The suspended Director General of Prisons, Alberico Hern\u00e1ndez, has been arrested and charged with permitting the escape of the convicted drug trafficker, Sim\u00f3n Abreu S\u00faarez, as well as keeping large percentages of the money allocated for the purchase of food for the inmates at La Victoria prison in the National District. Two of Mr. Hern\u00e1ndez’s assistants, Luis Brito and Victor Melo Vargas, have also been charged with the same crimes by the Attorney General of the National District, Dr. Zoila Mart\u00ednez de Medina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The three prison officials have been arrested and are currently being detained in the holding cell of the National Police at the Palace of Justice in Ciudad Nueva, pending a preliminary hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The escape of Mr. Abreu S\u00faarez, a Venezuelan, was treated as a scandal in the local news media, which sharply criticized the “irregular” nature of his disappearance from the jail which apparently occurred last November but was only detected in March of this year. Mr. Hern\u00e1ndez was suspended as Director of Prisons during the police investigation into the matter, and was arrested after evidence was found that he had facilitated a change of identity between Mr. S\u00faarez Abreu and another prisoner in a scheme to effect the escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3-9 May 1996<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The suspended Director General of Prisons, Alberico Hern\u00e1ndez, has been arrested and charged with permitting the escape of the convicted drug trafficker, Sim\u00f3n Abreu S\u00faarez, as well as keeping large percentages of the money allocated for the purchase of food for the inmates at La Victoria prison in the National District. Two of Mr. Hern\u00e1ndez’s … <\/p>\n