Four politicians are currently in the Tahíche Penitentiary Center. In addition to them, there are also a civil servant and a businessman, arrested in the framework of Operation "Unión". The councilman Antonio Machín and the former mayor of Arrecife, María Isabel Déniz, as well as the head of the Technical Office of Arrecife, Rafael Arrocha, and the manager of Urbaser, Jacinto Álvarez, have been placed in provisional detention, by order of Judge César Romero Pamparacuatro, who is investigating the "Unión" case. In addition, Dimas Martín is also in jail, who, although he is charged in this case, is serving a sentence for the Agroindustrial Complex case, and the former mayor of Haría, Juan Ramírez, for the Villa Dolores case.
While they were all trying to acclimatize and integrate into life in prison, María Isabel Déniz suffered a hard blow last Wednesday with the death of her mother, who had been suffering from a long illness. Déniz was able to leave prison for a few hours with a permit to meet with her family in these difficult times and go to the funeral home.
All these inmates share a cell with other prisoners inside Tahíche.
While Isabel Déniz is in the women's module, Dimas Martín is in the convicts' module, and Rafael Arrocha, Jacinto Álvarez and Antonio Machín are distributed in the other two modules for pre-trial detainees. Juan Ramírez, who entered this past Tuesday, entered the admissions module, where after a few days, he will move to the convicts' module. The only possibility that all these inmates, who are in different modules, would coincide would be at the Sunday mass at 12:00 noon, although at the moment, according to sources close to the prison, this has not happened, because none of them has attended the Eucharist.
The men's module
One of the first detainees to enter Tahíche was the head of the Technical Office of the Arrecife City Council, Rafael Arrocha, who entered in the early morning of April 22. After him, the manager of Urbaser Jacinto Álvarez entered in the early morning of the 23rd. According to prison sources, the entry into prison was not easy for Álvarez, who spent five days in the infirmary after crossing the door of Tahíche.
For his part, Dimas Martín was already in Tahíche when he was arrested on the 24th. And it is that although the leader of the PIL was serving the sentence for the Agroindustrial Complex case in the Tenerife II prison, Judge César Romero Pamparacuatro had called him to testify on the 15th in the framework of Operation "Unión", and since then he remains in a cell in Tahíche, waiting to testify again before the magistrate. For the moment, according to prison sources, no transfers of inmates to other prisons are expected.
The last detainee in Operation "Unión" to occupy a cell in Tahíche was the PIL councilman of the Arrecife City Council, Antonio Machín, who entered the prison on April 29 at 4:30 p.m., accused of an alleged crime of bribery.
Games of chance and sports
Both Dimas, as well as Machín, Arrocha and Álvarez distribute their time between the cell, the patio and the common room. Stationary bike exercises, games of chance and reading newspapers are some of the activities carried out by these prisoners. Thus, they all entertain themselves playing dominoes, parcheesi or chess. Above all, they play cards and bet with chickpeas, since legal tender money cannot be used in prison.
In addition, these detainees in Operation "Unión" are permanently informed of what the media publish. Thus, both in the patio and in the living room they read newspapers, as well as books. Some of them also play soccer in the patio with the rest of the inmates, although Dimas Martín, for example, prefers to walk and do maintenance exercises.
None of them do workshops, but not because they do not want to, but because the second phase of the works in the Tahíche Penitentiary Center, which contemplates a module where these activities would be carried out, has yet to be executed. Right now, there is only a painting workshop, in which 20 inmates participate, in addition to the school that inmates who do not have studies are obliged to attend. "If their training allows it, those who are in prison for Operation "Unión" could take a university degree at a distance", say sources close to the Tahíche prison.
A support inmate
For her part, in the women's module is the former mayor of Arrecife, María Isabel Déniz, who entered in the early morning of Thursday, April 22, after testifying before Judge César Romero Pamparacuatro, who charges her with two alleged different crimes of bribery in the "Unión" case.As soon as she entered prison, Déniz accessed the admissions module, where she spent a couple of days. In this module, the prisoner cannot stay for more than five days and, during her stay here, she spends time with a support inmate so that she remains under surveillance 24 hours a day. "This inmate is already in prison and helps the new one in her integration", say prison sources.
In this module, María Isabel Déniz, like the other three inmates provisionally admitted by order of the head of the Court of Instruction Number 5 of Arrecife, was searched and, subsequently, evaluated by a psychological and medical treatment team, which determines if she is ready to move to an ordinary module. The admissions module serves to "slow down the impact of entering prison, so that it is not so hard for them", since there are fewer cells and fewer inmates there.
Two days after entering Tahíche, according to sources close to the prison, Déniz accessed the women's module, where she requested a cell for herself alone, which was not granted to her. "A person who enters for the first time is not usually put in a cell alone. A first-time offender is never left alone", they indicate. Thus, the former mayor of Arrecife shares a cell with another woman, that is, she is in a common regime. In her module there are 37 cells and 50 inmates, both pre-trial and convicted.
RELATED NEWS
[From the cell to the patio or the common room->39422]
[The passage of politicians through Tahíche
->39423]
