PUERTO MATILDE: THE “GOOD TREATMENT” DOCUMENT

6.10.05

On September 18th, the Communal Action Junta of Puerto Matilde convened an extraordinary meeting in the place that the townsfolk know by the name of “The Big House,” to discuss some internal matters of the community. Almost near the end of the session, Sergeant Polo, of the Battalion Plan Vial Especial y Energético No. 7 (PEV7), entered the “Big House,” interrupting the meeting and asking for permission to speak with the community.

The sergeant explained that that same day he had received a communication from his superior officers, according to which the community of Puerto Matilde had presented a denouncement against him and his troops. The sergeant didn’t know what was the date of the supposed denouncement, nor any concrete accusations that were presented against his soldiers. Without further explanations and without knowing how to answer the questions of the community, who didn’t know anything about the denouncement, the sergeant asked those present to sign a document in which it would be certified that the Squad Calculadores No.3, that had been under his control in Puerto Matilde from the 29th of August until the 18th of September, had given “good treatment” to the people. The signatures were supported by fingerprints of the inhabitants of the village, who fulfilled the sergeant’s petition.

Currently, no one knows anything about the denouncement that was mentioned by the Sergeant Polo, although he maintains that it was already published in some media sources (though he didn’t know which ones). What is certain in that Sergeant Polo wanted to protect himself from whatever problem that may arise in the future (although it is not clear why there should be any problems if the soldiers had, as the army says, the objective of giving protection and support to the community) and he did it a interference not too legal nor convenient in the community life of Puerto Matilde.

On the 19th of September, all the soldiers installed in the village, from the Battalion PEV7 as well as the Battalion Calibio, who came into the settlement on the 14th and stayed with the other troops for 4 days, left Puerto Matilde. Their absence was brief, because on the 20th the army came back to the village, with the same troops as before: the Battalion PEV7, under the command of Sergeant Polo (although it seems that he did not return to the village) and the Battalion Calibio, at the orders of Sergeant Rivas, with coordination between the two carried out by Sergeant Silva of the Battalion Calibio.

It seems that asking the communities to sign a document of “good treatment,” presented by the soldiers, is turning into a common practice in the regions where the military lives alongside the civilian population. As normal as it may be, this procedure doesn’t cease to be strange: wouldn’t it be more logical that the troops made guarantees for the civilian population instead of the opposite happening? Shouldn’t the evaluation of the behaviour of soldiers be a responsibility of the superior officers rather that of civilians?

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