The fact that Chilean justice is not highly valued by citizens explains the depth of the crisis affecting institutions, especially when it comes to influential or well-connected people.
One of these cases, unknown until now, is that of the lawyer Francisco Javier Orrego Gutiérrez, vice president of the board of directors of Renovación Nacional, who is a fugitive from justice, despite being a regular panelist on the political debate program called “Without Filters”, to which are added different incursions in other outstanding conversation programs such as the morning ones, in which he has been seen to fervently defend the private property of pension funds, as well as the suitability of the AFPs to manage them .
What is it about? From a drunken crash involving the well-known lawyer on the Costanera Norte highway on September 19, 2020, according to a complaint filed on March 31, 2021, with Single Cause Role 2000994042-2, a fact for which it was established formalization hearing date for June 15, 2021 in the Eighth Guarantee Court of Santiago.
*See the investigative folder, with the declaration of rebellion and the current arrest warrant
The non-appearance of the defender of the AFPs forced a new hearing to be scheduled -under a warning of arrest decreed on August 31 by Judge Marlys Welsch- for December 7, 2021. The deputy prosecutor of the Ñuñoa Local Prosecutor’s Office, Álvaro Pérez Galleguillos, would formalize charges against the militant of Renovación Nacional for quasi-delict of serious injuries, to a consummate degree, against a neighbor of the Cerro Navia commune. Orrego, who to date did not even have a driver’s license, again abstained from appearing at the hearing, for which magistrate Daniel Aravena Pérez issued an arrest warrant against him. During all that period in rebellion, he was a furious activist against the Constitutional Convention, through the movement Con mi Plata No.
On January 10, 2022, in the afternoon, two detectives from the Investigative Police appeared, with the respective arrest warrant, at Orrego’s home, located in a central department of Santiago. The diligence did not meet its objective. As the building’s janitor explained to detectives, the attorney simply did not reside there. However, all the records consulted by the civil police indicated that he was inside the country.
Consequently, on January 24, 2022, he was declared in absentia by the titular judge of the Eighth Guarantee Court of Santiago, Irene Rodríguez Chávez, in accordance with article 99, letter a, of the Code of Criminal Procedure, at the time that he decided to temporarily dismiss the case in accordance with article 252, letter b, sending the respective arrest warrant (No. 2111227003832-0) to the National Registry of Fugitives from Justice.
But what is curious about the case is not only the contumacy of the lawyer with a degree from the University of Chile -at whose Law School he was also a student leader-, but also the inability that the system has shown to enforce the decisions of the magistrates, since Orrego is usually seen at the same headquarters of the party and the Instituto Libertad. As if that were not enough, Orrego Gutiérrez is a regular panelist on the controversial program “Sin Filters”, a space hosted by Gonzalo Feito, at the same time that he continuously attends Radio Agriculturewhere he participates in programs such as “Nuevas Voces” and “Tendencias”.
Francisco Javier Orrego Gutiérrez is, according to those who know the RN intern, a “factual” who has a very good nose for getting close to figures with power. In fact, he was a panelist on open television programs -during premium– to defend his option for Rejection, as was his commented participation with Bernardo Fontaine (who is said to be his “squire”) in the Mega program “100 Indecisos”, an opportunity in which he defended the inappropriateness of the funds of pensions as spokesperson for the movement Con mi Plata No.
Some sources from Renovación Nacional expressed their surprise at this situation, one that will cause more than one headache in Antonio Varas’ store, given the profile that he has been acquiring as a “libertarian” referent. They fear that, by virtue of these events, the PDI will break into the headquarters to take him away in custody, thus adding an episode that is certainly more embarrassing than the one that Javier Molina Cepeda, president of the National Renovation Youth and former adviser to the Minister Cecilia Pérez, who also crashed while driving while intoxicated, an act that will be formalized on November 21.
Regarding Orrego Gutiérrez, he is not only a particular character but also one of Carlos Larraín’s favorite emerging values, perhaps the most influential figure within Renovación Nacional. At least that is how Orrego Gutiérrez himself has expressed it in biographical interviews. Thus, Carlos Larraín is again affected by having links with people who exhibit somewhat “reckless” or “irresponsible” behavior in front of the wheel, because to this day he must avoid questions related to the case of his son, Martín Larraín Hurtado , who caused the death of Hernán Canales for driving while intoxicated and subsequently fleeing, an event recorded in the early hours of September 18, 2013 on a road in Curanipe, Maule Region, a crime for which he never paid and which, To make matters worse, he unleashed a national scandal for making a payment of 10 million pesos to the victim’s widow to desist from taking legal action, as well as for the conviction received by the forensic doctor Mario Peña y Lillo for falsifying the autopsy, whose conclusions hid that the victim could have been saved if he had received timely medical attention.
The counter He tried to locate Orrego and, until the closing of the edition, it was not possible.
