Venezuelan convicted of drug trafficking detained again for drugs in Arica after sentence reduction by Rabat
Edixon Escobar García, with a record for trafficking and homicide, received a six-month sentence reduction signed by minister Rabat and was detained again on 30 October.
Venezuelan with drug trafficking conviction reoffends in Arica six months after ministerial sentence reduction
Edixon Escobar García, a Venezuelan citizen convicted to five years of imprisonment for illicit drug trafficking, was detained again for the same crime on 30 October, just six months after receiving a sentence reduction signed by Minister of Justice Fernando Rabat. The Guarantee Court in Arica ordered his preventive detention together with a Colombian citizen, according to interferencia.cl.
Escobar García had been detained for the first time on 2 August 2020, when he entered along with four other individuals through an unauthorised border crossing on the frontier with Peru, carrying 25.5 kilos of cannabis and two kilos of cocaine hydrochloride. The Criminal Oral Court in Arica convicted him to five years of imprisonment, although it initially substituted the sentence with expulsion from the country, with a ban on return for 10 years. Should he return before that period, he was to serve the custodial sentence.
Expulsion that never materialised
In September 2021, the Regional Authority of Arica requested to extend the expulsion deadline arguing that the PDI had been unable to execute it due to the absence of flights between Chile and Venezuela during the pandemic. The court granted a 60-day extension, leaving the convicted individuals under the custody of Gendarmerie.
The judicial file reviewed by interferencia.cl does not register whether the expulsion was eventually carried out or how that custody concluded, which according to Gendarmerie's records extended until the beginning of November 2021. What is registered is that in 2023 Escobar García was circulating freely in Chile.
Formalised for homicide, acquitted for lack of evidence
In January 2023, Escobar García was detained and formalised for the homicide of Eduard Serrano Pérez, which occurred on 7 October 2022 on Carlos Pezoa Véliz Street in Arica, and for concealment of identity. That same day, the court revoked the substitute sentence of expulsion and ordered his admission to prison to serve the five years originally imposed.
In May 2025, the court dismissed the case at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office in the homicide case. The Public Ministry argued that it did not have "direct or scientific evidence". One of its two key witnesses was a woman declared "missing"; the other was a fugitive linked to Tren del Coro.
Misconduct and conditional release denied
During his time in prison, Escobar García accumulated negative records. In April 2025, the Conditional Release Commission denied him the benefit after detecting risk factors for reoffending, stating that "the applicant will not be able, in this process, to reintegrate adequately into society".
In July 2025, Gendarmerie sanctioned him along with seven other inmates with a ban on visits for "rioting, destruction and various collective disorders". The court upheld the measure for having "seriously and repeatedly breached the Regulations of Penitentiary Establishments".
Ministerial sentence reduction without notifying expulsion bodies
Despite these records, on 23 April 2025 Minister Rabat signed the decree reducing six months of Escobar García's sentence. The text of the decree reproduces the formula applied in similar cases: "this Ministry is not authorised to deny the benefit of sentence reduction based on the gravity of the crime and the protected legal interest", and adds that "jurisprudence (…) has ruled that this Government Department is obliged to issue the corresponding decree, if in accordance with the terms of the Law the requirements established therein are met".
The decree was distributed to Gendarmerie, the Regional Ministry of Justice and the Civil Registry, but did not include the PDI or the National Migration Service (SERMIG), organisations responsible for executing expulsions. According to the records reviewed by interferencia.cl, the Ministry of Justice only began to include both organisations in the distribution of sentence reductions to foreigners from June 2025 onwards.
Deputy questions Rabat and Arica regional ministry official
Following interferencia.cl's previous publication about sentence reductions for drug traffickers detained at the border, deputy Jorge Díaz Ibarra (DC) for District No. 1 of the Arica and Parinacota Region commented on the case through his X account, calling on Minister Rabat.
Consulted by this media outlet, Díaz stated that "we are aware of new evidence that further aggravates the situation of the Minister of Justice, Rabat, and also of the regional Ministry of Justice official of Arica and Parinacota, Matías Andrade". The parliamentarian noted that "not only have sentence reductions benefited rapists, child abusers and paedophiles, but they have also benefited people who have been convicted under Law 20,000, who have been convicted for drug trafficking, who are linked to international organised crime gangs".
Díaz added that in Arica and Parinacota other convicted individuals would also have had their sentences reduced and been released to freedom in similar circumstances, adding pressure on the head of the Justice Department in the context of a political front that is widening with each new revelation.
Source: Google News CL — Crime