The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) took advantage of the change of administration and authorities at the Victoria Jail to lobby for the release of the so-called Luis Peña Valdez, a man who spent 12 years in the jail despite never having been legally charged. Peña Valdez was never declared by his parents.
He was a mason who had demanded that an engineer he worked for pay him RD$35,000 owed. That was back in 2009. In response, the police sent him from Sabana Gande de Boya to La Victoria Jail. The Victoria Jail authorities kept him there for 12 years. He was so poor he could not get proper legal assistance to get out. He told the press he survived in jail washing the clothes of other inmates.
Now Diario Libre reports he has gone missing. The CNDH says he left his clothes, shoes and other belongings at the CNDH. He had been staying at the CNDH because he was homeless. What is known is that at the dawn of Thursday, 12 August 2021, he told the watchman at CNDH that a vehicle belonging to a media company would pick him up. He had been interviewed by different media on his case. That was the last time he was heard from.
Diario Libre reported that his case became known when agents of the Attorney General Office participated in a Covid-19 detection effort in the Victoria Jail. The prosecutors passed the case to the CNDH.
No one in Peña Valdez’s hometown of Batey Verde, Monte Plata province has heard from him. Peña Valdez had told Diario Libre in an interview after he was released that he had no grudge against the engineer. “God will collect the debt, I could see him around and greet him as if he were my brother,” said Peña Valdez in an interview with Diario Libre after his release, referring to the engineer who he said had sent him to prison.
Manuel María Mercedes, president of the CNDH, asked Peña Valdez to return so the entity can continue to channel the aid promised to him by several entities.
He said the Central Electoral Board (JCE) has committed to fast-track his identity procedures. Another government organization has offered housing.
“I am confident that nothing has happened to him, it is a problem of 12 years without seeing relatives, without enjoying his freedom and also the country was affected by a storm or maybe he is just tired,” he said.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
El Caribe
18 August 2021