In a handwritten letter, the guard of the Penitentiary and Prison Institute (Inpec), Milton Libardo Jiménez Arboledaassured that the head of the La Cordillera Sur criminal gang, Juan Larinson Castro Estupinan, aka Matambawas disappeared by the authorities and that he did not escape from La Picota prison in Bogotá where he was waiting for his extradition to the United States to be endorsed.
“Said inmate (referring to Matamba) was about to declare the truth and smear state officials,” points to one of the sections of the letter signed by Jiménez Arboleda. In the letter, he also mentions that in the process that has been brought forward for the escape of the feared drug trafficker, all his fundamental rights have been violated.
“(…) I am kidnapped by the Prosecutor’s Office, the accused entity, and an order issued by a judge of the Republic has been breached, which ordered that they take me to an Inpec establishment. Currently, fundamental rights are being violated, such as the right to a family,” said the Inpec guard. In this regard, he pointed out that for two months he has had no contact with his children, his wife or his lawyers.
In the midst of this situation, Corporal Jiménez explained that in an opportunity pointed out to the guards in the bunker of the Attorney General’s Office that if they did not want the “truth that the State or the Government is hiding regarding the disappearance of alias Matamba to be made known.”
The corporal is considered a “scapegoat” in this criminal process. At present he is the only defendant criminally charged for the escape of alias Matamba, considered one of the most powerful drug traffickers in the south of the country
Larinson Castro, who is required by a District Court of the United States, would have had ties with Army officers to modify the search operations against him.
Corporal Jiménez has been deprived of his liberty since last March 23 by order of a guarantee control judge. In the judicial process brought before him, the Attorney General’s Office revealed that Jiménez intentionally left the door of the patio where Matamba was found open so that he could leave without any type of problem in the middle of the changing of the guard in the early hours of March 18.
The drug trafficker would have walked through the prison center using the clothes of one of the Inpec guards, He passed some checkpoints without problem and left the prison located in the south of Bogotá in an institution vehicle. The authorities revealed at the time that he would have paid a millionaire sum of money to bribe Inpec officials and workers.
Because of this, the Attorney General’s Office charged Corporal Jiménez with the crimes of favoring flight and abuse of authority, of which he pleaded not guilty.
The escape of the drug trafficker revived the debate on acts of corruption in Inpec and its urgent internal modification.