On July 27, 2020, the Judicial Power of Rancagua received an anonymous complaint – via email – that revealed that the officials of the city’s Guarantee Court were victims of sexual and labor harassment by the head judge of said court: the recognized magistrate of the Sixth Region, Luis Barría Alarcón.
Barría has participated in important cases of public connotation, the most prominent being the trial of the Caval case; the formalization hearing for the crime of rape of the former Chancellor of the Archbishopric of Santiago, Óscar Muñoz Toledo; and the case of the former ministers of the Court of Appeals of Rancagua.
Faced with this serious accusation, the Court of Appeals of the aforementioned city, initiated an administrative summary -on August 7, 2020- to investigate and prove the sexual and labor harassment of the judge towards the workers. Nevertheless, bliss The Court only sanctioned the magistrate with a three-month suspension with half salary, plus his transfer from court to protect the victims, a decision that was ratified by the Supreme Court on April 1, 2021.
Even on July 1, 2021, the Supreme Court appointed Barría as the new rapporteur of the Rancagua Court of Appeals, despite the fact that in February of that year two of the complainants filed a criminal complaint for the crime of repeated sexual abuse, against the now ex-magistrate.
“The defendant Mr. Barría Alarcón, who in his capacity as hierarchical superior (Titular Judge), and taking abusive advantage of said investiture, periodically and repeatedly and for an extensive period of time (which extended even on the eve of leave with the teleworking modality, due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, in the year 2020); He has brutally assaulted us with abuse of a sexual nature,” reads the complaint.
Two years after the anonymous complaint, a resolution of the Rancagua Guarantee Court – issued on August 4, 2022, and to which The counter had access – confirms that the formalization hearing of Luis Barría Alarcón is scheduled for September 9, for the crime of sexual abuse against a court official in that city. This, because the deputy prosecutor of the Santa Cruz Local Prosecutor’s Office, Carmen Agurto, requested to formalize it for sexual abuse in circumstances of rape –events that occurred in August 2018–.
“After years, the Public Ministry has only now decided to prosecute the case by formalizing it. The strange thing is that the request comes only for one of the victims, and what happens to the other complainants? Since April we have been requesting that they take a statement from a new victim, who is also an eyewitness, it was requested as a diligence, and to date the Prosecutor’s Office has not done so, leaving that edge completely unpunished (…). It is not the same to formalize for one victim than for two or three (.. .). This former judge, now rapporteur, is not even suspended,” explains Katherine Villagra, a lawyer for one of the complainants.
Villagra also comments that the Public Ministry has no protection measures for the victims, who at the same time are diagnosed with an occupational disease -by the Chilean Security Association-, while they frequently meet with the rapporteur for working in the same jurisdiction, feeling re-victimized. constantly.
“There are no longer regular rounds in favor of the victims, because the Prosecutor’s Office did not want to renew them. They had them for three months, but they have been without protection for more than a year. Our main fear regarding the formalization is that precautionary measures will not be requested and that leave one of the victims out,” says lawyer Villagra, who also confirms that there are five complainants in total.
From the National Association of Employees of the Judiciary (Anejud), they affirmed that since the creation of the organization, “never had a judge been formalized within the Judiciary for this type of complaint. But there had been complaints channeled through our association, for conduct of harassment and sexual abuse of officials of the primary rank (employees) “.
In addition, they indicated that the Judiciary has not provided an effective and efficient response when channeling this type of complaint, since the victims generally maintain the link of subordination and dependency with the aggressor for the most part, which makes possible even more difficult complaints.
The counter The National Association of Magistrates and Magistrates (ANMM) was contacted, being its president, Mauricio Olave, who responded to our query: “I will not refer to the particular case in the headquarters that it indicates to avoid any affectation of the independence of those who must eventually know and decide on such background. However, regarding the institutional treatment of sexual harassment, I reiterate the position of the union and I am clear in pointing out that gender violence is a permanent concern for the association; the associated judges currently have a gender protection and our campaign is being disseminated these days It is justice, one of whose next axes will address precisely these behaviors. Likewise, we hope to continue contributing to the improvement of the internal regulation of the Judiciary on the matter”.
In addition, they confirmed that Luis Barría resigned from the ANMM on April 27, 2021.
