This March 14, the 16th plenary session will be held at the Congress of the republicwhere deputies know in First reading a bill to combat to gangs and extortion crimes.
Opposition congressmen They managed to include the initiative on this Thursday’s agendawhose presentation dates back to government of Alejandro Giammattei.
According to the documentation presented by the previous government, the initiative would seek to combat illicit activities committed by criminal groups in the national territorycalled gangs or maras.
Also mentioned is the increased involvement of children and adolescents in this type of criminal groups, which They take advantage of the fact that these are imputable.
With the approval of the initiative, at least two articles to the Penal Code.
The articles include serious penalties for “execute acts once morest life, integrity, security y people’s property, damage that’s it unfairly approach of private or public property, threatens public health o to citizen security”.
Furthermore, once morest those who “carry out intimidating actions that of coercion in public for patrimonial purposes once morest individuals and legal entities, commerce or public serviceswill be punished with imprisonment six to twelve unchangeable yearswithout prejudice to the penalties assigned to crimes committed”.
The sanctions will also be imposed on “those promote, finance or benefit directly from the activities carried out by these criminal groups”.
“The penalty will be increased in a third to the bosses, ringleaders, leaders o leaders of these criminal groups. To those convicted of committing this crime, They cannot be granted a reduction in sentencefor no reason,” details the proposal.
In the development of the first reading this Thursdaythree opinions were presented that were included, so that deputies might vote for them.
Deputy Alvaro Arzú Escobar said, during the discussion of the initiative, that the law would give tools to the government for fight crime.
“People are dying outside. They are putting bombs on the buses“Arzú argued.
In addition, Andrea Reyes, an independent representative who won a seat with the Semilla party, said that she and her family have been victims of extortionbut criticized the initiative.
“My vote was once morest. There is no point in declaring gang members as terrorists. if they continue to commit crimes from prison. None of these populist proposals work, because the Justice system is collapsed and the Public Ministry does not present accusations that serve”, he indicated.
Session 16 of the Congress of the Republic
Later, in statements to the press, the Minister of the Interior, Francisco Jiménez, was consulted regarding the bill being discussed in Congress.
According to him there are two initiatives and that regardless of that his opinion is technical.
He indicated that new legislation on this matter would force them to rethink the institutional design and would have practical implications.
The Minister of the Interior mentioned that he does not agree with declaring gang members terrorists because the portfolio has to “rethink the institutional design.”
He said that “defining or establishing a crime implies the reform of the criminal code, it also implies a series of technical aspects that in its operation entails a complication of redesigning or institutionally redesigning totally new things,”
Jiménez added that researchers and judges must be prepared to understand the topic. “Personally, the most practical solution for us is to continue working with the legislation we have,” he indicated.
In the official’s opinion, they have been successful in their security strategy and it has not required a state of Exception or new legislation.
He also said that there is sufficient legislation to address the problem of extortion and criminal structures.
“I invite the Congress of the Republic to make a technical, non-political reflection on what qualifying or introducing a new criminal typology may imply due to all the elements of a purely logistical, practical, and governmental nature that this would imply. It would complicate our lives in terms of the fact that we are only working with the current legislation and we do not know what a new classification means and what final implications it has,” argued Jiménez.
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