In an interview with this newspaper, the official affirms that there is no proportionality to issue punishments for environmental crimes.
On November 30, former police officer Nixon Alejandro PD, sentenced to three years in prison for trying to traffic 185 turtles in the Galapagos Islands, was released. A court of the Guayas Provincial Court of Justice argued that his future in the country’s prisons was “uncertain” due to the riots that have occurred and therefore accepted the appeal. This was recorded in an act to which THE UNIVERSE had access.
This situation is “frustrating and inexplicable” for Gustavo Manrique, Minister of the Environment, Water and Ecological Transition of Ecuador. He adds that this type of sentence is not related to the work that the State portfolio has carried out. This year, according to the official, more than 2,800 specimens have been rescued and 2,200 released.
Although the statistics managed by the National Police Unit for the Protection of the Environment of Ecuador are more shocking. According to this entity, only until July 2021 3,812 wild animals were rescued.
“That’s frustrating (the release of Nixon Alejandro PD). It is important that citizens understand that each institution has its role. We are not the institution called upon to put handcuffs on them and take them to jail. We have been behind that case, we denounced it, but for me it is inexplicable that there is a sentence that finds him guilty, but leaves him free because there is no way to guarantee his life in prisons”, Says Manrique in an interview with this newspaper.
In addition, it points out that there is no proportionality in the sentences that are issued for environmental crimes in the country. In the case of turtle trafficking, the former police officer was forced to pay $ 639,100 as comprehensive reparation in 28 installments, regardless of whether he was released.
“But on the subject of the more than 6,000 sharks, seized in a Chinese boat, a penalty of $ 3,000 was imposed, there is no proportionality, they move at both ends”, Asks Manrique.
The defense of the ex-police officer, who was active when he committed the crime, appealed to the legal figure of the conditional suspension of sentence to get your freedom. In most cases in which there are people prosecuted for environmental crimes, those involved resort to two figures found in the Comprehensive Penal Code to get out of jail: alternative measures and the conditional suspension of the sentence.
“This almost becomes an incentive for traffic. Once the crime is detected, there is also a way to forgive it. How will the ex-police pay? Will they try to pay or will it be said that there is so much money that it cannot be paid? “, Said Martín Bustamante, director of the Quito Zoo, in a previous note published by this newspaper.
The organization Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Ecuador has conducted trainings for judges and prosecutors to address, among other issues, the misuse of legal forms that allow traffickers to get out of jail.
Environmental groups have also expressed their displeasure at the misuse of these figures and are calling for a reform of the criminal law. In addition, they ask to differentiate the punishments for a person who sold a parrot and another who trafficked hundreds of shark fins, for example.
Manrique claims to agree with this differentiation. The creation of a unit dedicated to Environmental Crimes within the Prosecutor’s Office also considers a great step.
Another issue that should be explored, says the minister, is environmental education for the population: “The important thing is that we understand that each institution must fulfill its role (Environment, Prosecutor’s Office and Justice), but we must also have a population that understands the impact of wildlife trafficking and that these species must be free.”.
On March 28, Nixon Alejandro PD tried to send the chelonians babies packed in plastic from the Baltra airport to Guayaquil in a suitcase. More than 30 turtles died. The ex-policeman only spent a little over eight months in prison.
Having, transporting or trafficking species of flora and fauna, terrestrial or marine, is a crime against flora and fauna. According to the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code, the person who commits this crime will be punished with imprisonment for one to three years. (I)
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