SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.- The former mayor of Recoleta and former presidential candidate of the Communist Party of ChiliDaniel Jaude was placed in preventive detention – later exchanged for house arrest – a few days ago, following a hearing where the Metropolitan Center North Prosecutor’s Office charged him with five corruption crimes.
The Chilean, according to the justice system of that country, would have committed the crimes at the head of the Chilean Association of Municipalities with Popular Pharmacies (Achifarp), an institution from which he forged relations with the Cuban regime, specifically, with the state-owned BioCubaFarmaspecialized in biotechnology.
Great news for our neighbors. We have just signed the collaboration and representation agreement between @Achifarp and Bio Cuba Farma to bring medicines and medical devices to Chile at a fair price. pic.twitter.com/J3JdtgFOkA
— Daniel Jadue (@danieljadue) April 26, 2018
According to the media The CountryThe origin of the case dates back to 2021, when the company Best Quality Products sued Achifarp for fraud, alleging that in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, it sold medical supplies to Daniel Jaude’s company, but these were not paid for. The amount amounted to about 1 billion pesos (almost a million dollars).
Authorities maintain that Jadue, head of the Pharmacies Popular, he knew he didn’t have enough money, but he pretended it existed.
The former presidential candidate is accused of disloyal administration, fraud, bribery, bankruptcy and repeated crimes of tax fraud, the main victim of which is the Municipality of Recoleta.
In addition, in July 2020, he allegedly negotiated with Best Quality executives to make this company a supplier of Achifarp, and in exchange he asked them to deliver a set of products to the headquarters of the Communist Party in Recoleta, a “donation” of more than 20 million pesos.
Investigations revealed that, from his public position, Jadue would have used municipal money to settle Achifarp’s debts and in this way would have reached several agreements.
More than 200 million Argentine pesos from public funds were reportedly used to cover the company’s debts.
Cuba on the radar
In 2018, Jaude and the mayors of Puente Alto and Huechuraba traveled to Cuba to import low-cost medicines to Chile. According to the media The Third, The transfers and the stay are currently the subject of investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the OS-7 of Carabineros, who are trying to determine how the trip was financed and whether fiscal resources were used.
During their stay, they signed a collaboration and representation agreement between Achifarp and BioCubaFarma to bring medicines and medical devices to Chile at low prices.
The agreement allowed Chileans to purchase medicines to treat Alzheimer’s and different types of cancer such as thyroid, lung, prostate, breast, and cervical cancer. In addition, it would allow the importation of medical devices for the detection and treatment of different diseases; hearing aids and medicines for the treatment of ulcers in patients with diabetes.
It also contemplated the importation of diagnostic centres and hearing aid production, as well as field or mobile hospitals and mobile dental care modules.
Amid the shortage of medicines that Cubans are suffering, BioCubaFarma exports its products to 73 countries, however, hundreds of drugs remain absent from the Cuban pharmacy system.
The issue of funds
Investigators are looking into the financing of the trip to Cuba to find out whether municipal money was used to cover the costs of the trip and with what money the Cuban medicines were paid.
Public data indicate that Daniel Jaude’s stay in Havana from April 21 to 28, 2018, cost 1,957,835 Argentine pesos, including tickets and travel expenses, around 2,050 dollars.
There is no record of these funds for the trip in Achifarp’s accounting records.
“The handling of Archifarp’s accounting is a deep doubt in the Public Ministry and the uniformed police, since there would not be all the necessary support to justify the income and expenditure of money,” he says. The Third.
According to the information gathered, Achifarp did not have financial funds, but it also did not declare the procedures for “the acquisition of medicines, channeling and analysis of the requirements of the associated municipalities.”
For now, the way in which Achifarp operated remains a mystery to the Chilean Prosecutor’s Office.
