New constitutional text “limits the action of the State to combat drug trafficking”: Daniel Núñez

The PC senator emphasized that the proposal that is being put to a plebiscite ““It would be in practice nullifying several of the measures taken to fight drugs and drug trafficking.” The senator also reported that the Supreme Court has already responded to the request presented by communist parliamentarians for the highest court to rule on the constitutional text that is going to be plebiscite in December, in which the possibility of prosecuting drug trafficking is left unregulated. In interview with ElSiglo.cl Within hours of finishing discussion in the Senate on the 2024 Budget, he indicated that “We managed to get it through, although with very tough negotiations.” The communist parliamentarian for the Coquimbo constituency – who chairs the Permanent Commission of Maritime Interests, Fisheries and Aquaculture and also participates in the Finance and special mixed budget commissions – pointed out that in the ministries in which it was most difficult for the right to approve their budget items were in Education and Health. Likewise, he pointed out that the big setback was the denial of resources for memory sites, corresponding to the budget of the Ministry of Culture.

Ursula Fuentes Rivera. Journalist. “The century”. 25/11/2023. Three weeks before the constitutional plebiscite, what is the possibility that the Supreme Court will rule soon regarding the new proposed text, which leaves without clear regulation the possibility of prosecuting drug trafficking, a setback for which parliamentarians from the Communist Party requested the pronouncement of the Chilean highest court?

As we were voting on the budget, we were unable to comment that yesterday we received a response from the Supreme Court to the request for a ruling that we made together with several deputies, including the head of the communist bench, Luis Cuello. The Supreme Court recognized that there is a possibility that this is an issue that will be taken to court, that is, that it will cause judicialization.

But the most significant thing is that he attached, at the request of Supreme Court Minister Sergio Muñoz, the ruling of the Constitutional Court of 1984, where he clearly states that under the current framework it is a regulation that defines drugs and criminal sanctions in the framework of the Anti-Drug Law. Therefore, he agreed with us in the argument that we have maintained, that if this draft of the new Constitution were approved today, it would in practice nullify several of the measures taken to fight against drugs and drug trafficking. So, this Constitution of the extreme right limits the action of the State and the Drug Law to combat drug trafficking and this is reflected in the opinion that Minister Sergio Muñoz expressed to us and in the ruling of the Constitutional Court that validates everything said by the criminal lawyers who have explained this topic.

What could be the repercussions in Chile of the election of Javier Milei as Argentine president and of his future government?

The situation of Chile and Argentina cannot be extrapolated. Therefore, no one can imagine that because Milei is elected in Argentina, in Chile we are close to having a figure as extreme as José Antonio Kast as president, because we do not have the problematic economic problems that Argentina is experiencing, of increased poverty and completely overflowing inflation. On the contrary, it is being recognized, as the IMF has done, that the Chilean economy has already managed to control inflation and the recovery phase is beginning. So this information is very important to understand that we are not experiencing similar situations, even when we have a security crisis that worries us, overwhelms us, and that the Government is also deployed to confront it.

Obviously, the great challenge that the extreme right has, not only in Argentina, but in the world, is to demonstrate that they are capable of governing and that their discourse has some possibility of being realized without harming the great majorities and, in that sense , I see that several of the things that Javier Milei pointed out are already being left aside, such as they are relativizing dollarization.

It seems that Milei prepared a hilarious, extreme speech that will not have many possibilities of being applied and I hope that is the case, because if Milei’s ideas were taken to the letter or carried forward in Argentina, we would have enormous suffering. for the trans-Andean people, with unemployment, greater poverty, situations of repression and abuses due to the inaction of the state, which would clearly be harmful. So let’s hope that this Javier Milei has been a circumstantial drunkenness and that it lasts little so that the Argentine people can have a path of development and a better quality of life.

How do you evaluate the recent appointment of José Antonio Viera Gallo as Chilean ambassador to Argentina?

The appointment of ambassadors is the exclusive power of the President of the Republic and it is up to us to respect his decision. However, the nomination of Viera Gallo seems reasonable to me and I think he can play a good role, because given the complex scenario we have with a government like Milei’s in Argentina, people with a lot of political experience and also a lot of experience are required. in diplomatic relations. We need to maintain good relations with a country that has so many borders with us and also maintain friendly relations with the Argentine people.

President Boric is traveling to Antarctica with the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, with the aim of making visible and joining forces in mitigating the effects of climate change and global warming. What is his opinion regarding this expedition between the Chilean president and the head of the UN?

It is an excellent sign that the Secretary General of the United Nations has traveled to Antarctica together with the President of the Republic, Gabriel Boric. It is also a recognition of the president in his leadership in this matter and also allows Chile to reaffirm its leading role in Antarctica, which is a continent that due to its characteristics is probably also going to be the cause of geopolitical dispute between different world powers.

I think that the bottom line is the enormous concern that all of humanity must have regarding the effects that the climate is having, many of them irreversible, and obviously the possibility of environmental, ecological, and ecosystem imbalances that threaten even the very survival of the species. human and the entire earth. So, this is part of a call for awareness that it is human beings themselves who have to take and adopt measures with great conviction to stop and remedy this situation.

Of the 32 budget items analyzed and approved by the Senate during the discussion of the national budget for 2024, which were the most complex to process and dispatch?

It has been a difficult budget debate because the right has refused to seek an agreement with the Government and has rather sought to boycott different financing that is fundamental for the State. So it has been a permanent battle in each of the ministries, such as Environment, Labor, Public Works and Agriculture.

But without a doubt, the three ministries where the most intense battle has taken place and where there has been the most controversy have been in Culture, Education and Health. In Culture we have an unprecedented fact that we consider to be an affront to the country, its international image and commitment to Human Rights, since funding was denied to several memory sites, including the National Stadium Memorial Site. In Health and Education the debate has also been very tough, although we finally reached an agreement to approve essential financing for both portfolios.

And what were the setbacks that occurred in this budget discussion for 2024?

It was far from having rejected the financing of memory sites, because it is a denialist practice of Human Rights violations that shows how today the extreme right imposes its vision and annihilates any view oriented towards respect for democracy and its basic principles. Currently we have the right in Chile totally aligned with the discourse of the Republican Party and with an extremist figure like José Antonio Kast and that has led them to reject that budget.

In other areas we have not managed to ensure that the Government’s proposal remains unscathed and rather agreements had to be reached with the right in Health and Education. This was done while maintaining aspects that are essential and that have also generated criticism and complex situations such as those experienced in the Local Public Education Services (SLEP), such as the crisis in Atacama or the situation in health, where we evidently had to improve the working conditions of health officials who work at “Covid fees” and we also highly appreciate that it has been proposed in this budget debate that the Government eliminate the three lowest grades of the civil servant scale of health workers public.

There is small progress, even though we had to give in something, both in Education and Health to have the votes, because we were totally tied in the votes and without the right the budgets of those two ministries were not approved.

What happened to other budget items related to sensitive matters for the population, such as the issue of Housing?

In ministries that are very important, such as Housing, Agriculture or Public Works, where the bulk of the State’s investment in work is, we managed to get the items approved almost without substantial modifications. In these areas we are satisfied. We obtained help for the agricultural emergency, such as what is happening in the Coquimbo region due to the drought, and for procedures that will facilitate public investment in drinking water and road repairs. In Housing, Senator Claudia Pascual did a great job to secure resources that allow continuity to the housing emergency plan and for subsidies.

In general, we managed to get the budget forward, although with very tough negotiations, such as those in Health, Education and Culture with the memory sites, in the latter case it is something that yes or yes we have to reinstate in the debate of the mixed commission next Monday.

The Fisheries Commission of the Chamber of Deputies had to meet this week, after artisanal fishermen demonstrated on Wednesday in Valparaíso, accusing the Regional Government of inaction and failure to pay a bonus for the hake ban. What is the Senate’s position regarding the Fisheries Law and the need to modify it?

The current situation of artisanal fishing throughout Chile is worrying, but particularly in the northern and central areas, given the problems that have accumulated over many years. To this we must add a new factor, which is the impact that the El Niño Current and the rise in sea temperatures have had on species such as anchovy and hake, very typical of the north, since they are retreating from the edge. coastal or straight away from the waters where artisanal fishing takes place. Therefore, we have a shortage of resources that is causing a social crisis and an emergency.

But the deeper issue is that the Government has not fulfilled its commitment to send the draft of the new Fisheries Law to Parliament and we continue to have two phenomena that are very harmful to the country. Firstly, we have an absolutely unfair and corrupt distribution of fishing resources, where artisanal fishing is harmed by the perpetual delivery of many fishing resources to the industry. And secondly, we have that a large part of the fish that are extracted in Chile simply go into fishmeal, thus reducing fish consumption in Chilean families, despite the fact that today there are even some species that have been replaced and we have more availability, as is the case of horse mackerel.

On the one hand, we have the food problem that we are not delivering seafood and fish at a low price for consumption, being that we are a country with thousands of kilometers of coastline and, on the other hand, we have a fishing industry that has appropriated fishing rights corruptly and that has not changed. That is why it is essential that now, these days, the Government fulfills its commitment and sends the draft New Fisheries Law to Congress.

In the annual economic review mission recently carried out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), this organization valued Chile’s post-pandemic economic achievements, also indicating that the only way to build in our country “a more inclusive, dynamic and green economy” is through a reform of the tax and pension regime and greater spending on security (both measures proposed by the Government of President Boric). What is your opinion regarding the IMF statements?

In this context of high questioning of the Government and the Chilean economy, it is good that an actor that has so much recognition, such as the International Monetary Fund, pointed out that Chile has already returned to the path of economic growth and that we are leaving behind the adjustment period to be able to reduce inflation, which skyrocketed last year.

So it is very positive and predicts a year 2024 with growth greater than 2 percent. Now, not everything is resolved with growth and it is also essential to address bottlenecks that the Chilean economy and also society has. In that sense, of course we must respond to greater social demands, there are pressing problems that are an open wound in Chilean society all day long, such as low pensions, but the Monetary Fund itself warns that expenses cannot be made that They are permanent without having permanent income.

And there what one misses is that the right has not been able to respond to the invitation made by the Government to generate a tax pact, where together with taking the necessary pro-growth measures, together with carrying out actions to modernize the State, At least let’s commit to a basic ethical principle for every citizen of the country, which is to pay the corresponding taxes.

So, today the Government already has the duty, at this point, to send to Congress a Tax Compliance bill, which combats the avoidance practices that, for example, have been scandalous in the so-called “Hermosilla case”, where right and sinister there was talk of reducing tax payments and submitting false invoices, and all of this with the intention of tax evasion, possibly even involving public officials.

Today is the time for the Government to demand from Parliament a clear signal to combat tax avoidance and that necessarily involves reactivating the Tax Compliance project, which has been discussed within the framework of the fiscal pact and, of course, which In that context we can also take measures that ensure we recover the path of economic growth with greater intensity, because we are concerned about the unemployment rates that have increased substantially and that is a pain for the Chilean people, which is also our pain.