Director of La Modelo Jail Murdered in Bogotá: Newest Information and Evaluation

2024-05-17 04:18:45

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Subtitle, Élmer Fernandez took over the course of La Modelo in April 2024. Article data

• Creator, Writing
• function, BBC Information World

• 8 occasions

The director of La Modelo jail, retired colonel Élmer Fernandez, 57, was murdered in Bogotá final Thursday whereas touring residence within the night.

The Minister of Justice of Colombia, Néstor Osuna, confirmed the information, who introduced an operation to seek out these answerable for the murder and declared that the safety of the Nationwide Penitentiary Institute (Inpec) could be bolstered.

The recognized pictures of the assault present a dark-colored automotive with a bullet mark in one of many home windows that was apparently fired by individuals on board a motorbike.

Colonel Fernández, who retired from the police in 2017 and was posted in La Modelo for six weeksthat he had acquired threats for his efforts to reform and management the jail, together with fixed searches of prisoners, based on the native press.

President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, condemned the homicide and despatched a message of solidarity to the Fernández household.

The colonel “took workplace on the 4th of April, he was giving orders to offer self-discipline and make random searches. In the present day he’s badly murdered,” wrote Petro in his X account.

His authorities is predicted to announce a contingency plan for the nation’s prisons.

Daniel Gutiérrez, director of Inpec, mentioned that the homicide of Fernández is essentially the most critical incident, that they’ve acquired 550 threats in two years and that the establishment “he doesn’t have the capabilities to guard the lives of the penitentiary officers”.

A tough reminiscence of darkish occasions

Evaluation by José Carlos Cueto, BBC Information Mundo correspondent in Colombia

Shot in the course of the afternoon and in the course of the general public highway.

The situations of the homicide of Élmer Fernández, director of Bogotá’s La Modelo jail, are a stark reminder of darker occasions for Bogota residents.

Just a few kilometers from NQS Avenue and eightieth Road, the place the assassination befell, the strikers ended the lifetime of the Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla 40 years in the past, who was engaged in an open struggle towards drug trafficking and arranged crime who was then in control of Medellín the Pablo Escobar. poster.

Like Bonilla and different officers who died throughout that turbulent interval, Fernández confronted dying threats due to his work towards crime.

The scene of the murder was quickly crammed with police, ambulances, journalists and onlookers.

From the media and official channels, persistence was requested from all drivers who should cross by police checkpoints in a time trial operation to arrest these concerned.

Because the hours cross, Colombia’s preliminary shock offers technique to anger.

Many marvel how, if Fernández was put at risk of dying, he didn’t have sufficient safety preparations.

In addition they query the state of the nation’s prisons, trying with worry at different Latin American nations the place they’re now de facto facilities of operation for legal organizations.

There has additionally been no scarcity of criticism of Petro’s administration, which promised safety enhancements and jail reforms throughout his formidable election marketing campaign.

There are lots of points to be resolved, however as we speak is a type of days after we bear in mind a actuality that’s troublesome to digest: in Colombia there are nonetheless criminals who dare to problem the State.

jail emergency

Subtitle, La Modelo has capability for two,900 prisoners.

In February of this yr, a jail emergency was declared in Colombia, in “response to latest circumstances of murder, assaults and threats towards Inpec guard personnel in varied prisons within the nation,” the Ministry of Justice reported in a press release.

That is the fourth such emergency within the historical past of the nation, the latest of which occurred in 2020 in the course of the covid-19 pandemic.

With this measure, the authorities search to manage private visits to prisons, have extra autonomy within the execution of budgets and ask for reinforcements to the general public power to make sure the safety of penitentiary facilities and the personnel in cost. assure

As reported by Inpec, “among the many preliminary selections that led to this determination, a 41% enhance in extortion circumstances additionally stands out” and “a 100% enhance in safety incidents associated to jail workers has been noticed in comparison with the a yr earlier than,” the assertion. mentioned.

La Modelo jail, which has a capability for two,900 inmates, was additionally within the information in the course of the pandemic attributable to overcrowding, the place there have been violent riots through which 23 individuals died and 83 have been injured.

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