The Punta Peuco Preventive Detention and Special Compliance Center is a prison complex located in the commune of Til Til, 64 kilometers from the capital. It was created in 1995 to detain those who committed crimes during the Augusto Pinochet regime (1973-1990).
According to reports from various Truth Commissions, the total number of victims of the dictatorship is more than 40,000, not counting the 200,000 exiles. Currently, Punta Peuco houses approximately 130 inmates convicted of various crimes, including Miguel Krassnoff, sentenced to more than 1,030 years in prison for kidnapping, torture, disappearance, and murder.
During his last public address, Boric said he had given instructions to modify the decree that created the facility to abandon its status as a special prison and transform it into a regular prison that would allow for the segregation of individuals according to gendarmerie requirements.
“From my point of view, there is no justification for this privilege,” the president said.
“It is a just and necessary measure, and one that in part repairs the pain long experienced by the victims of human rights violations during the dictatorship,” said Jeannette Jara, presidential candidate for the Communist Party.
Representative Andrés Giordano, of the Frente Amplio party and one of the promoters of the prison’s closure, welcomed the president’s decision. “As the son of a victim of human rights violations, I deeply appreciate the President’s announcement,” he wrote on his X account.
For legislator Ana María Gazmuri, of the Humanist Action party, “Punta Peuco is no longer a privileged prison but has become what it should always have been: a common prison, for the worst criminals in our history.” She also stated that human rights violators should be treated like prisoners, not vacationers.
Justice is equality before the law. Rapists and murderers must serve their sentences like any other criminals. Without privileges, without tributes. Legislator Daniel Manouchehri, of the Socialist Party, stated on social media: “Memory, justice, and never again.”
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