– They call her “the mayor”.
Apple is a town located in the Province of Groningen, 200 kilometers from Amsterdam, has around 8,550 inhabitants, and stands out for being a town with ancient buildings, monasteries and a fortified city that is close to Germany. Another of its characteristics, and perhaps the most important, is that the Asylum Seekers Assistance Center (COA), so it is often in the news because of the large number of migrant population that stays outside that area with the purpose of entering and being able to process your refugee claims. This is the last known residence of the former mayor Karen Rojo Venegas (41) in the Netherlands. This is what those who received the first information regarding his arrest in Rotterdam that occurred a few hours ago, following staying 112 days fugitive from Chilean justice.
And it is that “the mayor” – as some friends who have made in Ter-Apel and who know her history call her – is in the process of requesting political asylumsince it calls itself a “political prisoner” and alleges that in Chile he did not have a fair trial, that he was a kind of “scapegoat” and that a sentence was handed down once morest him -even ratified by the Supreme Court- totally disproportionate to the facts attributed to him. In fact, they explain close, the crime that was charged here would have a fine in the Netherlands, so that argument will also be raised by the former communal chief before the authorities of that country.
Rojo was sentenced to 5 years and one day in prison for repeated treasury fraud and on March 23, just the day the sentence was confirmed by the country’s highest court, he left the country following buying a plane ticket to Holland. The Antofagasta Prosecutor’s Office had not requested precautionary measures once morest him, so he was able to cross the air borders without any problem. Only when his escape was confirmed, an international arrest warrant was activated and an extradition process was notified today before the judicial authorities of that country. He was in prison until the proceedings of the Public Ministry are activated to force his return and thus enter to serve his punishment in a prison.
Several weeks ago, along with hiring in Chile the law firm of Felipe Moraga, signed two Dutch law firms, one specializing in extradition and the other in political refuge. In a certain way, her close ones say, she knew that at some point they would arrest her, since she was never “clandestine” and she showed her face uncovered. In fact, a Chilean captured a photo of him on July 5 at 12:46 p.m. That activated the police once more, since there is an arrest alert that was processed by the PDI -through Interpol- as soon as it was known that he had declared himself in absentia.
Lawyer Moraga explained to The Third PM that his Dutch peers notified him that his client appeared before the Rotterdam prosecutor today, but that she has not yet been brought before a court. He determined to leave her deprived of liberty and in two weeks they might plead before a judge and request her release on bail. In other words, while the extradition process is taking place – which might last several months – she pays a sum of money that guarantees that she will appear at all the acts of the procedure.
In Ter-Apel they still haven’t interviewed her, a milestone that begins the asylum process and that will go hand in hand with the aspirations of the Chilean Public Ministry, which hopes that it will be returned as soon as possible. One of the reports with which Rojo will seek, first, to avoid her extradition and also to obtain asylum, is one that describes Chilean prisons. It will be the documents of the Chilean Judiciary itself, which the former authority intends to present to the authorities of the Netherlands to show that in your country there are no guarantees to respect your human rightsdue to overcrowding and unhealthy conditions in Chilean prisons.
Until she was captured in Rotterdam, 2 and a half hours by bus from Ter-Apel, the former mayor of Antofagasta led a quiet life. She had even made a trip to a lake a few weeks ago with other migrants from Latin America who are also applying for her refugee status with the COA. “She looked calm and happy, although she was always worried regarding what might happen in Chile and with her family,” commented one of the people she has contacted during these months in which she was a fugitive.
Jose Henriquez Contreras (34) He is Chilean and for a few weeks he has been on vacation in Europe and has traveled to several countries of the old continent. One of his stops, precisely, was Amsterdam. On the morning of Tuesday, July 5, the filmmaker was cycling through the center of the Dutch capital. While he was walking down one of those streets, a police officer ordered him to stop, he was walking on a pedestrian walkway. After talking with the official, he began to walk, and when he reached the corner, he found himself face to face with someone who seemed familiar to him: it was Karen Rojo, whom he recognized immediately.
“I think she realized that I recognized her, because she quickened her stride and went into a place, like a cafeteria. So I decided to wait for her outside until she came out of it and I managed to get the pictures of her”the filmmaker commented to The Third PM.
The clock marked 12:46 and with his phone the young Chilean managed to capture the first photo of the former authority in Europe. “It made me angry to see her so cool, I think that motivated me to follow her,” he said and said that he thinks she did notice that he took her picture, although he did not think to go to the police either: “I felt that taking some pictures might be done something”. After that, she left the place and Red went in an unknown direction.
On the morning of March 23, Karen Rojo arrived following 10 AM at the Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago. That day, the Supreme Court would announce her sentence, following she requested the annulment of the trial that sentenced her to 5 years and one day of effective jail for treasury fraud.
The day before, he had bought a ticket at KLM for $954,844. Destiny? Amsterdam. At 11:20 in the morning of March 23, he passed through the PDI gate without any problem, the justice system in Chile had not issued a precautionary measure once morest him. At 1:15 p.m., the former authority left Chile on flight 704 of the main airline of the Netherlands. Minutes before, the judges of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court signed their opinion, Rojo had to serve his prison sentence. Something that he just found out on a stopover in Brazil.
That same day it would be known that the former mayor had left the national territory, at which time the Antofagasta Court requested his arrest. On March 25, by order of the Public Ministry, the PDI notified the 195 countries that are part of Interpol regarding the “red notice” that existed regarding Red.
The national head of International Cooperation of the PDI, prefect Catherine Barria explain what “the red card is massive in order to say that she is a fugitive from justice, for such reasons (…) so in some countries with this identification they have the power to arrest and bring to justice, and in some others they do not, but by international agreements despite the fact that the red card does not mean arrest, they can be brought to justice. disposition of the courts thereof”.
What’s next? If the extradition of the former mayor results, “the Chilean police officers who work at Interpol, if the extradition is accepted, can travel to the Netherlands and bring Karen Rojo back here to Chile and make her available so that she can serve her sentence. ”, assures Barria.
Now the most important thing, and this is what Interpol processes, is also to scientifically ratify that the person detained in Europe is Karen Rojo. For this, they already have their fingerprints and tests will be carried out, one more that the former authority must overcome, which – say those close to them – will exhaust all resources with the sole purpose: never to step foot in a prison in Chile.
