Who is Jorge Mateluna, the ex-guerrilla of Boric’s controversial pardon

Sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2013 for a bank robbery, the former Chilean guerrilla Jorge Mateluna is now at the center of a controversy after being granted a presidential pardon at the end of the year, strongly criticized by the opposition to the administration Boric.

Favored along with 12 other people sentenced for crimes that occurred during the 2019 protests, Mateluna has starred in previous episodes of the Chilean Justice: after being arrested in 1992 and sentenced to life imprisonment for illegal terrorist association, among other charges, he accepted the Law of pardon for ex-subversives during the government of Ricardo Lagos and in 2004 he regained his freedom after more than a decade behind bars.

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At just 12 years old, according to local media, Mateluna entered the Communist Youth (JJ.CC) in 1986, a year of high political upheaval in a country hit by the civic-military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) and where, in one of the most remembered acts of the decade, a commando of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) would try to liquidate the dictator on the outskirts of Santiago.

Later, Mateluna joined the ranks of the FPMR at a time when the structure of the armed organization presented its first splits and disassociated itself from the Communist Party, initiating autonomous operations such as bank robberies and kidnappings in full transition to democracy at the beginning of the decade. from 1990.

At the age of 18, he was arrested and suffered alleged torture, to later fall back into the hands of the authorities and be sentenced for forming and belonging to armed combat groups, illegal terrorist association, attacks and robbery with intimidation to life imprisonment.

After being released from prison and renouncing the use of violence -a requirement to make use of the Pardons Law in 2004-, Mateluna began working at the National Council for Culture and the Arts of the Metropolitan Region as program manager for “Creando Chile en mi Barrio”, a position he held until he was arrested by the police at Banco Santander in 2013.

“Political prisoner”

From the outset, Mateluna and his defense alleged “injustice”, in addition to pointing to a series of errors in the process that sentenced him to 16 years in prison.

The ex-frontist was arrested by Carabineros -militarized police- two kilometers from the robbery that occurred on June 17, 2013, accused by the agents as one of those responsible in a trial that lasted for more than a year.

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In an interview with Chilevisión, Mateluna declared that he was a “political prisoner”, while his defense argued that at the time of being apprehended by the police he was on his way to the Municipality of Pudahuel to speak with the commune’s head of culture.

Other evidence presented by the Prosecutor’s Office was challenged: the height of the person involved did not match that of Mateluna according to the images captured on the security cameras and neither did the transfer times from the place of detention.

After a process that included appeals and resources that reached the Supreme Court, the country’s highest court confirmed the sentence against Mateluna, dismissing the review of the case.

The pardon that was not

With this background, former President Michelle Bachelet sought to use her then presidential power to pardon Mateluna, however, the Minister of Justice at the time, Jaime Campos, did not agree.

“From La Moneda, not from the Ministry of Justice, they sent me a draft pardon decree, by virtue of which Mr. Mateluna was pardoned (…) Well, before that request from the Presidency I replied that this decree was not could sign for two reasons: first, because the cause that was granted was unconstitutional”, Campos said in an interview given at the time to El Mercurio.

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The current head of the Justice and Human Rights portfolio, Marcela Ríos, did not have the same assessment, accessing the benefit of the ex-guerrilla.

The granting of a pardon in Chile is a power that rests exclusively with the Head of State, who has the power to change, commute or annul a sentence defined by the Judiciary.

Since the return of democracy in 1990, this presidential power has been applied on more than 1,600 occasions, with a maximum of 928 during the term of the first post-dictatorship president, Patrick Aylwin (1990-1994).

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.