The Viña del Mar Guarantee Court had declared itself competent to process the case that the Public Ministry was investigating for the crimes of treasury fraud, incompatible negotiation and influence peddling for the rental of the Gala and O’Higgins hotels, in Valparaíso , to be used as health residences in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the Justice determined the definitive dismissal of the case.
After more than a year of processing, the Public Ministry estimated that there are no acts constituting a crime. Thus, the Viñamarino court decreed the definitive dismissal of four former government authorities.
The possible perpetrators in this case were the former President of the Republic, Sebastián Piñera; the former Minister of Health, Enrique Paris; the former head of the Minsal, Jaime Mañalich, and the former undersecretary of Assistance Networks, Arturo Zúñiga.
The court’s determination comes after the Public Ministry announced the closure of the investigation in the middle of this month. Patricio Toro, prosecutor of the Regional Anticorruption Unit of Valparaíso, said, according to the slogan Radio Biobio, which after reviewing the background it was estimated that the contracts were concluded in the midst of the pandemic. Therefore, “an exception regulation was applicable”, which allowed “incorporating fixed operating cost clauses”.
Prosecutor Toro indicated that there was no intervention of the former authorities in the contracting of the venues and that since they were disbursements “that were allowed by the context and the regulations” it was determined that there was no crime committed.
Gabriel Campos, a lawyer who acted on behalf of Sebastián Piñera, commented to the radio station that “this shows that the complaint filed by the Chilean Commission on Human Rights (CCHDH) had no legal basis in relation to these specific accusations.”
“The existence of incompatible negotiation and influence peddling was ruled out, with a statement from the Comptroller in this regard. The existence of treasury fraud was also ruled out, the disputed clause on the ‘fixed daily operating costs’ in the contracting of certain health residences was covered by the regulations in force at the time and was related to the context of the pandemic “, added the jurist.
The case began in mid-2020, after a complaint filed by the CCHDH for damages to the treasury of almost $54 million in the Hotel O’Higgins and another close to $9 million in the Hotel Gala, both in Viña del Mar. The CCHDH was excluded from the processing of this case in November 2021, by not registering residence in the Garden City.
