“Devastating portrait of a State in decrepitude”
It has taken no time at all for leader writers to comment on yesterday’s extraordinary jail break by five ‘high risk’ prisoners from Vale de Judeus prison, in Alcoentre, near Lisbon.
“On one sleepy September afternoon, we receive the devastating portrait of a decrepit State – a terrifying lack of collective security”, considers Eduardo Dâmaso, Correio da Manhã deputy editorial director general.
Ahead of today’s press conference in which authorities sought to stress the “large operation on the ground” focused on recapturing the escapees, Dâmaso cut to the chase: “a Hollywood film could not have done better”.
Yesterday’s ‘typical’ jailbreak (using a rope, and extendable ladder) “exposes the parody of security in which we live” in Portugal.
“The few prison guards that were on duty, and who had a busy morning with visitors (to other inmates), only realised there had been a break out at lunchtime.
“This leaves the image of rudimentary prison system, with scant technology, out-of-date installations and reinforced security perimetres without guards. The guards cannot be blamed here. Who is to blame are governments and (political) parties that have neglected prisons for decades”, he stresses. And “who live off the statistical projection of an illusory feeling of security which, tragically, is not based on the preparation of institutions, only on the goodwill of the many who serve them.
“This is one of the greatest collective embarrassments in living memory. One of the largest attacks on the image of Portugal in Europe, all down to a political system incapable of creating efficient and competent policies for its prisons”.
The embarrassment will serve undoubtedly to see things change – but whether it can be glossed over by the recapture of any of the men on the run depends on what we have been told is a “large operation” mounted by authorities “on the ground”.
Quite what ground is the question.
According to Correio da Manhã today, the black Mercedes captured on Vale de Judeus’ surveillance cameras early on Saturday morning – whisking the five to newfound freedom – was seen yesterday afternoon at 3.30pm “outside Fábio Loureiro’s house in Lagoa”. If this is true, the “large operation on the ground” does not appear to have caught up with it.
As for this morning’s press conference, the director-general of Portugal’s prison services “rejected” the notion that the escape could be related to the lack of prison guards, “guaranteeing that the prison had guards necessary for the number of prisoners”.
Again, this did not gel in any way with comments made by prison guards syndicate president Frederico Morais yesterday, but then very little of the ‘official narrative’ has: even the timeline has been ‘condensed’ to suggest authorities acted within an hour and a half of the escape.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
