VENEZUELA-HUMAN RIGHTS: Papal Pardons For Sale

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Marquez

CARACAS, Jan 18 1996 (IPS) - The planned visit to Venezuela next month by Pope John Paul II has been marred by allegations that pardons to be granted prisoners during the Pontiff’s stay are being sold by government authorities.

“There’s money involved…they are charging the prisoners to include them in the list of beneficiaries,” alleged Jesuit priest Roberto Martialay.

Official pardons, traditional events in Venezuela, normally are timed to coincide with festive days such as Christmas or Mother’s Day. Last year 625 of 26,000 prisoners received a pardon.

Henry Castro of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Fundareo told IPS that “at least 80 percent of the pardons have always been sold, but they should respect the Pope’s visit and at least not do it this time.”

The fact that the Pope will start his visit in the worst jail in Venezuela, the 2,300 inmate “Reten de Catia” in Caracas, suggests that he is aware of the human rights problems in the nation’s prison service, church sources said.

Baltazar Porras, Archbishop of Merida in southern Venezuela, has given President Rafael Caldera a list of 200 prisoners that the Roman Catholic Church would like pardoned. He admitted that “it is possible lawyers and officials have tried to make deals with the pardons.”

Responding to the claims made by Martialay and others, Guillermo Ripoll – a priest working in the Ministry of Justice commission – said such accusations should be foundered on fact.

Ripoll said the commission was open to “requests from the prisoners’ family or friends…each case, and its context, is seriously examined along with the legal details,” as those pardoned must have served part of their sentence and have a good behaviour record.

Corruption related to the pardons issue goes far further than the prison management, well into the heart of the justice establishment itself, according to human rights activists.

Castro said that corruption occurs at two levels, firstly in the commission which attributes the pardons within each prison – the prison governor, psychologist, social worker and judge – and secondly, within the Ministry of Justice for political ends.

Martialay said the Justice Ministry prepared some cases for pardon without considering cases of “terminally ill AIDS sufferers, the mentally ill who are repeatedly raped, or people who have already served eight years for attempted car theft.”

The priests who work with the prisoners want 300 pardons to be granted, “on the grounds of the study of people – real cases and not simply of papers or records,” he said.

The idea of freeing prisoners to mark the Pope’s visit was decided as a response to a letter from the Roman Catholic church leaders expressing concern at the state of the nation’s prisons.

Two-thirds of prison inmates are awaiting sentence, and drugs, weapons and all manner of other goods are peddled within the jails.

Human rights organisations have alleged mafia-style cartels comprised of prison officers, inmates and criminals from outside control life in the prisons. In the “Reten de Catia” the guards “sell” the sexual services of new arrivals to old hands, they said.

Activists have alleged that dozens of men have been crammed into punishment cells which measure two by four metres. One wing at Reten de Catia operates as a “stock market” for investments in crimes both within the prison and outside, and the kitchens make large profits for the controlling groups while prison facilities lack even the most basic resources.

In spite of the extremity of the situation, the government is not taking the papal visit to the prison as a criticism. Information Minister Fernando Egana said “we are dealing with the recognition of a reality which must be changed.”

Organisers said the Pope had hoped to tour inside the prison, but security would not allow this, hence he will only bless the building from a raised section of the motorway outside.

During this ceremony, a group of prisoners will present him with a letter of thanks but Castro alleged this would be “a libretto far removed from the real concerns of the inmates.”

Fundareo said it would be sending the Apostolic Nunciature a letter containing the real claims of the prisoners, and Martialay said his team of priests was compiling a “catalogue of iniquities” to send to the Pope before his arrival in February.