While an important part of the benches with political representation in the National Congress has avoided referring to the possible strategy deployed by the Government of President Boric behind the surprise nomination of Marta Herrera as National Prosecutor, appealing to the fact that during the next few hours the different benches will meet to discuss this matter and take a common position, prior to Herrera’s appearance in the plenary session on Monday, December 19, in the Senate, some opposition voices have been more sincere, confirming their position against the candidate of the President, and increasing the viability of the hypothesis of a political operation planned from La Moneda, which would have as its objective that the Supreme Court elaborate a new Quina.
According to sources from the Constitution, Legislation and Justice Commission, and according to meetings held by its members on Thursday morning, there would be a prior agreement to reject Herrera’s name outright, even before his appearance. Added to this, the entire opposition would vote against President Boric’s candidate, in addition to seven center-left senators: Fidel Espinoza (PS), Esteban Velásquez (FRVS), Pedro Araya (PRI), Alfonso De Urresti (PS), Matías Walker, Juan Luis Castro and Ximena Rincón.
Endorsing the name of Herrera, and linking the criticism of her appointment to “gender reasons”, the Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Marcela Ríos, stated this morning that “I hope that these criticisms are not based on a gender bias. I It seems that here it is important to evaluate the skills, the trajectories, the curriculum and the work that Marta Herrera has done, and not only who her boss was at one time, because she has also had three different bosses, three national prosecutors, with whom He had the confidence of those prosecutors.”
For her part, and regarding the tone of the discussion, Minister Ríos acknowledged that the process “has not lived up to what the citizens expect, there has been a true dirty war against all the applicants and it is a bad precedent to be able to make these selection processes, we are concerned that the dynamics of this process could inhibit qualified people who want to run for a position of high public importance in the future”.
“I am not going to vote for the President’s candidate,” stated once Herrera’s nomination was known, the senator of the Democratic movement, Ximena Rincón, who explained that the main reason for her vote against President Boric’s candidate is that no one consulted her opinion regarding said proposal.
For his part, and from the opposition, Senator David Sandoval (UDI) stated that “it is an absolutely irresponsible and almost childish decision. And in addition to that, it again puts the figure of the Minister of Justice at risk. They already made a mistake in that first process, and they do not have the votes for approval in this second instance. The Government is absolutely wrong (…) “This name will clash with reality. What does this imply? A new proposal to force the Supreme Court with a new contest Bring a list of the five applicants with an alternative name, to the taste of the Government “
