The defense of Pablo Longueira’s former adviser, Carmen Luz “Titi” Valdivielso, and of the former secretary of the UDI presidency, Marisol Cavieres, presented their arguments before the Third Criminal Oral Trial Court of Santiago, on a new day of the opening arguments of the oral trial for bribery and tax offenses in the so-called SQM case.
The lawyer Jorge Villalobos maintained that they are going to base their claim for acquittal on two issues. First, pointing to the illegality of the evidence obtained against Valdivielso and Cavieres, and second —as in the case of the general manager of SQM Patricio Contesse— the criminal type that is configured with respect to ideologically false ballots.
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Villalobos pointed to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the SII, assuring that “they want us to believe that awareness or knowledge about the falsity of the documents is enough to confirm the criminal offense,” while stressing that said criminal offense “requires motivation.” .
“If the motivation to deliver documents —ideologically false receipts— to the company is for the general manager to commit an unfair administration crime or commit a private bribery crime, it fully satisfies the criminal type, but lacking the motivation that is to deliver these false documents or facilitate them for the commission of tax crimes, we are facing a fact that is atypical or may incur in some other figure related to unfair administration or private bribery”, argued the defense of Valdivielso and Cavieres, along with expressing that their represented They have been part of an extensive investigation in which, in his opinion, “all reasonable time limits have been exceeded.”
The lawyer questioned a search of the apartment in which Valdivielso lives with her mother, due to a complaint by the SII for the provision of nine receipts, in a case whose sentence, in the event that she was found guilty of this fact, “is even less than the requested by the Public Ministry.
For the defense of Valdivielso and Cavieres, it has been an “relentless” investigation against two women who only have the position of secretaries. “The position of Carmen Luz may have a more elegant name as chief of staff or adviser, but ultimately, Carmen Luz and Marisol are two secretaries who were in charge of managing what all secretaries manage: receiving instructions from their bosses”, Villalobos explained.
“I say this without trying to introduce an idea of exculpation for obedience, because we know that the hierarchy of an employment relationship does not allow for that, but the attribution of knowledge may be relevant, that these receipts that were sent to SQM to obtain financing was so that SQM could reduce its tax burden. Clearly —concluded the lawyer— the scope of competence of a secretary does not allow for that”.
“A secretary who simply fulfills a function of exercising instructions does not give for that attribution of knowledge,” he closed. The defense attorney for Valdivieso and Cavieres stated that the Public Ministry will not be able to prove said attribution of knowledge.
According to the accusation of the Valparaíso Regional Prosecutor’s Office, through ideologically false receipts, Soquimich paid various politicians of the time, including Pablo Longueira, from the UDI, to include some paragraphs written by the company in the draft law of mining royalty. The money also arrived, according to the organization that persecuted Marco Enríquez Ominami, of the PRO, a former presidential candidate.
