La Moneda distances President Boric from the kidnapping case

Hello good! March appeared to us! In our +Politics summer we had anticipated that March would be intense, but this exceeded everything predicted. The most relevant thing is the discovery on Friday of the body of the former Venezuelan military officer buried in Maipú.

March began on Friday the 1st with a cabinet meeting “to rule out the change of cabinet”, They told me in La Moneda; then comes the “super monday 4” with the ministers deployed in the streets of Santiago; on Tuesday the 5th legislative work begins with the pension reform in the Senate; on Wednesday the 6than event one month after the death of former president Sebastián Piñera; Thursday 7, the official visit of the President of the Spanish Government begins; to end on Friday the 8th with the commemoration of International Women’s Day. Chilean politics resumes its anxious rhythm.

This week we told details of La Moneda’s decision to definitively remove President Gabriel Boric from the case of the former Venezuelan military officer, Ronald Ojeda Moreno.

Everything is permitted. We reveal the dirty war in RN to remove the former mayor of Santiago Felipe Alessandri from the municipal race.

And Parliament is preparing for complex weeks with the elections of the Senate and the House of Representatives. In the PPD, the fight is breaking out between its senators and the PC is trying again to lead the table, but it lacks support.

In 2011, the sociologist Eugenio Tironi published the book Why don’t they love me? From the Piñera way to the student rebellion. We asked him if Piñera finally managed to be loved.

We reviewed the meetings of the Minister of the Interior under the Lobby Law and not everything is security. Deputy Gonzalo Winter (CS) unleashes a storm with his words and complicates the creation of the single party of the FA.

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PRESIDENT BORIC IS OUT OF THE KIDNAPPING ISSUE

It is not a presidential issue. The matter was settled this week and it was decided that President Gabriel Boric was not going to speak or participate publicly in the discussion about the kidnapping and murder of former Venezuelan lieutenant Ronald Ojeda. Everything will be based in the Interior, with spokespersons from its undersecretary Manuel Monsalve and, to a lesser extent, from Minister Carolina Tohá.

Refugee by Gabriel Boric. The matter is of the greatest seriousness for La Moneda and one of the reasons is that it was President Boric himself who signed, in December 2023, the decree that granted refugee status to the former Venezuelan military officer.

Out of scene. In La Moneda there were doubts at first regarding the role that the President should have. On Wednesday afternoon, people from the Presidency team did not rule out that the Head of State would decide to talk about the matter on Thursday, upon returning to the Palace. “That is an open issue that will be decided by the President,” they told me. On Thursday afternoon that possibility was definitively ruled out and the discovery of the body of the former soldier on Friday made it less plausible that the President would participate in the speculation regarding motives and those involved.

Termination of diplomatic relations. Many parliamentarians, including some from the ruling party, have suggested the termination of diplomatic relations with Venezuela if the participation of the Venezuelan regime in the kidnapping and murder of the former military man is proven.
Emblematic cases that say the opposite. In the discussion of these possibilities, international cases were key. The most brutal was the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. In the last decade the United Kingdom has faced several cases of poisoning of dissident Russians. The most recent incident was that of the Russian helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine and was shot dead last week in Alicante, Spain.
In none of these cases did the affected nations cut off relations.“It is important to maintain relations in such complicated contexts, especially if we take into account that it is estimated that there are 800 thousand Venezuelans in the country (500 thousand regular, 300 thousand illegal),” a diplomat explained to me, reminding me that before the current ambassador in Caracas, Jaime Gazmuri, Chile had that embassy vacant for five years.

Black day. On Wednesday afternoon, important government authorities expressed their annoyance to me over the leak that two Venezuelans involved in the kidnapping had been identified. The secrecy of the investigation is one of the keys to its success, they say in the Palace, and that is one of the reasons why the topic is restricted only to the Interior portfolio. La Moneda always had a lot of confidence in the prosecutor in charge of the case, Héctor Barros: “There was no better name to take charge of this investigation,” they told me. On Friday the news of the discovery of the body in Maipú was known and it is expected that in the coming days the reasons will begin to be clarified, as well as those responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Ronald Ojeda.

WAR IN RN TO REMOVE FORMER MAYOR ALESSANDRI FROM SANTIAGO

Xenophobic audio. Last week, the audio of a conversation between the former mayor of Santiago Felipe Alessandri (RN) and Giselle Dussaubat, president of the Santiago se Levanta Foundation, appeared, where he accuses the former communal chief of encouraging the arrival of immigrants to obtain resources from international organizations.

“You invited them to come, you invited them to settle in Santiago, you are supporting them”Dussaubat accused him, and then added: “It’s like keeping a lazy dog in a condominium, when people complain, you put the dog in, but you don’t clean its shit, you don’t clean anything. “You put him inside and threw the food at him, so that the dog would dirty everything.”, he exemplified.

Far-right operation. When the audio became known, it was said that Giselle Dussaubat was close to the Republican Party and was seeking support to be a candidate for a popularly elected position in the mayor of Santiago. She also told me that she had distanced herself from the Republicans and was now close to the new presidential candidate Johannes Kaiser. All these versions were denied by Dussaubat, who told me: “That is false, I am not a candidate for anything. Many neighbors support me and ask for it, but it is not my wish. “I don’t aspire to be mayor, councilor, Core, or anything.” and he added that he did not know Kaiser. The topic is more delicate.

The problem is within RN. Dussaubat’s shots go the other way: “I can tell you that we conducted a survey in the commune where councilor Santiago Mekis (RN) won by a wide margin. People know and appreciate his great work and presence in the neighborhoods, but it seems that it is not RN’s desire to take him”told me.
Is your candidate Santiago Mekis? “If it were Don Santiago Mekis, he would have my support. He has done an excellent job, super committed”.

War in RN. Giselle Dussaubat denies that she was the one who edited and spread her conversation with Alessandri on social media. From her statements, it is deduced that the only character she would want to support is Mekis, which is detrimental to Alessandri’s candidacy and the candidate who has the most buzz in National Renewal, councilor Juan Mena, who has been on the Municipal Council for two terms and on Tuesday said in Cooperative: “I have been nominated (as a mayoral candidate) for approximately a month and a half”.

The War for Santiago. Santiago Mekis is the son of a former official of Felipe Alessandri, Rodrigo Mekis, who was president of the Corporation for the Development of Santiago (Cordesan).

Alessandri is not going to Santiago. Felipe Alessandri expressed his surprise to me at the fact that The Mercury published that he was lowering his candidacy for mayor of Santiago. “I have not gotten off because I have never accepted the candidacy, I have never gotten on”told me. The former mayor believes that the recording episode only helps to distance people from politics.

MARCH TO THE RED: THE BATTLE FOR WHO IS IN RULE IN PARLIAMENT

Nobody wants to talk about it. March has just begun and tempers are running high in Congress, because it is unknown who will occupy the presidency of the Senate or head the Chamber of Deputies. In La Moneda does not hide its concern about these appointments in a key year for the pension reform, the fiscal pact and several pending appointments in the Judiciary.

In the Senate the fight is within the PPD. The former head of that party, Guido Girardi, nominates as a candidate the new militant Pedro Araya, a former DC who recently entered the community. On the other hand, senators Ximena Órdenes and Loreto Carvajal compete. All of these candidates share the fact that they have never occupied the top seat in the Senate. The most optimistic is Araya.

The Government is silent. Senator Pedro Araya warned, in an interview with Thirdthat La Moneda had to distance itself and not interfere in the operation, but it is no secret that the Palace prefers closer parliamentarians with experience, such as Jaime Quintana and Ricardo Lagos Weber. The problem is that they already occupied the high position and their appointment would leave senators with aspirations on the bench.

In the House things are more complex. There they compete for a period of six months – not a year like in the Senate – and there is an administrative agreement, signed in March 2022, which considered that the second period corresponded to the Communist Party (PC), something that has not been done. fulfilled and the fourth period begins without many possibilities of said group coming to preside over the front.

Twice postponed. In mid-2022, it was up to the PC to assume the presidency of the House, but the DC said it was not going to give its votes. This, because lawyers advising the communist group had filed a lawsuit against the former DC militant Sergio Micco, arguing that in the period in which he was director of the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH), during the social outbreak, the rights had been systematically violated. HR
“The 50th anniversary of the coup d’état was approaching, we were not going to tolerate being called a ‘coup plotter and systematic violator of human rights’‘”, Representative Eric Aedo (DC) explained to me. This allowed Vlado Mirosevic (PL) to become president of the Lower House and, then, it was the turn of the Christian Democrats with Ricardo Cifuentes.

Democrats played by Chile Vamos. The path became complex again for the PC, because one of the signatories of the administrative agreement of March 2022 changed his political position. This is the Democratic Party, which in the January pension reform vote ended up aligned with Chile Vamos. Everything indicates that Democratic parliamentarians will work to be closer to the right every day and that means not voting for the Communist Party to head the Chamber. Deputies Karol Cariola and Luis Cuello are the PC’s candidates to preside over the Lower House.

THREE QUESTIONS FROM EUGENIUS TIRONI

During the first government of Sebastián Piñera, the sociologist Eugenio Tironi published the book Why don’t they love me? From the Piñera way to the student rebellion (Ed. Uqbar, 2011)where he addressed how elusive popularity was for then-President Piñera in the midst of the 2011 conflict with the students, a movement led by those who now occupy La Moneda.

In this interview, Tironi explains if Piñera finally managed to have that much-sought affection and why it is so difficult to be President and loved.

-Finally, did people love Piñera?

-I don’t know if it is love itself, but it did end up producing admiration and even a certain tenderness. Admiration for their achievements on all levels: money, power, family, adventures, friends. Tenderness for his efforts not to be inadequate and, especially after his death, for the family he helped build.

-Why did we go from rejecting him during the social outbreak to long lines saying goodbye to him at the funeral?

-Whoever finds the answer will be the new Le Bon or Freud or Canetti. The drives are changing. Until the outbreak, it was believed that the miseries of life could have a collective solution. Since then, and especially since the failure of the Convention, we assume that each one must bear them. And try to be successful, like Piñera.

-Has it become impossible for a sitting President to be loved?

-I don’t think it is a law, but it is indeed difficult. Governing is, inevitably, betraying promises and not meeting expectations. Only time allows us to ponder, as happened to Piñera, or Lagos and Bachelet.

HALLWAY CONVERSATIONS

– Low popularity of the Venezuelan regime. The theory that the kidnapping of former lieutenant Ronald Ojeda Moreno was a maneuver by the Nicolás Maduro regime to frighten the opposition in a context of very low popularity was always very strong in the Venezuelan opposition. “This is a wounded animal that is doing everything it can to stay in power.“They told me from Caracas on Thursday, before learning of the discovery of the former military man’s body in Maipú. Whatever the motive for Ojeda’s crime, this survey allows us to see the state of the situation in Venezuelan politics:

The latest DATINCORP survey – released on February 25 – showed that, if the elections in Venezuela were tomorrow, 55% would vote for María Corina Machado, 14% for Nicolás Maduro and 8% for another candidate.
80% negatively evaluate the government management of President Nicolás Maduro.
43% point to the economy (inflation, low wages and unemployment) as the biggest problem that requires an urgent solution. 24% say it is medical and hospital care. 5% respond that they are political problems.
18% have plans to emigrate and 13% would stay in Venezuela “because they have no other way.”

– Another problem for the single party of the Frente Amplio (FA). The community of President Gabriel Boric, Social Convergence (CS), is in the current political scenario the strongest party of the FA, after the year 2023 hit Comunes with the possibility of its dissolution and that Democratic Revolution faced the attacks of the Democracy case Live.

But the situation is not simple within CS and the statements of his deputy Gonzalo Winter –on Thursday in Third–, pointing out that “we have failed in our role of giving ideological dispute“, are associated with a conflict between the groups that make up that party and the distance that some want to take from President Boric.
Too many lots. Among the groups that make up the party are “The Currente”, “Overwhelm the possible“, “From mountain range to sea“, “Reinvigorate the Left“, “We continue”, “Socialist Roots” y “socialist stroke“. The latter is the most critical of the Government of Gabriel Boric and was headed, among other people, by Isabel Orellana, who resigned from Convergencia Social in November due to her critical vision of government management. Isabel Orellana is the sister of the Minister of Women, Antonia Orellana (CS).

– Posters are not from the PC. Noise was generated by the statements of the head of the party’s bench of deputies, Luis Cuello, this week in The Mercurypointing out that “a lower intensity of the mobilization has had an impact on not being able to advance more quickly with the reforms.”

In this context, an official from the ruling party sent me a photo of the posters that appeared in the center this week, with the legend “WORKERS To POWER!”, signed by the Revolutionary Communist Organization, with the symbol of the sickle and the hammer. The notice seemed like a call for mobilization by the PC.
It turns out that this movement has no relationship with the Communist Party. It is a movement that was born in December 2018 and is independent of the PC, according to an article on the liberation.cl page.

AGENDA OF THE WEEK

Ladies and Gentlemen!, March arrived full policy.

Monday 4: in La Moneda they talk about “super monday after the holidays.
Mars 5: start of legislative work with presentation of the Pensions Bill in the Senate.
Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th: The Minister of Justice, Luis Cordero, reports to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva on the stage that includes the social outbreak.
Wednesday 6: opposition will hold an event one month after the death of former president Sebastián Piñera.
Thursday 7: The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, arrives in Chile on an official visit.
Friday, 8: Commemoration of International Women’s Day.

LOBBY CORNER

Reviewing the list of hearings by the Lobby Law of the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, the meeting with Javier Etcheberry Celhay stands out as the last recorded meeting –former director of the Internal Revenue Service, former Minister of Public Works and former President of BancoEstado–, to discuss “support of the tax administration in the fight against crime and criminal groups or cartels.” But not everything is crime.

In January, Minister Tohá had a meeting with associations linked to the production of alcoholic beverages. On the occasion, the new rules for the marketing, labeling and advertising of alcoholic beverages that introduce modifications to Law No. 19,925 were addressed.
In November he met with the Chilean Chamber of Construction (CChC) by the Usurpation Law.
The number of meetings with electricity generating companies to address security problems that affect the energy sector is striking. In October there are four different meetings with the Chilean Generators Guild Association; the Trade Association of Small and Medium Generators; the Chilean Solar Energy Association; and the Chilean Association of Renewable Energy and Storage.

RECOMMENDATIONS: THE DISCREET RUTH GOTTESMAN

The speech of the week. Last Monday, the words of 93-year-old pediatrician Ruth Gottesman at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, made international news, announcing to students that starting August of this year, said school will no longer charge tuition or monthly fees to students. their students. The calm and tranquility with which Dr. Gottesman announces her decision is impressive.

With a background of US$1 billion dollars The $56,000 dollars (the equivalent of nearly $56 million Chilean pesos) that each medical student at that university had to pay annually will be financed.
The doctor delivered the donation in the name of her deceased husband, David “Sandy” Gottesman, who made his fortune as an investor in Berkshire Hathaway, the famous investment fund linked to the well-known American investor and businessman Warren Buffett. Magazine Forbes estimated the fortune of Ruth Gottesman’s husband at US$3 billion at the time of his death in 2022.
“I am very grateful to my late husband, Sandy, for leaving these funds in my care and feel blessed for the great privilege of making this gift to such a worthy cause.“said the doctor who has been linked to the Albert Einstein School of Medicine for 50 years and who had previously made numerous donations to the institution.
The announcement is the largest donation given to a university in the history of the United States.

And here is this edition of +Politics with which we begin the hectic political year 2024. If you have any comments, questions or information that you want to share, you can write to me at [email protected].