Senators Iván Flores (DC) and Loreto Carvajal (PPD), referred to the information recently revealed about the Government’s candidate to be the next National Prosecutor for the next eight years, Ángel Valencia, who faced detention and an arrest warrant for not alimony payment. Antecedent that adds to the already well-known judicial representations that the candidate Valencia has made of defendants linked to issues of corruption, violation of Human Rights and sexual crimes against women.
The name of the lawyer, the letter chosen by President Gabriel Boric to direct the Public Ministry, will be defended by the Government in the Constitution Commission of the Senate this Monday, January 9 at 11:00 am, and then voted on in the Chamber at 4:00 pm.
Before the Senate approves or not the name of the questioned jurist, the parliamentarian of the Christian Democracy declared to The counter that “I am beginning to be more and more distant from a favorable vote, because there is too much noise around Valencia. The environment, the connections, the ties, the history; it makes me think that it is not very independent and probably is not very autonomous in the exercise of his position”.
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“Mr. Valencia causes me many problems regarding his autonomy. It seems that his ties are not going to allow him -if he were voted in favor- to have independence, autonomy, the capacity for action without any type of pressure or commitment. It makes it difficult for me,” added Flores. Likewise, the legislator added that “the more press releases appear, the more news we learn about the story of Mr. Valencia, the more and more I move away from the favorable vote.”
For her part, PPD senator Loreto Carvajal, described the situation as “unpresentable” and assured that Valencia’s suitability for the position is increasingly in question.
“The suitability of Mr. Valencia is being questioned more and more every day, it is not possible to understand how the standards that many of us have defended for positions of popular election and designation, today intend to be made invisible by those who conveniently allude today to facts such as non-payment of pension food should be limited only to the private sphere, unaware that it is in a problem that affects the public and that affects society as a whole,” he lashed out.
“What else will we know about the candidate for prosecutor that must be justified so that he can become a National Prosecutor? Unpresentable,” added Senator Carvajal.
His PPD counterpart, Senator Ricardo Lagos Weber, added that “it will be very important to listen to the Executive to explain the change from proposing twice to people from within the Public Ministry and now opting for a person who comes from the private practice of law “.
From the opposition, Senator Francisco Chahuán (RN) stated that his party “will vote conscientiously.” That implies, he said, that as important as the name is “the proposal to strengthen the Prosecutor’s Office to face terrorism, drug trafficking, organized crime.” And UDI senator David Sandoval expressed the same tone, for whom “the problem”, more serious than the conditions and characteristics of the candidate, “is the negotiation that exists on the part of political parties.”
It is worth mentioning that, just over 24 hours after the candidate proposed by President Boric for National Prosecutor appears before the Constitution, Legislation and Justice Commission of the Senate to present what his work plan would be to get the Public Ministry out of its deep crisis, it has been known that the lawyer Valencia maintained -in the first decade of the 2000s- a harsh confrontation in Family Courts, but not as a litigator, but as a defendant by his ex-wife, for non-payment of alimony for his three children , situation for which -at the time- the Second Family Court decreed national arraigo and arrest warrant against him.
Although Ángel Valencia’s lawyers won an appeal for amparo and the measures were rendered null and void, and he managed to reduce the amount owed, the truth is that he was sued for several years for alimony by his ex-spouse, Vivian Massardo, under the grounds that “he does not provide what is necessary for the adequate subsistence of his three children”. Paradoxically, one of the promoters of his candidacy for National Prosecutor in the Senate, Alfonso de Urresti (PS), on the occasion of Law 21,484 on parental responsibility and effective payment of alimony debts, regarding what was approved, stated: ” Hopefully the disqualifications for popularly elected positions will be legislated along the entire line, but also those related to appointment positions “.
