The Attorney General of the National District, Zoila Martinez de Medina, returned to work on 28 February after recovering from an car accident suffered one week earlier. She was forced to wear a neck brace after her jeep collided with another vehicle on the corner of Calles Bernardo Pichardo and Leonor de Ovando in Gazcue. While she was away, her duties were taken over by assistant attorney generals Tirso Mercado Nunez, Juan Hiroito Reyes and Esteban Pena Fulcar.
One of Dr. Martinez de Medina’s most publicized cases now that she has returned to work will be the investigation of the ex-director of La Victoria prison in the National District, Victor Melo Vargas, who is accused of operating a “mafia” that falsified release orders in a scheme to exchange freedom for cash. Mr. Vargas was arrested on 29 February after Dr. Martinez de Medina, the National Attorney General, Luis Nelson Pantaleon Gonzalez, the General Director of Prisons, Alberico Hernandez, and the Chief of Police, Antonio Segundo Imbert Tesson met to discuss the matter. They decided, after 30 minutes of discussion, that there was evidence that Mr. Melo Vargas may have given prisoners whose sentences were far from being fully served the jail identity cards of those who had completed their sentences.
The matter came to the attention of the authorities after the lawyers of some prisoners who had served their time but had not been released because of Mr. Melo Vargas’ scheme complained to the office of Dr. Martinez de Medina.
8-14 March 1996