Bolivian
President Evo Morales declared an amnesty for 1,800 prison inmates,
including pregnant women, handicapped people, those with minor
sentences and people awaiting trial.
Morales
pardoned nearly 2000 prisoner with sentences of less than five years,
first-time offenders, prisoners under the age of 28, single mothers
with incarcerated children, prisoners with terminal illnesses and
people with disabilities.
The
presidential decree will not affect those sentenced for grave crimes,
which include homicide charges, terrorism, kidnapping, aggravated
robbery, contraband, corruption, human trafficking, and assault on
state officials.
"The
present decree's aim is to give amnesty and total or partial pardons
to people who have been deprived of their liberty," Morales
told reporters at a press conference in the city of Cochabamba. This
is the fourth time Morales approves statewide pardons.
The decree
is perceived as a measure to fight the overcrowding of prisons:
according to some estimations, almost 15,000 of nation's 10.6 million
people are in prison, with less than one third of them have already
faced trial. This figure represents 0.14% of nation's population; by
comparison, in the US, 0.68% of the population were in prison as of
2013, making it the world's second largest per capita imprisonment
ratio.
The state's
largest prison, San Pedro, is notorious for its inner society formed
by prisoners who have no guards inside, impose their own laws, live
with their families and welcome tourists, who bring them the money.
The government promised to close San Pedro to stop "cocaine
trafficking and other abuses" in 2013, but as of 2016, the
prison is still there.
Another
prison, Palmasola Penitentiary in the city of Santa Cruz, was built
for 800 people but holds 4,800 inmates. On August 23, 2013, a violent
fight broke out, with inmates cutting each other with knives and
machetes and finally burning each other using fire extinguishers
filled with gas. The riot ended with a massive fire. Thirty-one
people died in the melee, including a one-year-old child, and 37 were
injured. Over the next few days, four more people died from their
burns, bringing the total number of fatalities to 35.
"The
government isn't interested in people who go to prison, neither is
most of society," Human Rights Ombudsman Hernán Cabrera
said in 2015, when Pope Francis visited Palmasola Penitentiary during
his visit to Bolivia. "We see prison as a dump. It's the
final dump, and we send people there to rot. We don't give them a
second chance."
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