Colombian Politician Escapes Jail
Colombian senator-elect’s escape prompts resignation of the director of the INPEC and reveals issues rooted in the country’s prison system. The INPEC’s future is unknown. (Wikipedia)
Aida Merlano, a former Colombian senator-elect sentenced to 15 years in prison, escaped on October 1. She was charged with the crime of buying votes in the 2017 elections. Merlano received permission from the directors of the female prison Buen Pastor to attend an orthodontist appointment to have her smile improved. Two officers of the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (INPEC), an institute in charge of guarding convicted criminal offenders, were in charge of watching her at the time of the appointment.
At 11:30 a.m., Aida Merlano made her way to the orthodontist’s office on the third floor of a renowned medical center north of Bogotá. At around 3:00 p.m., Merlano jumped out the window climbed down a rope, and dropped to the ground where a man on a motorcycle awaited her. The bystanders seemed concerned at this time, not due to the fact that someone was escaping the building but because they felt that she needed their help: they supported her on the way to the motorcycle. The motorcycle driver took off, only to stop 50 meters ahead at a stoplight to obey traffic laws. After being given the go-ahead, the driver set off to a destination that remains unknown.
Some time later, Merlano’s guards realized they had missed her completely, and alerted the police, who are still searching for her.
The director of the INPEC resigned, and both the director and sub-director of the Buen Pastor prison have been removed by the Justice Department. INPEC captain David Alexander Álvarez Cárdenas is under arrest for aiding and abetting the escape, as he was the man in charge of overseeing the Buen Pastor prison. He provided both verbal and written permission for Merlano to attend her doctor’s appointment while he was supposedly on vacation on October 1. The courts found this to be suspicious, particularly because he was off-duty and did not have the authorization to sign off on anything.
“There are many things to check about the INPEC, we all know the INPEC has reached rock bottom, the jails have reached rock bottom, and as a government we must face this,” said the secretary of justice, Margarita Cabello. She also added that it is no secret that there are serious problems of corruption within the INPEC and the Colombian prison system, and the Merlano escape confirms this.
The Colombian public reacted to this news with humor and attempted to make light of the situation. On the day after her escape, an evacuation drill was held in the buildings in the area to teach citizens the proper precautionary methods in case of natural disasters. Early that morning, a meme circulated on social media with a picture of a smiling Aida Merlano, asking: “wasn’t the evacuation yesterday, perchance?”
Among the other ingenious jokes, there was an image of a woman who proclaimed: “what is so wrong with the woman jumping out of the window? Is that not what we all want to do when we go to the dentist’s office?”
Despite the public’s humorous reactions, it is clear that the prison system must be reevaluated to eradicate corruption and enforce the law. In the meantime, the police remain on high alert and are offering a reward of 50 million Colombian pesos ($14,500) to anyone who offers information that leads to her re-imprisonment. The police have reason to believe that the former-senator-elect has not left the country and might still be in Bogota.