Chile: Newspaper El Pueblo – For the Freedom and Health of Commander Ramiro!

We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published in the Issue nº99 of the Newspaper El Pueblo. You can read the full issue here:

By Victoria Flores.

Mauricio Hernández Norambuena defines himself as a popular fighter, and he is. His life reflects a long history of struggle since the time of the fascist military junta, where he, as a member of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, was part of the resistance movement of the people, political and social organizations, both in rural and urban areas, against the fascist military junta.

As part of the FPMR, Commander Ramiro participated in significant actions against the representatives of the regime, for which he was detained and imprisoned. He was convicted for the kidnapping of Cristián Edwards Del Río, a member of the Edwards family, and for the execution of Jaime Guzmán Errázuriz, the ideologue of the fascist military junta. In each of those trials, he received a life sentence, and due to the application of the Anti-Terrorism Law, he faced restrictions on legal benefits, such as the prohibition of presidential pardon, in addition to stricter requirements for parole.

Following the great escape from the High-Security Prison on December 30, 1996, he was arrested in Brazil in 2002, accused of kidnapping businessman Washington Olivetto and sentenced to 30 years in prison. After 16 years of imprisonment in Brazil, under a prison regime that sought to break him physically and morally, in 2019, the extradition process was carried out so he could serve his sentence in Chile. In this process, although Brazilian laws and the commitment of both states established that the 16 years he had already served in Brazil would be credited to his sentence, a collusive act between both states resulted in only 3.5 years being credited, and subsequently, after considering the time served as preventive detention, only 12 days were credited.

In other words, the more than 16 years he spent imprisoned in Brazil were disregarded, so he is currently sentenced to 30 years of imprisonment, of which he has served approximately 9 years, leaving him with 21 years of effective sentence remaining and 6 years before he can even apply for benefits such as parole.

Mauricio Hernández Norambuena is a political prisoner, and because of this condition, his sentences have been aggravated, and his prison situation has been characterized as torture. Both in Brazil and in Chile, the restrictive prison conditions and the unequal treatment he has received from the courts, as well as the failure to comply with the international agreements and regulations that should have been fulfilled for his extradition indicate that there is no equality before the law, which the old Chilean state profits from, nor the supposed independence of the judiciary.

Today, he is hospitalized in the Penitentiary Hospital of C.D.P. Santiago Sur, and his health situation reflects the blows suffered by the fighter, the tortures he has been subjected to, without a definitive diagnosis being established by the time this article was completed.

The struggle for the health and freedom of Commander Ramiro is just, and it represents an example to follow for fighters, as even in the worst conditions, he has always called to maintain the struggle, always saluted popular movements, and remained attentive to struggles that are carried out with optimism and never from a position of defeat or pessimism.

Freedom and health for Mauricio Hernández Norambuena!