After a long and arduous negotiation, the Senate will vote on the ratification of the candidate José Morales Opazo to assume the direction of the National Prosecutor’s Office. While the ruling party redoubles its efforts to obtain the 33 votes necessary to elect Morales and, in this way, avoid a new setback for the Executive, the presentation of the current deputy chief prosecutor of the Santiago Norte Local Prosecutor’s Office did not generate a consensus as estimated .
In a session that lasted five hours and was attended by invited parliamentarians from different factions, the deputy prosecutor made a detailed presentation of his work plan and answered questions about his background regarding his performance in emblematic causes.
First of all, and as a symbolic act of differentiation with his predecessor, prosecutor Jorge Abbott, Morales arrived at the meeting this Monday in the former National Congress assuring that this would be the first meeting with parliamentarians, ruling out the rumors surrounding alleged pre-booked appointments with senators. In this way, Morales seeks to differentiate himself from Abbott, also recalling the criticism for lack of transparency that surrounded the person who previously held the position. It is a gesture that was valued by both opposition parliamentarians and those of the ruling party, and that could benefit Morales on his way to directing the Public Ministry.
Despite this, one of the attendees of this Monday’s session, the senator and member of the Constitution Committee of the Upper House, Alfonso de Urresti (PS), stated that “there are still doubts” regarding the President’s letter Gabriel Boric, and added that Morales himself will be in charge of clarifying why there are certain cases that are inexplicably dormant in the Public Ministry, because – in his opinion – “he has been in the institution for 22 years and clearly knows why this type of things take so long.” For the parliamentarian, José Morales’s explanations in this regard were not enough, adding that there are still aspects that must be clarified by the deputy prosecutor.
In this way, De Urresti assured that “the cases that are investigated are not personalized in one prosecutor or another, the cases one expects to be investigated by the Public Ministry. What I do not like are the cases that remain with a doubt or uncertainty regarding its term, beyond the fact that one understands that there is a legitimate defense on the part of those who are formalized or investigated, but the important thing is that this be transparent and not simply argue that the cause passed into other hands”. In addition, the PS parliamentarian explained that he also asked Morales about his responsibility in the 2012 case, which became the biggest Carabineros fraud in history, and where, in his opinion, there was not the necessary diligence to detect those responsible in advance and, on the contrary, they were simply left with a report issued by one of the accused.
Some voices in Approve Dignity point out that the talks within the conglomerate will continue this Tuesday, because the name of Morales, despite the government’s efforts, would not reach the required cross-sectoral support. However, and beyond the pro-government discussion and the negotiation that will continue prior to the vote, sources within La Moneda believe that it is very unlikely that there will be parliamentarians from the government alliance who decide to disengage from the agreement and vote against it.
Precisely, the president of the Democratic Revolution (DR) and the only senator from the Broad Front, Juan Ignacio Latorre, stated that “I never make my vote known for these single-member appointments before the vote. This will be on Wednesday and there I will give my basis of vote and there I will be able to delve into that. But, for the rest, as I approve of Dignity and as a bench we have not defined a position. This Tuesday we are going to talk about it, and above all we want to analyze very well the hearing this Monday in the Committee on Constitution”.
Behind the scenes of an audience
Although there is optimism in the Government regarding reaching the required 2/3 of the Senate, both the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, and the head of the General Secretariat of the Presidency (Segpres), Ana Lya Uriarte, have remained on the sidelines. from the front line of the media, in the midst of a chaotic negotiation, which last week was harshly criticized, when even Senator Fidel Espinoza (PS) warned about the deployment of a “lobby scandalous” by the government authorities to convince the different benches about the name of Morales to head the National Prosecutor’s Office. After the criticism, the Executive decided to leave the responsibility of leading the charge in the hands of the Minister of Justice, Marcela Ríos. –at least in its public dimension– the election this Wednesday in the National Congress.
Regarding the negotiation for the vote, the position that the right will take, mainly some sectors of Chile Vamos, in addition to the Republican Party and the currently fragmented PDG, is not entirely clear. Although a majority of the UDI would be square behind Morales, Evópoli and RN have their votes divided, although in La Moneda they believe that the presentation of the deputy prosecutor on Monday could have been decisive, in their objective of arousing the necessary opposition support to reach 2/3 of the Upper House.
Precisely, from this sector, the senator and also a member of the Constitution Commission of the Corporation, Rodrigo Galilea (RN), said that during the session on Monday “a lot of issues were discussed, causes in which Morales had participated in the past, he was also asked about issues for the future, and about the state the Public Ministry is in. And I think that, although one could seek more precision on some of the issues, I think that, in general terms, the session achieved its objectives and, therefore, this Tuesday the Constitution Commission itself will issue a report and on Wednesday the Senate will vote, ratifying or rejecting President Boric’s proposal”.
For his part, another of those attending this Monday’s meeting, Senator Iván Flores (DC), who has been reluctant to offer his support to the Government’s candidate, pointed out that doubts still persist, beyond the appointment of the person, rather in terms of how to adequately lead a Public Ministry that – in his opinion – has become outdated and has lost the capacity to truly be a persecuting agency. “I think that candidate Morales has a good diagnosis of what is happening and his position on the matter was detailed. The question that should be asked is: how much will he be able to do? Why say that we are going to improve the capacity of prosecutors or listen more to the regions, it is something we have heard before, the important thing is how capable he is going to be to carry out said plan in a timing defined, knowing that resources and political decisions of the other powers of the State will be needed”, stated the parliamentarian.
Now, La Moneda must deploy its latest strategy, in the heat of the conversation that the Approve Dignity parties will hold during these last 24 hours prior to the vote in the Senate, but that would not affect the pro-government intentions of standing behind President Boric’s candidate . In this way, the negotiation continues in a hurry to reach the 33 votes that José Morales needs to become the next National Prosecutor, and who requires the support of a sector of the right to manage to lead the Public Ministry.
In the Senate, different voices speculate about the eventual certainty that these opposition votes will finally be on the table to support Morales, understanding his link with right-wing power groups and that they have been, precisely, the reason for criticism from the left-wing parties of the government alliance, which –once again– have had to negotiate ideological positions in favor of the political project headed by Gabriel Boric.
