The Government of President Gabriel Boric began the year by selecting its third candidate for National Prosecutor, after the failures of José Morales first and Marta Herrera later, after both names were rejected by the Senate. On this occasion, the chosen name was lawyer Ángel Valencia, the candidate of Piñerismo and of a good part of democratic socialism.
Through a statement, the Government indicated that “the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights informs that HE, President Gabriel Boric Font, has decided to nominate Mr. Ángel Valencia Vásquez, for the position of National Prosecutor.”
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Valencia was initially in the first quina that the Supreme Court elaborated, the one that dates from Monday, November 7. In fact, he was one of those who received the most votes on that occasion, along with Morales, who was finally chosen by the President and rejected by the Senate. Valencia continued, but the various controversial events that he has starred in, such as the defense of the former judge of the Caval case, Luis Barría –today formalized for sexual abuse– and another case where also assumed the defense of a child rapist, all in the private sphere, they made that on the second occasion, her name was not chosen (Marta Herrera was chosen). These facts generated reactions in the Senate, such as that of the PS Senator Juan Luis Castro, who said that “there are crimes that constitute a red line that we should not cross.”
Valencia, on the other hand, also has a lot of support in the Senate and, in particular, in the Constitution Commission of the Upper House. In said instance, its members will have to prepare a non-binding report in which they recommend that the Chamber ratify or reject it. It should be noted that the five members of said commission -Alfonso De Urresti (PS), Pedro Araya (IND), Matías Walker (Democrat), Rodrigo Galilea (RN) and Luz Ebensperger (UDI)- have expressed their support for Valencia, therefore that it is presumed that this instance will come out with a favorable report to the Chamber.
On this occasion, and on the verge of expiration of the term, the President chose Valencia as the letter for the National Prosecutor, looking for this to be the name that is ratified by the Senate for the Public Ministry, which has already been without a head for three months after the departure of the questioned Jorge Abbott.
For Valencia’s nomination to prosper, it must be supported in the Chamber with a quorum of 2/3 of the Senate, which corresponds to 33 votes. If that quorum is reached, he will be the new National Prosecutor.
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Through his professional activities, Valencia has woven a network of ecumenical relationships across the length and breadth of the political spectrum. In this field, Valencia was a lawyer (he signed sponsorship and power) of the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, when she in the 2000s was involved in the corruption scandal, known as the Publicam case. President Boric’s nominee is known as the lawyer for Miguel Piñera, brother of former President Sebastián Piñera; He is literally a compadre of the president of the Senate, PS Álvaro Elizalde, and he was an external adviser to the senators of Renovación Nacional a few years ago, in whose contract former senator Alberto Espino acted on behalf of the bench.
Valencia’s profile
It was the most surprising letter of the first five prepared by the Supreme Court. He obtained 17 votes in said instance, which allowed him to be in the fifth until today.
Valencia is a criminal lawyer from the University of Chile. He holds a Master’s Degree in Oral Litigation from the California Western School of Law. During the years 2000-2002 he worked in the Coordinating Unit of the Criminal Procedure Reform in the Ministry of Justice as deputy coordinator, after which he came to the Public Ministry as a consultant lawyer in the Regional Prosecutor’s Office of Aysén and later as assistant prosecutor in Valparaíso and Santiago .
He has been part of the defense of cases such as that of Rafel Garay and the former general director (r) of Carabineros Bruno Villalobos, who was accused of embezzlement within the institution. Today he practices as a trial lawyer at Amenábar & Valencia Abogados. In addition, he is a professor at the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the San Sebastián University.
