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On Monday morning, the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, sent the report to the Supreme Court where he details, in 32 points, the reasons why the portfolio is opposed to delivering the emails requested by the Public Ministry. This, within the framework of the investigation for the alleged crimes of reckless dissemination of pathogenic germs; homicide and falsification of public document, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In his 35-page brief, to which Publimetro had access, the Secretary of State asks the highest court to resolve “the dispute between the Regional Prosecutor of the North Central Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Health, regarding the opposition made by this authority , to carry out an entry, search and seizure procedure in special places, authorized by the 7th Guarantee Court of Santiago “.
He asks that said diligence be rejected, “insofar as it compromises access and examination of confidential documents and information, the knowledge of which may affect national security.”
In the same vein, Paris emphasizes that “there is no intention of obstructing the investigation” that the Prosecutor’s Office develops.
The arguments of Minister Paris
- The order issued from the Court, asks for the emails, between February 1, 2020 to the date on which the order materializes, housed in the institutional boxes of Jaime Mañalich, Itziar Linazasoro and Paula Daza, in addition to the registration of two addresses of the Minsal. Basing the resolution on two aspects: in response to the prevailing public interest maintained by society and due to the need of the prosecuting entity to prove the facts.
- As can be seen from Prosecutor Carrasco’s own request, the seizure proceeding is indiscriminate, imprecise and of an excessive mayor. At least, a minimum of relevance should be required with respect to the facts that are the subject of the investigation. It is not determined whether this time frame has an eventual criminal relevance. The information contained may not only be relevant for the clarification of the facts, but it may contain information related to other matters, many of them reserved. For example, not only sensitive patient information, but also details of the design and coordination of the national strategy against covid.
- The normal functioning of the Ministry and officials could be altered in circumstances that the pandemic has not ended.
- There are antecedents whose disclosure in this presentation would undoubtedly imply a breach of the duty that the Government has ordered me to do. My first entrusted mission was to lead the fight against coronavirus to protect the health and lives of our compatriots.
- The information found within the communications held electronically by the highest authorities of the Ministry of Health, previous and current, refer to matters related to the adoption and implementation of reserved, strategic and logistical decisions. They correspond to two areas: acquisition of necessary implements to face the pandemic, and the allocation of resources and police and, especially military personnel, to strategic and logistical tasks.
- There has been an incessant international interest around the purchase of products necessary to contain the pandemic, which has not ceased, but on the contrary, today the “second wave” is beginning in the countries of the Northern Hemisphere. , which makes it necessary that both the Minsal and the Armed Forces safeguard the information that if disclosed could be counterproductive.
- The excessive scope of the authorized request is not limited in any way, neither by reason of matter, not by reason of time, nor with respect to relevant or even pertinent communications, nor for the clarification of the facts that are the subject of the investigation.
- Information that arises both from the clinical file and from the studies and other documents where procedures and treatments to which the people were subjected are recorded, will be considered as sensitive data.
- The request refers only and categorically to data that seek to be obtained, without making any objection that said data is not found by itself in that information, since said requirement has not been formulated in such terms that it can sustain that it has been complied with. to the requirements of the law, which empowers the guarantee judge to deliver information related to patients. No elements are provided that allow to provide only what is related to the facts.
- It is punished with jail to transgress the norms that protect the dispositions.
- The diligence of the Public Ministry fails to comply with the requirements that the law has established.
- Requesting and attempting to carry out an untimely entry and search and seizure, has directly hindered the performance of the Ministry that I direct. It is less harmful to make a request for the precise information that is required or to inform the completion of the diligence 48 hours in advance.
In the context of the report to the Court, Minister Paris also refers to the scope of the concept of “national security” and its relevance to “justify the aforementioned opposition.”
Thus, it cites the development of the concept in the jurisprudence of the Council for Transparency, which accredits the cause of secrecy or reservation, “by virtue of which access to information may be totally or partially denied”, when publicity, communication or knowledge affects the security of the nation.
“National defense, the internal and external security of the State, public order and security, among other important national interests, must be protected from external interference,” the letter states.
The coordination employed in the post office, he reinforces, includes decisions “on the allocation of resources and police and military personnel, the detail of which obviously requires access to relevant information in the field of national defense.”
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