F.2. Death of Ricardo David Videla Fernández
104. “In mid-July 2001,” at 16 years of age, Ricardo David Videla Fernández was interned
in the Socio-Educational Orientation Center, charged with three murders (supra para. 73).
Upon attaining 18 years of age, on September 17, 2002, he was transferred from this
Center “to the infirmary of the Boulogne Sur Mer Prison, where he was kept with adult
detainees,” because he had been shot in the stomach during an escape attempt, and was
“in the post-operative period.” When he was “relatively recovered, […] he was taken to the
[…] San Felipe Complex [of the Mendoza Provincial Prison], where young adults aged from
18 to 21 years were kept.” 131
105. A brief dated May 2, 2005, handwritten by Ricardo David Videla Fernández, which he
called a “habeas corpus” before the “judge of the First Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office,” reveals
that he had reported that, “in the sector [he was] in…] his physical integrity [was] in
danger”; that “he was [being] psychologically persecuted by [prison staff], and […] that the
threats receive[d were …] ‘severe’”; he therefore asked “to be transferred to the San Rafael
prison […].” 132 On May 16, 2005, Ricardo David Videla Fernández “started a hunger strike”
that lasted until May 20 that year “so that he would be removed from the maximum security
module.” 133 According to his mother, Stella Maris Fernandez, subsequently “he asked her, in
tears, not to continue insisting on the claims he had set out in his habeas corpus petition
because a prison guard had threatened to [… harm her].” 134
106. Furthermore, on June 3, 2005, Ricardo Videla was prescribed the psychotropic drug
Lorazepam. 135 In this regard, on June 21, 2005, a prison official stated that Ricardo David
Videla Fernández “was taking psychiatric medication and had a doctor’s prescription.” 136
107. In addition, on June 16, 2005, members of the Prison Policy Monitoring Commission
visited the Mendoza Prison where Ricardo Videla was being kept. Regarding this visit, Pablo
Ricardo Flores, a member of the Commission, declared that:
“First, they visited Pavilion 2, which is a punishment pavilion, and the first irregularity they noted
was that juveniles were being kept there, specifically inmate Videla […]. They had no mattresses,
no blankets, […] and were confined to the cells for more than 20 hours […]. There are no toilets in
the cells, so they did their necessities in nylon bags, and the food was next to the urine and fecal
matter. […] The conditions of the bathroom and of the whole pavilion were truly inhuman. […] The
water in the pavilion […] was extremely insufficient for hygiene. [… Videla was] very damaged from
131
Ricardo Videla was born on September 17, 1984. Cf. Social report on Ricardo David Videla Fernández of
November 30, 2011 (file of annexes to the pleadings and motions brief, tome XIII, folios 7122 to 7124).
132
Cf. Application for habeas corpus filed by Ricardo David Videla Fernández on May 2, 2005 (file of annexes
to the submission of the case, tome IX, folio 5394)
133
Cf. Social report on Ricardo David Videla Fernández of November 30, 2011 (file of annexes to the
pleadings and motions brief, tome XIII, folios 7122 to 7126).
134
Cf. Social report on Ricardo David Videla Fernández of November 30, 2011 (file of annexes to the
pleadings and motions brief, tome XIII, folios 7122 to 7126).
135
Cf. Informative note of June 24, 2005, sent by Dr. Fernando Pizarro to the Director of the Mendoza
Provincial Prison and presented to the prosecutor in charge of the investigation (file of annexes to the submission
of the case, tome IX, folio 5238), and testimony of Dr. Favio Roberto Bertolotti Nento before the acting
investigating prosecutor, Liliana Curri, in judicial file P-46824/05, of June 21, 2005 ((file of annexes to the
submission of the case, tome IX, folios 5246 to 5247).
136
Cf. Testimonial statement of Enrique Fernando Alvea Gutiérrez in judicial file P-46824/05, dated June 21,
2005 (file of annexes to the submission of the case, tome IX, folio 5259).
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