Political crisis in Chile: Gabriel Boric, accused of the controversial appointment of two officials

The beginning of 2023 comes with More than a headache for President Gabriel Boric. To the 13 controversial pardons that cost the resignation of his justice minister on Saturday, a controversial appointment of two high-ranking posts in that area has been added in the last few hours, a new blow to the government of the young president.

It is about his candidate for the Attorney General of Chile, the lawyer Angel Valencia, who was reported in the press on the same Saturday night in which in the early 2000s he was dsued by ex-wife for non-payment of alimony to their three childrenfor which he had a warrant for his arrest.

His lawyers won an injunction and a reduction in the amount of the debt at the cost of years of litigation.

At the same time, the Chilean press has revealed that Luis Cordero Vega, proposed by Boric to replace the outgoing Chief Justice, Marcela Ríos, has a history of intellectual plagiarism dating back to 2015.

At that time, this administrative law professor at the University of Chile was sanctioned by that same university for a case of plagiarism having used verbatim transcriptions of paragraphs of others in two of his books, published in 2011 and 2015, without indicating the respective source.

In August 2015, a complaint was filed against him on the basis of complaints from three professors (Claudio Moraga, Cristián Román and Gladys Camacho), which ended with a suspension of work two months with half salary.

For its part, the office of the rector of the University of Chile has classified the offenses as “violations of the duty of administrative correctness”.

Government attrition

These blunders by the presidential team are subjecting the government to new wear and tear and giving heavy ammunition to sectors of the conservative opposition against the president, who on Saturday he would have to admit mistakes in the granting of twelve pardons to those convicted of crimes committed in the 2019 social epidemic and to a former guerrilla, Jorge Mateluna, convicted of bank robbery in 2013.

The case that had the greatest repercussions this Sunday was the replacement of the prosecutor as Valencia was due to appear before Congress this Monday to report on his future action plan in the event of parliamentary approval for his eight-year term.

In Chile, the national prosecutor is appointed by the President of the Republic, who chooses one of the five candidates proposed by the Supreme Court and must be ratified by two-thirds of the 50 votes in the Senate.

Valencia is the third proposal by the president since then lawmakers rejected his two previous candidatesJosé Morales Opazo and Marta Herrera.

Since the creation of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in 2000 with the implementation of the criminal procedure reform, it is the first time that the Senate contests candidates nominated by the president.

As reported by the online newspaper The meterAt the beginning of 2000, prosecutorial candidate Valencia had a tough confrontation in the family courts when his ex-wife, Vivian Massardo, sued him because he “fails to provide what is necessary for the adequate subsistence of his three children. “

After the family court ordered his arrest, the candidate’s lawyers won an amparo appeal and the measures remained without effect, despite having had to pay his pension in a dispute that lasted for years.

The opposition accuses Boric of not seeking consensus in the Senate, where he does not have a majority, while right-wing senators from the ruling party are pointing out that they “appropriate” a presidential faculty and want to have too much influence in the election of the new prosecutor. The prosecutor has been without a boss since late last September, when Jorge Abbott left office upon reaching the age limit of 75.

The appointment of a new national prosecutor coincides with an unprecedented crisis of insecurity, caused by the increase in organized crime and delinquency.

These new government woes, all registered in the same judicial portfolio, come after the Conservative opposition fired the president since the end of the year for claiming that none of those pardoned were criminals (a claim denied by the widespread proceedings) and when he claimed that there had been “judicial errors” in the elaboration of the case of the former guerrilla Mateluna.

The president’s statements generated a crossroads with the Supreme Court, which in a plenary statement asked him to respect the division of powers.

Boric then replied that he agreed with the legal request, while ratifying his right to grant pardons as stated in the country’s constitution.

Writing by Clarin, with information from agencies

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