towards those deprived of liberty for whom they are responsible.” The Commission’s
request was accompanied by audiovisual material, which it described as follows:
i)
The first video “appeared to have been made on September 4, 2010, and in […]
it can be seen at least five prison officials in the San Felipe complex wearing
boxing gloves and practicing fighting, during evening hours”;
ii)
The second video was apparently made on “December 3, 2010, and in […] it
can be seen that [two] prison officials are punching and kicking an inmate,
possibly a young adult – in other words, older than 18 and less than 21 years of
age – in a room next to the San Felipe Unit that accommodates this prison
population, with the connivance of the individual filming the incident; and, when
an attempt is made to hide the beating by closing the door, the latter indicates
his disappointment at being unable to continue filming. The moans emitted by
the defenseless inmate in response to the beating he is receiving on his
abdomen and legs can be heard in the audio”;
iii) The third video is composed of two files of June 6, 2010, “where it is possible to
observe at least [five] prison officials who are forcing an as yet unknown inmate
to kneel on the floor, handcuffed and tied to a window of the pavilion, with his
arms stretched up contrary to their natural flexion. In this macabre scenario,
the prison officials punch and kick the inmate, especially on the ribs, which,
according to the inmate’s protests, appear to have been broken. Moreover, the
officials ask him where it hurts and then punish him there”;
iv) The video “light for a fag end” […] records how, following an inmate’s request
for a light for his cigarette, prison staff use a flame-throwing device against the
that cell’s peephole. The prison officials film this situation, joking and boasting
about their actions”;
v)
The last video “films the actions of the prison staff locking the cells of the
pavilion.” The video appears to show that the staff “take advantage [that] the
inmates […] are bathing and [it can also be seen that] they push them violently
into the cells using anti-regulatory means such as wooden and iron batons.
Furthermore, the prison officials boast jokingly about what they are doing in
front of the device used to make the video.”
6.
According to the Commission, the representatives of the petitioners indicated
that the inmates who appear in the videos being subjected to the alleged acts of torture
are Walter Fabián Correa and William Vargas García, and the inmates who contacted
the representatives are Andrés Yacante and Matías Marcelo Tello Sánchez. According to
the information provided by the Commission, during a visit to the San Felipe Unit on
February 6, 2011, by the lawyer, Carlos Varela, the inmates Andrés Yacante and Matías
Tello had stated that “[a] young man named Emanuel had been placed in cell 12,
apparently accused of rape, and this person […] was constantly [and severely] tortured
with blows to the head; they say that, once, they heard [him] shouting that they had
dislocated his shoulder and thrown pepper gas in his face.”
b) Regarding the alleged systemic or general nature of the reported acts of
torture
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