2024-10-08 04:37:50
Prosecutor Ximena Chong detailed the 228 cases that are attributed to the generals (r) of Carabineros, Ricardo Yáñez, Mario Rozas and Diego Olate, and also specified the omissions that they would have committed in the social outbreak.
This Wednesday, October 2, in the Seventh Guarantee Court of Santiago, the second day of formalization of the former Carabineros generals was held, Ricardo Yanez, Mario Rozas y Diego Olatewho are accused of crimes of omission of illegitimate pressure resulting in serious injuries and homicidewithin the framework of the social outbreak of 2019.
Initially, it was expected that they would face charges in 1,386 cases. However, the chief prosecutor of High Complexity of the North Central Prosecutor’s Office, Ximena Chong announced that they reduced the figure to 228. The above, to focus on the causes where the victims were seriously injured riot weapons such as shotguns and gas launcherswhich caused serious, very serious injuries or deaths.
The details of the events and the case that was discarded in the formalization of Ricardo Yáñez
Under this context, the pursuer continued detailing each of the cases, providing the name of the victim, the date and the description of the events to argue alleged omissive acts by senior officials. This, by ensuring that in said cases the uniformed officers used anti-riot weapons “without maintaining a safe shooting distance.”which translates into a “abuse of office”and outside the rules on the use of force contained in circular 1832 and the operations manual for the control of public order.”
Regarding the cases that were presented, there are those of Gustavo Gatica and Senator Fabiola Campillai.
In the middle of the story of the charges, prosecutor Ximena Chong told the judge Cristian Sanchez that he case 200 was going to be discarded. The above, following a correction made by one of the complaining attorneys, who pointed out that the event took place in a different period than the one under investigation.
This corresponds to the case in which Felipe Ávila was the victim, the fact of which was presented as an incident that occurred on December 11, 2019. However, this happened in 2020. In this sense, cases were reduced from 229 to 228.
The omissions attributed to Ricardo Yáñez, Mario Rozas and Diego Olate
After that, Chong began to specify the omissions that the Carabineros generals (r) would have committed during October 2019 and March 2020. Yáñez, Rozas and Olate, “They had the duty to prevent or stop the repeated commission of illegitimate pressures by their subordinates, a duty that they omitted.“, he started saying.
Along these lines, he specified that the former senior officers did not fulfill four of their obligations in office. These had to do with the control and regulation of the use of weapons and ammunition, compliance and promotion of human rights. HH, the duty of supervision and the duty of discipline.
Regarding the rules for the use of weapons, the prosecutor maintained that there was an abusive use of these tools and that there was a lack of supervision.
Regarding compliance with human rights regulations, the prosecutor assured that many agreements and measures were not complied with within the framework of the social outbreak. “The mere signing of these agreements does not in itself constitute compliance with the due protection of human rights, a duty rooted in their materialization.“, he explained. As for the officials who served as observers, they would not have carried out work in the field.
Another of the points that the Prosecutor’s Office alleges has to do with the lack of vigilance when the Carabineros act. In detail, it refers to the absence of evaluations of police execution programs in the context of the popular revolt.
Along these lines, he assured that Ricardo Yáñez had the responsibility of controlling and evaluating the actions of the officers, since he was in charge of the Order and Security Directorate. Like Yáñez, Rozas and Olate were also charged with having the duty to deliver the guidelines and direct the subordinates, in addition to supervising them. In that sense, he criticized the measures that were applied and those that had no effect.
To close with the alleged omissions of the generals (r) of Carabineros, the Prosecutor’s Office argued that they did not apply changes to the rules by which internal summaries were opened. In this context, they maintained that of the open summaries, only 5.6% were sanctioned.
In this scenario, according to the prosecutor, only 536 officers left the institution within the framework of the social outbreak. Of this number, only 12 were discharged due to illegitimate pressure, which would make it clear that the disciplinary measures taken were very few, compared to the number of cases that were reported.
The figures left by the social outbreak
Regarding the numbers of injured, according to data from the Prosecutor’s Office, “between October 18, 2019 and March 31, 2020 there were 4,808 injured police officers and 1,409 injured civilians.”
To which Chong added: “However, as we already indicated, the permanent mission in Chile to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva states that two months after the start of the social demonstrations, that is, on December 18, 2019 , 13,046 people would have been treated in emergency care services, of which 641 required hospitalization and 50 of them were at risk of life,” details prosecutor Chong.
Under this scenario, the prosecutor assured that “of the complaints that were filed against personnel of the institution, there was neither a record nor a follow-up that would allow the sources of administrative responsibility to be considered.”
Regarding the ocular traumas, the prosecutor stated that the record that the Carabineros has “It is drastically lower than the number of complaints that were circulating publicly.”
When will the formalization of Ricardo Yáñez, Mario Rozas and Diego Olate resume?
After the Prosecutor’s Office concluded its arguments, the Judge Cristián Sánchez suspended the hearing until the Monday, October 14 at 9:00 a.m. so that Ricardo Yáñez’s defense has time to prepare its presentation.