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Alberto Espina’s withdrawal from public life did not last long, because the former minister was appointed this Friday to the desired position of counselor of the State Defense Council (CDE).
This was reported this Friday by the Presidency through a statement, making official the arrival of the former Defense Minister in charge of the body whose mission is to advise, defend and represent the patrimonial and non-patrimonial interests of the State.
Espina served until July 28 as Minister of National Defense, when he was removed from office by Piñera and replaced by Mario Desbordes, in the broad change of cabinet that the President decided to try to amend the direction of the Government.
The appointment of Espina, whom the Presidency highlights his resume as “a lawyer from the University of Chile and professor of Criminal Law,” unleashed a wave of criticism.
“Terrible trucho,” found it the independent deputy Renato Garín, while his colleague RD Jorge Brito, former president of the Chamber’s Defense Commission, pointed out that the designation is “not to believe.” “The former bad Minister of Defense Alberto Espina has just been appointed by Pdte Piñera to an INAMOVIBLE position until he is 75 years old (a Senate agreement would be needed to remove him). The government is paying political favors to its friends who could not do it as ministers, “he said.
The political analyst Patricio Navia, for whom the appointment is representative of the “Club de Cachagua” in which Chile Vamos operates, also joined the criticism. “Espina has lived off the state for 30 years. His friend Piñera gives him another hit so he can keep doing it. Unpresentable. Pituto culture although that is not fixed with the new constitution ”.
But this “consolation award” from Piñera to Espina has not been the president’s only gesture with his former collaborators. It also happened with Nicolás Monckeberg, who had a tortuous management in the Ministry of Labor and was later appointed to the position of ambassador in Buenos Aires, one of the key positions in national diplomacy.
Another favored with the presidential permission was former Foreign Minister Roberto Ampuero, who after passing through the Carrera Building was installed as Chile’s ambassador to Spain.
A more recent case was that of Sebastián Sichel, the former Minister of Social Development who was transferred from his office in La Moneda to occupy the head of BancoEstado.
Espina’s intelligence
It should be remembered that during his tenure as Minister of Defense, Espina was key in supporting the thesis of foreign intervention in the social outbreak, and even sent the President a report prepared by the Army Intelligence Directorate (DINE), then in charge of General Guillermo Paiva. This report claimed that the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) had managed to introduce into Chile “a battalion of 600 clandestine agents, experts in urban guerrilla warfare,” among other intelligence data.
The new counselor of the CDE is a member of the National Renovation (RN), party of which he served as president between 1997 and 1999. He was also a deputy between 1990 and 2002 and a senator for North Araucanía between 2002 and 2018.
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