The ombudsman (e), César Córdova, said that the entity has issued recommendations, but they have not been addressed. Suggest that SNAI deconcentrate functions.
On November 10, the board of directors of the Technical Agency of the National Social Rehabilitation System approved the creation of a Commission of Emergent Intervention in the centers of deprivation of liberty, which would be chaired by the Ombudsman’s Office. One of the functions that should be performed the Ombudsman’s Office would issue public policies, as indicated by the Secretariat for Human Rights to this newspaper.
Nevertheless, the ombudsman (e), César Córdova, clarifies that this intention is not legally feasible, since it goes against the reason of being of the Defensoría. The official indicates that alerts have been issued about the situation in the prisons, but they have not been attended to.
Council for Citizen Participation will debate the mechanisms that it will apply to convene the dialogue tables due to the prison crisis
What will be the role of the Ombudsman in the Intervention Commission, should it issue policies to address the prison crisis?
The constitutional role of the Defensoría is to be the guardian body of human rights, monitor compliance. The entity that dictates public policy is the Secretariat for Human Rights and the executing body is the SNAI (National Service for Comprehensive Attention to Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders). Those who accompany the SNAI, as executors, are the various ministries.
It is impossible, legally, constitutionally and legally unite and put in the same basket the executors, those who dictate public policy and those who monitor. (It) denatures the function of the Ombudsman’s Office.
We cannot mix, but we can, in a coordinated way, help so that the Ombudsman’s Office can influence the creation of public policy through the implementation of recommendations and protocols that the various international institutes on human rights have. We have already come with this incident and with timely alerts communicated to the Presidency (of the Republic). This is where our role goes. We cannot go any further, because the Ombudsman’s Office would be the object of observation by the Assembly, for arrogance of functions that do not correspond to it.
So, what is the Commission going to do; what can you do?
I propose that this be two-headed mechanism. On the one hand we have to put everyone who executes public policy: SNAI, Ministry of Government, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Council of the Judiciary, National Court of Justice, INEC. Each of these entities must declare themselves in emergency, in the performance of their functions.
The Court of Justice has to, through the judges of prison guarantees, begin to make more agile the granting of prison benefits to those people who really deserve it. The Council of the Judiciary must implement and inform the operators of justice what is the concept of preventive detention, as a last ratio … it seems they forgot. Some of those who were murdered (in the Litoral Penitentiary) were in preventive detention; that is to say, the guilt of the crime that was imputed to them had not been proven; they enjoyed the principle of innocence. What’s more, SNAI must deconcentrate its functions, they have everything in Quito. All of this was recommended before, it is not up to now.
What entities would make up the other part of that two-headed commission?
In the other part the Secretariat for Human Rights, the Episcopal Conference, the Evangelical Church, the International Red Cross, the UN through the Subcommittee against Torture, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Mechanisms that lead to a pacification process must be activated. It is not a negotiation process. Peace is not negotiated, it is a mediation process. The objective is to disarm the groups (criminals) and reach conciliation processes.
Has this proposal already been made official to the Presidency?
A first report has already been released, on November 13. I will present another. This project has to be launched. It is not that the Government does not have a north, it does. We have presented the possible alternative solutions to the technical body. This was replicated in the National Assembly when the Sovereignty Commission called on the entities to explain what has been done. We present our proposal. The Assembly issued a report on this issue and, coincidentally, we are going in unison. Finally, we received the seventh periodic report from Ecuador with the final observations issued by the United Nations Committee against Torture; that report is similar to the one we have presented.
If recommendations have already been made, why are there no progress and results?
I read your mind and you read mine. I don’t need to know who is the culprit here. We do not need to search for names and surnames, because we have it, we know it. This is a political decision of each institution, that they fulfill the role that they have to fulfill. If each institution does not fulfill its constitutional and legal role entrusted … By God, we’re going to have another massacre in December! And I say December as a very distant date. I think that another carnage is just around the corner. Alerts are launched.
46 of 62 corpses of inmates murdered in the Litoral Penitentiary have already been recognized
To what extent can they pay for the announcements made by President Guillermo Lasso?
I like the seven points that the president announced, of which I see that he shares with me the exhortation that I made days ago, because it seems that we are thinking about solutions. The solution in the Penitentiary is not for now, it has to be for the future. The solutions have been given (by the Ombudsman’s Office): carry out a prison census, preventive detention as a last resort, reduce prison overcrowding. The solutions are in place, please, let’s take those tools, let’s apply.
Has the Ombudsman’s Office had access to the list of inmates who were murdered at the Litoral Penitentiary?
On Twitter we had to get (a message), on November 14, (and) ask the SNAI (the list), but unfortunately we don’t have one. I guess they are pretty busy.
Have they given you reasons why they don’t provide you with that information?
Unfortunately not. The verbal request was made by the delegate of the Ombudsman’s Office in Guayas. He was there (in the Penitentiary). We were in the morgue, in the Prosecutor’s Office. We asked SNAI people, (but they told us) that they are going to give us.
What has the Ombudsman done with the victims’ families?
We joined with the Secretariat for Human Rights because they have the capacity, with psychologists, to help. As Ombudsman we are present, in all these places, seeing that the DD are complied with. H H. in the Prosecutor’s Office, in the morgue, in the Penitentiary … That there is no revictimization of the next of kin. We provide support and advice on human rights. We have asked the University of Guayaquil to help us with psychologists. As much as we want, we don’t have a budget, we don’t have professional psychologists, we don’t have enough staff. Our budget was cut every year, from 5 to 10%. With what little we have, we assist, to advise these people who are going through hard times. (I)
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
