Elmer Fernandez, retired police officer who was murdered while running a prison

Elmer Fernández, retired Lieutenant Colonel of the National Police, will turn 58 next Monday, May 20. The hitman’s attack foiled the uniformed man’s celebration of Piandamo in Cauca. His last days were not peaceful. Although he was barely a month into his new job as director of Bogotá’s La Modelo prison, he had already received death threats against his family. The prison, which has a capacity of 2,900 but holds more than 5,000 inmates, is one of the largest in the country and has been the site of violent incidents, highlighting the crisis in the prison system. For example, one of Fernández’s predecessors in this position, William Gacharna, admitted before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) that graves were dug in the corridors of the detention center to conceal bodies that had disappeared; And, in 2020, 24 people were killed in a riot. Now the murder of Fernandez, a police officer with almost four decades of experience, has also been included in this list of incidents.

In January 1985, at only 19 years old, Elmer Fernández joined the National Police. He remained at the institute for a little more than two decades, climbing the hierarchy. However, in 2009, its steady progress was cut short. The board in charge of defining promotions from lieutenant colonel to colonel decided not to recommend him for the post. Fernandez sought that decision and won seven years later. Thus, in 2016, he was reinstated as Lieutenant Colonel and a few months later the board again decided not to call him for promotion. Although he won the guardianship to overturn that denial, in the meantime the Defense Minister at the time, Luis Carlos Villegas, decided to remove him from the police. This is why it left the service permanently in 2017.

During those years he studied a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, specializing in Human Resources and a master’s degree in Security. He held various positions: he was commander of the Civil Protection of the National Police in the Department of Boyacá, he was head of the garrison of the Presidency of the Republic and directed the Carabineros School of Vélez, Catalonia.

In 2012, while on the run from the police, he was involved in a judicial process that sought to determine the legality of his purchase of a luxurious apartment that previously belonged to Carlos Castaño, a top leader of the so-called paramilitaries. United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC). It cost 2,000 million pesos, which was approximately $1.1 million at the time. Francisco Zuluaga, nickname GordolindoIn 2005, after a drug smuggler tried to pass himself off as a paramilitary to benefit from transitional justice and thus avoid extradition to the United States, it was included in a list of more than 20 properties that could be targeted. Can be used to compensate victims. Fernandez, who had previously purchased the apartment, judicially protested against losing the apartment and the case reached the Supreme Court.

The decision, which at first instance was unfavorable to the Lieutenant Colonel, was approved by the judges of the High Court. In a 40-page decision they decided that Fernandez did not act diligently when acquiring the apartment, which was burdened with tax debt and precautionary measures, and identified various irregularities in the purchase and sale process. “The factual reality showed a legal situation different from the legal situation reflected in the Registry of Public Instruments (…) which could easily have been seen by anyone with minimal prudence and diligence who was Messrs. Elmer Fernandez and Delia Mejia (wife) For this reason, the latter cannot be treated as a third party buyer in good faith,” reads the ruling.

After hanging up his uniform permanently, like many of his colleagues, Fernández entered INPEC (National Institute of Penitentiaries and Prisons), in charge of executing sentences and security measures imposed by criminal judges and the security of prisons. Since 2020 he was the director of La Esperanza prison in Guaduas, Cundinamarca, a relatively recent center (inaugurated in 2011), medium security and which can accommodate 2,800 prisoners. Last January, a prisoner at that location denounced the existence of a network made up of guards and convicts to smuggle food and drink. Newspaper TimeFurthermore, it reported that the alleged control had information from October 2023 that some prisoners had taken control of some pavilions of the detention centre, and violated all those who did not follow their orders. On this subject, Fernández responded: “The establishment has taken measures consistent with the said situation, with full emphasis on what was requested, guaranteeing the physical and personal integrity of the population deprived of the freedom that was violated. going.”

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The Lieutenant Colonel’s stay in Guaduas had ended about a month ago. From there he was sent to Modelo jail in Bogota. The hostile environment soon revealed itself to him. An inmate identifying himself as Pedro Pluma sent them a threatening message. “So you can see I have power and if they move me I will kill my family,” and this was the date of May 9. Seven days later, armed men ended Fernández’s life.

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