The national prosecutor’s office reported this morning that a criminal investigation was initiated against the assistant prosecutor of Los Vilos, Luis Soto Muñozin charge of which the national prosecutor, Angel Valenciaappointed the regional prosecutor of Atacama, Alex asks.
Through a statement, it was explained that “the investigation begins by a complaint filed by the chief deputy prosecutor of the Los Vilos Local Prosecutor’s Office, Patricio Jory, against the assistant lawyer of that prosecutor’s office, Luis Alejandro Soto Pérez, for acts that may constitute a crime that occurred in the hearing held on June 3 in the Guarantee Court of Los Vilos.” The document from the national prosecutor’s office indicates that “in this context, the Atacama Regional Prosecutor was appointed to direct the criminal investigation and provide protection to victims and witnesses if necessary.”
The case originated in the hearing to review precautionary measures in which the assistant prosecutor showed that he did not have the necessary background to oppose the arguments of the defenders of five members of the Tren de Aragua who are accused of kidnapping, illicit association and robbery. with intimidation.
This exasperated the guarantee judge, Daniella Pinto, who represented the situation several times, announcing that she would inform the chief prosecutor of the Vilos, describing the situation as “unpresentable” and reminding the assistant prosecutor that it was the most relevant case in the city.
After that, the judge accepted the proposals of the five defenses, who asked to lift the preventive detention of their clients, granting less intense precautionary measures, in exchange for a bail of five million pesos, which four of the defendants paid in cash, for which they were released.
After that, the La Serena court revoked the first instance decision regarding four of them, ordering the recapture of the accused. Of them, two have already surrendered (the last did so in Santiago, this morning).
Victim or accused?
According to the statement, Soto is the defendant in the case led by Rogat, without the National Prosecutor’s Office specifying what crimes he is accused of. In this regard, Angel Valencia said this morning, in conversation with Radio Agriculture, that there was no need to prejudge and that the assistant “may have been the victim of threats to act that way“, also criticizing the court, arguing that it could have resolved in a different way.
However, sources from the same institution told The counter that the thesis that Soto had been threatened is somehow contradictory to the fact that, before graduating as a lawyer from the Central University, Soto was a non-commissioned officer of the Carabineros and practically his entire career was spent within the Special Police Operations Group (GOPE).which is why, as one of those sources said, “He is someone who, without a doubt, knows how to defend himself and is used to dealing with highly dangerous criminals.“.
Soto He entered the Public Ministry on December 29 of last year, as a grade 11 assistant prosecutor, which means a salary of 2.3 million gross. According to his declaration of interests, he owns two properties (one in Talca and another in Santiago). According to what can be seen in His Linkedin account (which was deleted today) worked in family law, criminal law and as a “human rights teacher.”“.
MP officials reveal abuse of assistant lawyers
In conversation with The counterthe president of the National Federation of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Manuel Muñozpointed out that, in a case of this importance, like that of Los Vilos “responsibility cannot be delegated to an assistant lawyer who has been in the institution for five months and who, according to what he himself points out in the precautionary review hearing, the folder was delivered on the same day, a couple of hours before, considering that It is likely that this is the most important case that the Coquimbo Regional Prosecutor’s Office has and even at the country level it is one of the most important causes“.
Regarding the administrative investigation that began yesterday, he indicated that they would like her to “could shed light on the reasons why the prosecutor could not attend said hearing,” and that keeping in mind that in Los Vilos there is only one prosecutor and two assistants, “it would be necessary to determine what experience and years of service the other assistant lawyer had and why the case was not handed over to him or, failing that, why within the same region the regional prosecutor’s office did not coordinate with other prosecutors to attend that hearing. We understand that prosecutors may also have a force majeure problem and we must determine if the prosecutor was on medical leave, if he had a family problem or something that prevented him from attending, but in that situation, what should the prosecutor do? prosecution? Coordinate with another prosecutor or, failing that, with the assistant lawyer who has the most experience.”
Likewise, he indicated that “as unions, we have requested the creation of a regulation of the assistant lawyer, which regulates subrogation, substitution and delegation, so that it is regulated in this type of situations, when the assistant lawyer must attend a hearing, in what quality and that there is no abuse. I hope that is not the case, but we We do not know the real reasons why a prosecutor did not attend this hearing and there is a lot of press that even puts forward the theory that perhaps prosecutors today do not want to be exposed to this type of hearing because of the danger. or perhaps they could even be threatened by this organized crime gang. So, so that these types of situations do not occur, everything must be very well regulated and established in an assistant lawyer regulation.”
In the same sense, he made present many times the attendees must assume “hearings that are quite complex, they have to study and they have to dedicate more time to those functions, and the work of assistant lawyer is accumulating. And once they finish their work as a prosecutor, they must return to their position to finish the work of assistant attorney for which they were hired.“.
The supply problem
According to Muñoz, what happened also reveals the problem of staffing of the Public Ministry, for which he explained that the bill that seeks to increase positions “is extremely important,” explaining that “we would like the number of officials to be larger.” that they reach the prosecutor’s office, but unfortunately there is also an issue of resource availability.”
Despite this, he points out that “there is a historical demand from the unions in relation to this strengthening plan, which has to do with professional assignment. “We are one of the public institutions and services that do not have professional assignments for the auxiliary and administrative staff.”