POPE-LATAM/BOLIVIA-PRISONS Bolivians hope papal visit will throw light on prison system abuses

Record ID: 148708

  • Title: POPE-LATAM/BOLIVIA-PRISONS Bolivians hope papal visit will throw light on prison system abuses
  • Date: 2nd July 2015
  • Summary: POTOSI, BOLIVIA (FILE) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF A RIOT IN MOCOVI PRISON INMATES HOLDING A SIGN READING (IN SPANISH): "NO MORE ABUSES BY THE AUTHORITIES" VARIOUS OF INMATES BURIED AS A FORM OF PRESSURE INMATES HOLDING A SIGN READING (IN SPANISH): "WE WANT OUR DELEGATE BACK" EL ALTO, BOLIVIA (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CHONCHOCORO HIGH SECURITY PRISON VARIOUS OF
  • Embargoed: 17th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8FYJNDMRZ2E5W9HH0XX2F6F8P
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDIT CONTAINS VIDEO THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Bolivians appealed to Pope Francis, who is scheduled to visit the Palmasola High Security Prison in Santa Cruz next week, to throw light on abuses within the country's allegedly corrupt prison system.
    "I would ask Pope Francis for justice to be made quickly and soon because there are innocent people in here and criminals on the streets. Pope, help all us poor people who need you," said the mother of an inmate at San Pedro prison in the nation's capital, La Paz.
    There are 12,000 people imprisoned in Bolivia, only 16 percent of them with a formal sentence. The alarming majority are waiting for their day in court.
    A network of corruption creates further obstacles as inmates depend on prosecutors to arrange and transport them to judicial hearings, much of which is allegedly run on bribery.
    Many are unable to pay such bribes, whilst others allegedly pay their way out of high security prisons into prisons, even cells, with less security and greater inmate freedom.
    Because of this situation, a third of all inmates in Bolivia have overstayed the maximum sentence allowed for their suspected crime.
    Prison violence and riots have led to many deaths. In 2013, violent clashes between inmates in the Palmasola maximum security prison left 35 people dead.
    "The state has lost control of the prisons," said Ramiro Llanos, a criminal lawyer who used to head the prison system.
    "I am sure that the Pope wants to visit Palmasola prison because of the 35 deaths we had here in the massacre; because of the frequent use of the death penalty in prisons such as Chonchocoro; there were more than 25 deaths in the last eight years, because of the constant use of drugs and alcohol which people are destroying themselves with, because of the frailty of the Bolivian penitentiary system which allows children into prisons, and the lack of parental care inside (the prisons) to the point that children are raped, assaulted and abandoned," said Llanos.
    A survey carried out by the Organization of American States (OAS) found that 38 percent of inmates consume cocaine, and 48 percent consume alcohol while imprisoned.
    There are also some 400 children estimated to be living in Bolivian prisons, despite several attempts by civil authorities to revert the situation.
    According to Maria del Carmen Michel, responsible for pastoral care in the La Paz prison, the state is almost non-existent within the institution, and the results she says, are dire.
    "The reality is harsh. The reality is that a human rights violation takes place daily, and this is something which we, in charge of pastoral care in the prison, and principally as volunteers in this institution, are seeing constantly. There are many things lacking in every aspect of the prison system, but the worst of all is that there is a lack of state presence," said Michel.
    Interior Minister Carlos Romero declined to comment on the situation despite Reuters' repeated requests for an interview.
    The Argentine pope will visit Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay between July 6 and 12.
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