Luis Castillo Opazo, one of the 12 people convicted over the social unrest whom former President Gabriel Boric pardoned, is applying for parole again. His defense filed the petition on September 29 with the La Serena Court of Appeals.
According to T13, which republished a report by Ex-Ante, the review commission is scheduled to examine the application this month. It is still unknown whether Castillo Opazo will be granted parole.
Castillo Opazo, who describes himself as an "insurgent", is serving a four-year prison sentence in La Serena. He was convicted of attempted robbery involving intimidation and violence and of driving under the influence of drugs. Both incidents occurred in 2023 in Copiapó.
That case led to his return to prison. He had previously been convicted of attacking the Civil Registry office in Copiapó and six other locations in the city after October 18, 2019.
This is not his first attempt. He applied in March, and on April 13 the La Serena parole commission rejected his application. The ruling stated that the inmate "does not meet the necessary requirements" to serve his sentence outside prison.
The commission gave four reasons, all based on the Prison Service's psychosocial report. According to that report, Castillo Opazo presents a very high risk of reoffending and lacks awareness of his crime or the harm caused. The document also indicates that he does not explicitly reject the crimes he committed.
The case recalls one of the previous government's political crises. Castillo Opazo was released near the end of Boric's first year in La Moneda. Earlier, on March 24, 2022, he had signed a handwritten letter addressed to the president in blue ink.
In that letter, he requested a presidential pardon. He argued that he had gone out to fight for his rights during the social uprising and was exercising the "divine right to popular rebellion".
The controversy erupted when his criminal record from before the unrest became known. His criminal record listed five convictions for ordinary crimes. The first was a fine for simple theft in July 2005. That same year, he received 60 days in prison for attempted theft, a sentence that was later replaced.
In July 2006, he was sentenced to 21 days of nighttime imprisonment for less serious bodily harm. In July 2007, he received 10 years in prison for two attempted robberies involving violence and intimidation. In October 2017, he was sentenced to 61 days for an attempted snatch theft.
Boric's team bore the political cost. The then Minister of Justice, Marcela Ríos, left office amid the scandal. Presidential Chief of Staff Matías Meza-Lopehandía also departed.
In January of this year, before leaving office, Boric defended the pardons in an interview with CNN Chile, although he excluded Castillo's case. "I do not regret the pardons," he said. He acknowledged that there had been "unacceptable carelessness" in including someone who should not have been on the list. He also stressed that signing pardons is delegated to the Minister of Justice.
The La Serena review commission will now have to decide this month whether Castillo Opazo's circumstances have changed since the rejection in April.
