Gabriel Boric speaks during the opening of the Presidential Commission for Peace and Understanding in Santiago, Chile. Lukas Solis (DPA via Europa Press)
Chilean President Gabriel Boric today addressed for the first time a political scandal that represents a blow to the integrity pledge of the Broad Front, the 37-year-old president’s fledgling left-wing coalition. “If the public prosecutor decides to get involved, it is because there is a suspicion or a history of criminal activity, and that is very serious,” the head of state said today of the State Ministry’s decision to launch investigations into the Fundación Democracia Viva, the Revolución party Democratica (RD). One of the most important of the Chilean Broad Front, due to the multi-million dollar and controversial agreements signed with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.
Various figures from the ruling party are involved in the conspiracy, including MP Catalina Pérez, a DR activist, president of the party between 2019 and 2021, who had to step down from her position as vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies. This Thursday, traditional right-wing party UDI filed a fraud and lobbying complaint against the Treasury Department to clarify responsibilities in the case.
Each ministry has a regional ministerial secretariat, Seremi, in each of the 16 regions into which Chilean territory is divided. The Seremi de Vivienda in the Antofagasta region in the north of the country was led by Carlos Contreras, a DR militant who was a close adviser to Deputy Pérez. In office, he directly donated 426 million pesos (about $530,000) to the Fundación Democracia Viva, headed by lawmaker partner Daniel Andrade. They were said to be working together in support of precarious settlements in the region.
The case led to the departure of Contreras, who signed the controversial agreement, which accounted for around 6% of that Seremi’s total budget. The parliamentarian, who represents precisely one district of Antofagasta, has defended herself, distancing herself from both Contreras and Andrade: “Here there was a serious error of political judgement, a serious error of political judgement, and the political leaders who are the signatories.” Mr. Carlos Contreras and Mr. Daniel Andrade must react politically to the agreement,” assured the MP, one of the main representatives of the Democratic Revolution, a party to which Giorgio Jackson, Minister for Social Development of the government, belongs and “companion route” of the President.
This case represents serious damage for a new left political generation that came to power in March 2022 with a strong promise to renew not only their faces but above all their practices. Boric referred to this matter today: “We must be very clear and firm if in the past our political sector has condemned very strongly all kinds of actions contrary to public belief,” President Boric said. “Where there has been crime or a crime is suspected, that will be justice. Today, when it comes to government-affiliated individuals, we need to uphold the same standard and be even tougher. “There must be no room for complacency and protection here, but we must be very clear that we will not allow such a situation,” stressed the Chilean President in a public action.
The Comptroller’s Office stepped on the scene this Thursday, asking the Department of Housing and Urban Development, headed by socialist Carlos Montes, to list within five days all the resources available under the precarious settlements program from this portfolio to others foundations were transferred. The petition focuses on Antofagasta Housing Seremi, where this case broke out and other direct transfers are being investigated.
President Boric’s Social Convergence party, which forms the Broad Front as DR, has asserted that this conspiracy “represents a serious political error that damages the Broad Front’s ‘ethical commitment’. After a national political council, the same RD party requested the expulsion of Andrade and Contreras “for violating internal regulations”.
The housing minister, socialist Carlos Montes of the moderate left, demanded that the Fundación Democracia Viva consider the signed contracts to be over and, moreover, in the same way President Boric addressed today, that it had not received the funds needed .
But the controversy grows with the hours. El Mercurio newspaper reported today that Tatiana Rojas, the undersecretary for housing – the second in the portfolio – received an email in May alerting her to the controversial agreements. Rojas, like the others, is a militant supporter of the DR.
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