When in August 2021 a reportage of CHV revealed that the current National Prosecutor, Jorge Abbott, acknowledged having had conversations with parliamentarians before being appointed to his position, in addition to a secret meeting with Senator Jorge Pizarro – who was investigated for receiving irregular contributions from SQM, as well as two of his children – the regional prosecutors decided to support Abbott through a letter.
“We are emphatic in declaring that Mr. National Prosecutor Jorge Abbott has never intervened in any way in the decisions made in cases under our charge; he has not given particular instructions or exerted pressure regarding them. He has tried to install the opposite idea, which is not only false, but also offensive to the 776 prosecutors of the Public Ministry, ”the text said in part. Of the 19 regional prosecutors, 18 signed. Juan Agustín Meléndez Duplaquet (57) refused to do so and, incidentally, prevented the support from being part of the Council of prosecutors.
They say that he simply considered that it did not correspond to an institution with a hierarchical structure that the subordinates go out to support the boss. He stood his ground even though he was alone.
These types of decisions portray him whole body and have served to earn the respect of his peers.
According to judicial sources, Meléndez has a very clear vision of his function, of what corresponds to him and what does not within the institution. And that makes it transversal between his peers, the judges and officials. He is what they call “a real prosecutor”, independent, objective, without political networks and with a history attached to the law.
“He is a very institutional person, he puts the Public Ministry first, he has his opinion, we all know it, because he says things clearly, but when decisions are made, he joins the direction taken. He adds, not subtracts. He always says that a leader listens to everyone, but he makes the decision and it is up to the others to follow him”, comments a colleague.
From Valdivia they add that he knows how to put together interdisciplinary teams and that he likes to mix the police in a collaborative way for investigations. And he has given very good results. In fact, he was the first prosecutor to carry out formalizations in the Huracán II case, which was later grouped with Huracán I.
During the past constitutional process, he was chosen by his colleagues to represent the position of the Public Ministry before the Constitutional Convention.
And a couple of weeks ago –after the exit plebiscite–, Meléndez himself proposed electing a commission among the regional prosecutors to prepare a position for the Public Ministry and participate from the first day in the new constituent process.
His resume says that in 1992 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Gabriela Mistral University. In 2002 she studied the Criminal Procedure Reform and Oral Litigation Diploma at the University of Magallanes. In 2018, she studied the Postgraduate Diploma in Human Rights at the Law School of the University of Chile. She is currently studying a Master in Human Rights, Equality, Interculturality and Development.
He taught the subjects of Procedural Law and Oral Litigation, and has participated as a speaker on behalf of the Prosecutor’s Office in Chile and abroad, mainly in matters of Human Trafficking. He also highlights his participation in the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions in Paris, France.
regional soul
By virtue of the law that indicates that the substitute in the National Prosecutor’s Office will be the prosecutor with the longest seniority, he left his home in Valdivia in the middle of this week to go to the meeting of prosecutors in Valparaíso and then to Santiago, for the ceremonies, farewells of prosecutor Abbott and the transfer of functions. Although it is for a short time, his family of origin says they are happy to have him back in the capital after 27 years.
That, because he left for the south when he had only been married for a short time to Paulina Aburto, also a lawyer (she works in the “My Lawyer” program of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights), when they chose to settle in Punta Arenas as part of the legal team of the Air Force in that area. There he developed his career and his two sons were born.
When the criminal procedure reform was carried out, he did not think much about it and applied to the Prosecutor’s Office. A dream that he had always had. He started from the bottom, from the 9th grade that today does not even exist. He was chief prosecutor and then Regional Prosecutor for Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica.
“Being a prosecutor he has done it as a professional,” says a close one.
Former colleagues from that time say that his time in Sexual Crimes marked him deeply. He “had a very close and delicate relationship with the victims. So much so that they recognized him on the street and greeted him affectionately, ”he says. After 20 years in Punta Arenas and when his children finished school, he applied to the Los Ríos Prosecutor’s Office to be “further in the center of the country.” That’s been seven years.
Outside the Prosecutor’s Office, they say that he jogs every morning (he ran the 42K in Viña del Mar), has taken cooking classes and puts the recipes into practice, reads police novels and takes care of his garden to the limit of obsession.
But his restless mind is always anchored to some case and to the problematic country: crime and how to fight organized crime. “He believes that the alliance between the Public Ministry and public security, prevention, is essential. That is why he has met with mayors, intendants, now with the delegates to work together. He has told us why trials help persecution. He also repeats that you have to preach and practice, work with a view to success, with clear goals. And he asks us to always be transparent, ”says an official who says they are already missing him.
