Cathy Barriga’s rude, lying and mediocre advisors

Andrea Monsalve is one of those formalized along with former mayor Cathy Barriga, linked to the UDI. She was a personal assistant and, as she admitted, caregiver to the son of Barriga and deputy Joaquín Lavín. However, she was hired and paid as a journalist, for which Monsalve, together with the father of her daughter, falsified the title in 2017 in a Word document. She would have received more than 110 million pesos. Another case is that of the former head of communications of the Municipality who was a journalist, Camila Cornejo, but who committed serious breaches of professional ethics. The Prosecutor’s Office presented audios where it is heard how it instructs the creation of false accounts on social networks to spread lies against opposition councilors. Complaints for falsification of public instruments, illegal exercise of the profession and ethical judgment announced by the College of Journalists.

“The century”. Santiago. 1/20/2024. Within the framework of the formalization against the former mayor of Maipú, Cathy Barriga, for fraud to the Treasury for more than 31 billion and forgery of a public instrument, the High Complexity and Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office of the Eastern Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office, gave know as part of the evidence that incriminates her, some audios from 2020, where the former head of Communications of the Municipality, Camila Cornejo, is heard giving instructions regarding how to denigrate the councilors who supervised the former communal head, especially against of the former councilor of the Communist Party, Ariel Ramos.

During the listening session, the journalist indicated that “it is important that we all have fake Twitter, it is not necessary for them to name names. Let’s invent roe, Ramos cured, Ramos drugged, like that, heavy, hard. Invent that they caught him drugged, that he is a liar, that he loves TV. You have to be aggressive with him, it doesn’t matter. The other, unfaithful Donoso, you ate your secretary. Let’s bring out the filthiest roe, just the dirty war, on Twitter no one knows who it is so let’s just invent it.”

In addition, the Public Ministry provided information regarding the mayor’s hiring, specifically in the Department of Communications, where she hired Andrea Monsalve as a journalist, who is also accused of receiving more than 110 million fraudulently.

Monsalve falsified the title for such purposes and then presented repeated medical licenses until her dismissal, however, the accused would not have practiced as a professional, despite receiving remuneration for it – more than two million pesos per month – because, according to what she declared before the Prosecutor He was more of Barriga’s personal assistant.

“The aforementioned document (professional title) was created on January 22, 2017, at 11:56 p.m., by the user Pablo Heine, who corresponds to the then event manager of the municipality of Maipú, who also has a child in common with the accused Monsalve,” said the Regional Prosecutor, Lorena Parra.

That is why the Regional Council of the Association of Journalists set off the alarms and through a public statement announced possible complaints for falsification of public instruments and illegal exercise of the profession in the case of Monsalve and with respect to Cornejo it was reported that an investigation would be opened. in the Order’s Ethics Court for breaches of professional ethics when he ordered the dissemination of false information.

“As a union we have been fighting for years against misinformation, media montages and fake news in all its forms, therefore, these types of practices seem to us to go against our principles, move away from the commitment to the truth and, furthermore, , deeply harms our democratic system,” indicated the text about the audios of the former head of Communications.

And it was added that “as the Metropolitan Council we will collect all the information and make it available to the Regional Court of Ethics and Discipline (TRED) so that the corresponding investigative process can begin.”

Regarding the legal actions for falsification, the statement stated that “we see with astonishment the falsification of the journalist’s title carried out by Andrea Monsalve, who admitted to the Prosecutor this crime with the purpose of being hired to perform communication functions and receive remuneration as a professional without being one, however, she indicated and acknowledged that she was acting as caregiver for the former mayor’s son.”

“As a Professional Order we will review whether the illegal exercise of the profession and the falsification of public documents is configured, in order to take the corresponding legal actions. We will not let go of this mockery against our profession that the former mayor of Maipú and her closest collaborators dared to lie to public opinion,” concluded the statement from the College of Journalists.