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This Monday after just over 11 hours of discussion, the Senate rejected the constitutional accusation presented by the opposition against the former Minister of the Interior, Víctor Pérez, after the three chapters of the libel were dismissed.
The libel had been approved on November 3 in the Chamber of Deputies by 80 votes in favor, 74 against and one abstention, passing to the Senate, who acts as judge in the process. This result caused Pérez to communicate from the same Congress with President Sebastián Piñera and resign from office. Decision that was communicated minutes later.
Within the government this scenario was expected and there was a “Moderate optimism”, as it was enough that at least two opposition senators did not approve it – that they abstained, did not vote or rejected – to prevent that sector from aligning the 22 votes it needed to declare the former minister guilty, and disqualify him from holding public office for the next five years.
In the previous From the opposition they already transmitted that the fact that Pérez had resigned from the Interior portfolio was a good sign that should be weighed at the time of the vote. This is how a group of legislators from the center-left were for not supporting any of the three chapters of the libel, dividing the bloc and unleashing a new defeat for the sector in Congress.
The key votes of the opposition that saved Pérez from the accusation came from senators Felipe Harboe (PPD), Francisco Huenchumilla (DC), Jorge Pizarro (DC) who rejected the entire text and from Jorge Soria (PPD), Jaime Quintana ( PPD) and Carolina Goic (DC) who abstained. And José Miguel Insulza who rejected the last chapter, but approved the other two.
It should be remembered that Pérez weighed three accusations: The first pointed to infractions for having allegedly failed to report illicit acts during the truckers’ strike; the second was related to a supposed violation of the constitutional right to equality before the law, having had a differential treatment with that union regarding other types of demonstrations; and finally, the third point pointed to a violation of the Constitution and the laws for the actions of the Carabineros during social protests.
The first chapter fell by 17 in favor, 22 against and 3 abstentions; the second by 15 in favor, 23 against and 4 abstentions; while the latter was also rejected by 14 in favor, 24 against and 4 abstentions.
At 8:25 in the morning, Pérez arrived at the Congress accompanied by his wife. There he held feeling “quiet” and reiterated that the accusation filed against him it had no foundation. In addition, he referred to his political future, ruling out integrating some of the lists that will compete in the internal UDI election.
Regarding a possible candidacy for the constitutional convention, the former senator said that “I had decided not to go to any election” and that I hoped that “that would remain”.
Half an hour later the session began where the senators heard, first, the accusing deputy Loreto Carvajal (PPD), who exposed the details of the libel and assured that “We will not use this accusation to prosecute Mr. Pérez’s ideas or the defenses that the accused has made of those ideas in the political or personal sphere. Nor less as some have publicly argued, as a mechanism for political revenge, or any other purpose that is not strictly ours according to the Constitution. Nor do we seek to generate a criminal law of author in relation to the former accused minister “.
Later, the accusing legislators alluded to Pérez’s resignation from the Interior post, stating that it did not exempt the chief of staff from responsibility. This in a clear reference to the sayings of Senator Carolina Goic (DC), who had stated that the departure of the former government senator was a factor that “should be considered.”
“We firmly believe that the resignation of former minister Víctor Pérez has to be interpreted not as an exemption from his responsibility, but rather the opposite. This resignation is nothing more than a total admission of their responsibility, and there is nothing more to say: a confession of part, release of evidence “added the legislator.
As he did when the accusation was reviewed in the Chamber of Deputies, the former minister also intervened during the session held this Monday in the Senate, taking up the time his defense had to respond to the rejoinder. “This is my last speech in the Senate room and I do it with my head held high and telling everyone, looking into their eyes, that I am absolutely innocent of the charges that are imputed to me here, which I reiterate that it has no foundation”, he expressed.
One of the issues he addressed during the 40 minutes in which he spoke was his resignation from office and clarified that it was not intended to evade his responsibility. “It is not to evade any responsibility. All my life I have assumed my responsibilities. That is why I have submitted myself to popular scrutiny six times ”, he said, adding that his decision had “a political concept, not of crossing responsibilities elsewhere.”
Meanwhile, his lawyer Gabriel Zaliasnik described Pérez’s departure from the Interior as a “republican act.” “The Senate has before it the citizen Víctor Pérez, not the minister or the senator and this has a very important constitutional element, since stripped of the political aspect only one constitutive aspect remains and therefore the standard of conviction must necessarily be high mayor, “said the defender who is sitting in the Senate Chamber, next to the former minister and in front of the deputies”, said.
After the intervention of Carvajal (PPD) it was the turn of the legislator Carmen Hertz (PC) -another of the three deputies chosen by the Chamber to defend the accusation- who argued that “The defense does not take responsibility for the Human Rights violations that occurred under the mandate of former Minister Pérez and when it refers to it, it does not even call them by name, as it speaks of ‘incidents‘.
“It is unfortunate that the defense does not use the appropriate technical language: and something important: these are not incidents, since they are the result of decisions sustained over time, revealed in a true pattern of discriminatory behavior of the accused with the political dissent versus his adherents , because while some were repressed, others were simply filled with privileges “added.
Then, it was the turn of deputy Marcos Ilabaca (PS) who pointed out that “it is not possible to accuse the general director of the Carabineros or the director of the PDI, who lack political responsibility for their management,” and added that “Since the minister is the only political authority that can answer for the actions of the police, it is only possible to accuse him for human rights violations or for breaches of the law in maintaining public order”.
Ilabaca also pointed to the case of the teenager who was injured after falling to the bed of the Mapocho River. “The minor, Anthony, 16 years old, bleeding in the bed of the Mapocho river rescued by civilians while Carabineros troops abandoned him in the place to his fate, is the most graphic example that the Minister of the Interior did not act so that that did not happen. In fact, it is he himself who leaves the child abandoned, due to his inaction, due to his abandonment of duties “, he expressed.
After this it was the turn of the senators to expose. Felipe Harboe (PPD) said that “I voted in favor of the AC against the former interior minister Andrés Chadwick because I formed the conviction that there were merits for it; if it approved this libel it could be more popular or obtain approval in the networks (. ..) Chile deserves much more and once and for all to end this offensive of constitutional accusations and we must raise alternatives to a bad government, to put Chile on its feet, but that is done with ideas, serious and responsible proposals and not with this type of accusation ”.
HuenchumillaMeanwhile, he pointed out that “I refuse to hang in the public square a minister who spent three months to pay for the faults of the right, the historical faults of their classism, racism and lack of understanding of the Mapuche people. I resist hanging Víctor Pérez in the public square for the sins of the center-left who have not asked for forgiveness. I asked for forgiveness as mayor for the sins of the State. I resist the responsibility in the Carabineros, because we are all responsible ”.
While Jaime Quintana argued that “(…) we have a penalty that is too heavy for a concrete, specific case. I start from the basis that here there is no constitutional offense, there may be criminal, administrative, or other responsibility, but a sanction that means the inability of 5 years to me, frankly I have not formed a conviction of those and that is why I am not in conditions to support this constitutional accusation ”.
The UDI president and representative of Biobío, Jacqueline van RysselbergheHe indicated that “this constitutional accusation in each of its chapters lacks arguments, seriousness and argumentation. For that reason, I am going to vote against each of the chapters ”.
The RD parliamentarian, Juan Ignacio LatorreHe argued that “it seems to me that there are grounds in this constitutional accusation (…), it seems to me that we are still in a serious context of human rights violation where the State has outstanding debts with the victims and there is a political responsibility ”.
