MADRID 30 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Guarantee Court of Valparaíso, in western Chile, has decreed preventive detention for four people for their alleged responsibility in the fire that took place at the beginning of February in the homonymous region and that left more than 130 fatalities and around 16,000 victims.
Specifically, three former officials of the National Forestry Corporation (Conaf) and a firefighter have been arrested for the crimes of criminal association, forest fire, fire resulting in death and environmental damage, as reported by the Chilean state news agency ATON.
The four are accused of setting forest fires motivated by economic gains generated by overtime pay. The judge has set the deadline for the investigation at 30 days.
“There is a criminal organization from 2021 to the date on which the defendants present, together with the other three who are already in preventive detention, organized and benefited from various fires that they were causing in the area from Quintay to Casablanca, around of the Peñuelas reserve,” prosecutor Osvaldo Ossandón stated at the hearing, according to the newspaper ‘La Tercera’.
The Valparaíso region was seriously affected during the first quarter of 2024 by a series of fires, which from the beginning were suspected to have been intentional. In fact, at the time, the president, Gabriel Boric, described as “miserable” those who were behind these accidents, which left at least 137 fatalities.