CRIME-ARGENTINA: Guards Let Inmates Out to Steal and Murder

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Apr 17 2000 (IPS) - A scandal over a network of prison guards in Argentina who allegedly let inmates out on leave to commit crimes in exchange for a share of the loot led the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Alfredo Ayala, to hand in his resignation Monday.

Last Tuesday Judge Alberto Baños, who was investigating a group of inmates let out on temporary leave to commit crimes, heard the confession of a prisoner who said he had been sent to kill the judge and his secretary.

Ayala, the official in charge of the 33 prisons located throughout this country of 35 million, denied any knowledge about the existence of the supposed network of guards who allegedly allowed inmates out to acquire drugs to be sold in the prisons and commit common crimes like burglary of businesses or homes.

Promises of temporary leave were also reportedly used to defuse prison fights or riots.

A local daily reported Sunday, however, that the State Secretariat of Intelligence recorded phone calls last year in which prisoners could be heard telling their families that Ayala had given them illegal missions in exchange for temporary leave.

In opinion polls, Argentinians mention insecurity as their second-most pressing concern, following unemployment, which stands at 14 percent.

Many attribute the rise in crime to the lack of work and high level of poverty, which currently affects one-third of the population.

Others put the accent on law enforcement, criticising the performance of police and arguing for stiffer sentences and reduced possibilities of temporary leave or parole.

Authorities plan to build more prisons in order to ease the problem of overcrowding. Argentina’s penitentiaries are now filled 30 percent above capacity, and the problem is especially bad in the rundown prisons within the Buenos Aires city limits.

Police often complain that their hands are tied by lax laws that let prisoners off the hook after a token sentence. For that reason, the news that prisoners were allowed out if they handed over a cut of their booty to the guards was especially aggravating for the population at large, fed up with the rising crime rates.

A month ago, an armed robbery in which the owners of a house were held hostage ended with the shooting death of one of the culprits, whose photo had made the front page as he pointed a firearm at the head of one of the hostages. The dead criminal was supposedly in prison when the robbery was taking place.

The inquiry into the scam arose from an investigation of a common crime: an attempted armed robbery of a restaurant in which the policeman guarding the entrance was shot and killed.

When Judge Baños began to investigate the case in 1998, he obtained a video recording shot by a camera installed in a car- wash next door to the restaurant, in which the faces of the would- be robbers were visible. Through the video, the judge discovered that the three men were supposedly in their cells in prisons in Buenos Aires at the time of the attempted robbery.

After finding that the three were once again behind bars at the start of the investigation, the judge ordered a second inquiry – of Federal Penitentiary Service authorities, to determine whether the inmates had been allowed to leave prison without permission from the courts.

The investigation revealed that one of the inmates had committed a series of criminal offences under the protective umbrella of the Federal Penitentiary Service. That was confirmed by the prisoner himself, who wrote a letter to Baños confessing that he had paid a share of the plunder to four prison guards.

The inmate decided to cooperate with the judge after another prisoner who knew about the temporary leave scam was shot and killed in an alleged escape attempt while being transferred to court in custody of Federal Penitentiary Service officials.

Another of the prisoners implicated in the attempted restaurant robbery was found hanging in his cell, presumibly killed by inmates who were acting on behalf of prison guards, according to a legal inquiry into the incident.

In the process of his investigation, Baños gathered testimony from other inmates who were allowed to leave prison temporarily on illegal missions, either without permission, or with forged permits.

In one case, a guard accompanying a group of prisoners took part in a crime and was arrested.

Last week, another inmate confessed to Baños that he had been let out of prison with authorisation from the Federal Penitentiary Service and an order to kill the judge himself and his secretary. As evidence of his mission, he gave a detailed account of Baños’s movements, and of the daily routines of the judge’s family and his secretary.

The information revealed by the prisoner – including the names of Baños’s children and the schedules of the entire family – apparently convinced the judge that the prisoner had indeed been ordered to kill him.

The scandal led the Justice Ministry to order a purge of the top echelons of the Federal Penitentiary Service. But while the ministry decided how far up the ranks they would go, Ayala, the director of the Service, handed in his resignation.

According to the investigation, the scam was based in Caseros prison, located in the capital. In September, the current head of the prison, Juan Cid, demanded that 41 guards be removed before he would accept the post. The Justice Ministry has now announced plans to investigate the reasons underlying that purge.

CRIME-ARGENTINA: Guards Let Inmates Out to Steal and Murder

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Apr 17 2000 (IPS) - A scandal over a network of prison guards in Argentina who allegedly let inmates out on leave to commit crimes in exchange for a share of the loot led the director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Alfredo Ayala, to hand in his resignation Monday.
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