselves, keeping them imprisoned in Colombian jails," said the president.

Petro has promised a process within a difficult deadline because there is not even an exact figure of how many people have been arrested.

To achieve his objective, each case should be studied separately and comply with a legal process that allows his release, as announced by the government spokesman, Alfonso Prada.

The Petro Executive is working at full speed to achieve a regulation that speeds up the process.

"We have created a high-level commission that will be in charge of the regulations and that will have the function of advising and recommending the President of the Republic in the use of this power granted by Congress and that we will proceed to regulate,"

The government's announcement has been rejected, as expected, by the right.

"Is the release of the frontline criminal members as peace managers in the process with the ELN the government's recognition that there was indeed guerrilla infiltration in the strike and that that part of the front line is the ELN?" Senator Paloma Valencia, of the opposition Democratic Center party, wrote in a tweet.

Voices close to the government also disagreed with the idea.

“Without a doubt there were illegal arrests of citizens in the context of the protests, but there were also serious real acts of torture, terrorism, rape and homicide,” said Congresswoman Katherine Miranda, from the Green party.

Former minister Juan Camilo Restrepo, former head of the negotiation with the ELN, also questioned the measure:

Sergio Forero, who was one of the detainees on the front line in Boyacá, assumed that the reaction to the government's measure would be, above all, rejection.

"Language has been used in the traditional media that seeks to generate instability, to make us look as if we were members of a guerrilla or members of a group outside the law, we act with just causes," says Forero, who is graduated with a degree in Social Sciences.

“On December 22 I graduate.

That makes me happy, I came to think that due to the [judicial] process I could lose my place [at the university,” he says by phone.

He is concerned, however, that the Government does not contemplate amnesties or pardons.

Young people also seek to be free from judicial processes.

“There was institutional violence, which did not kill young people,

Prada has said that some 230 people have been prosecuted, the Prosecutor's Office says that there are 118 indictments and Congressman Alirio Uribe points out that there are 150 detainees in jails for acts related to the protests.

It is expected that this week, the Government will specify how many and when they will begin to leave prisons, some have been in maximum security prisons for more than a year.

“First you have to issue the regulations, which you will know between now and tomorrow (Tuesday).

We declare that it is not an amnesty, it is not a pardon.

I reiterate that it is not a judicial pardon.

Those who are going to be beneficiaries of this measure are legally bound to the files and will run the fate that the judges finally define in a court ruling, ”explained the government spokesperson before the first criticisms.

"The president, once the analysis of each particular case is issued, individually and independently, will make a request for suspension of capture that he will address to the corresponding judicial authority," said the government spokesperson, who announced that the measure will also be for social and peasant leaders who have been captured for protesting.

“A decree will define the functions that they will have as spokespersons for the president in matters of peace and citizen coexistence.

For those who have been in one way or another accused of having affected property, one of their functions will be precisely to take care of them”, he gave Prada as an example.

Alirio Uribe, one of the congressmen who is promoting amnesty as a bill, says that most of the young people on the front line who have been released from prison have been because the courts did not find evidence to incriminate them.

“The Prosecutor's Office has often not had a way to withstand a sentence.

The accusations were exorbitant, with crimes such as homicide, possession of weapons, kidnapping…”, lists the congressman from the Historical Pact.

According to the census that he has led, with the visits of his team in Congress and other parliamentarians to prisons, about 230 people are still detained, 150 in prisons and the rest are awaiting sentence under home measure.

Petro's proposal is backed by a norm (Law 418 of 1997), which has been applied above all in cases involving guerrillas.

Alias ​​Karina from the FARC, or Carlos Velandia from the ELN, managed to leave prisons to join peace processes.

Now, Petro opens a door so that detainees who are not linked to armed groups can also benefit.

Former judge and congressman Pedro Vacca assures that in cases like that of Sergio Andrés Pastor, a young man described by the media as

Alias ​​19

, accused of torture, there will be no benefit.

“There is a type of crime that will not be covered by this release.

We consider that crimes against humanity, crimes related to torture and serious, cannot be released and the Government knows it.

We believe that Alias ​​19 will not be subject to this decision," he told RCN Radio.

Juliana Higuera was arrested in November of last year in Boyacá, in the midst of a massive capture of young people who had been the visible faces of the marches.

In February, she managed to get the court to revoke the seizure measure, but her case in court continues.

“What will each release process be like?

Hopefully the president's pronouncement will not remain a mere populist speech," says Higuera, who leads the Ni1D1A + ¡Libres y acquitted! campaign.

“It is a very complex process, there are many cases and the procedures are not simple.

It is not so easy that they all get released before Christmas,” she says. “The announcement has raised a lot of expectations, we hope they meet us.”

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-12-06

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