The Corporation for the Development of Santiago (Cordesan) denied the interference of Mayor Irací Hassler in the cancellation of an exhibition that the Museum of the Social Outbreak (MES) was going to hold at the Teatro Novedades.
According to the entity, Cordesan “is a private entity and autonomous in its decisions and has been managing the Novedades Theater since 2017. In that sense, there was no interference on the part of the Mayor of Santiago, Irací Hassler.”
Likewise, he added that “in its almost 40 years of existence, Cordesan has never engaged in any censorship practice.”
The exhibition had been organized by the members of the MES in view of the fact that the museum had to leave its historic headquarters in the Bellavista neighborhood in February. After applying for and winning a call from the Neighborhood Council of the Novedades Community Theatre, he planned to start mounting an exhibition in the aforementioned Theater in February.
However, according to the MES, the Council informed him of the cancellation by order of Cordesan “arguing that they should protect the re-candidacy of Irací Hassler for the next elections.”
According to Cordesan, “it is stated that there was an ‘informal’ response to the Neighborhood Council of the Novedades Community Theatre, however, there is a letter written by the same executive director of Cordesan (Pedro Aravena Medel), which explains that, according to With our current legislation and with various opinions of the Comptroller General of the Republic, public spaces cannot be used for political activities.”
“Finally, as explained to the journalist, Cordesan is not a public organization and is not affiliated with the Council for Transparency. Even so, without being able to understand the interest or objective, the idea was insisted on in the published note,” concludes the Cordesan statement.
